The Boston Athletic Association's 2026 statistics page lists 21 entrants in the 80-plus age group — 15 male and 6 female — and leaves the finish-time columns blank. [1] A week has passed since the April 20 race, the official winners list now archived. [2] The paper noted on Day 6 that the data was due and missing; Saturday makes it Day 7, and the missing fields look less like a delay than a decision.

Other age groups on the same page populate normally. The 18-39 cohort shows finishers, paces, and percentages. Octogenarians get only the entrant count.

The BAA has not responded publicly to the gap, and no major running outlet has asked the question. The cohort's medical interest is not abstract: a marathon at 80-plus is the closest thing endurance physiology has to a stress test on the body's later decade. The data exists — chips were on the shoes — and it has not been published.

For seven days now, the public statistics page has functioned as a deliberate hold rather than an oversight.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago