Boston Marathon
Sporting Events

Boston Marathon

Ticketing, access, and credentialing for 30,000 people across a sprawling race footprint.

2024–2026
30,000 Credentials issued per race
8,500+ NFC wallet passes
46 NFC + RFID access portals
The client

The Boston Athletic Association has run the world’s oldest annual marathon since 1897. It is one of the seven World Marathon Majors and a race most runners enter only by meeting a qualifying time. The event moves tens of thousands of runners, staff, and guests across multiple venues in the greater Boston area.

The challenge

Control access and credentials for roughly 30,000 people across start, finish, and hospitality zones throughout a point-to-point course that begins in Hopkinton and ends on Boylston Street, with no margin for slow gates.

Our approach

wrstSCN ran access control on 46 NTR-6 truss portals backed by handhelds and photo-tether stations. Manifest drove RFID credentials, ticketing was handled in-house, and wrstPASS issued NFC wallet passes for a speedy entry.

The results

WRSTBND issued around 8,500 NFC wallet passes and 28,000 RFID credentials in 2024 alone, then returned in 2025 and 2026 at the same 30,000-person scale, deploying credential printers on-site in 2026 for same-day badge production.

Behind Every Great Event

Let’s power your next great event

Tell us what you’re building. We’ll show you how one platform, and a crew that shows up, handles access, credentials, payments, and data from load-in to load-out.

Questions? hello@wrstbnd.com