Boston Marathon 2024 LIVE updates: Follow along in real time as 128th race BEGINS… with former NFL star Rob Gronkowski in attendance

The 2024 Boston Marathon is officially underway, with the men’s wheelchair kicking off proceedings before the women’s wheelchair (below).

There’s not long to go now until the professional athletes cross the start line in the 128th version of the race.

This is the route 30,000 runners will be embarking on over in Boston throughout the day.

The race begins over in Hopkinton, before finishing over on Boylston Street.

Along the way competitors will go past Lake Cochituate, the Johnny Kelley statue, Boston College and Chestnut Hill reservoir.

The route also includes the famous Heartbreak Hill, a 0.4-mile ascent which provides one last grueling push for runners late on in the race.

Today’s Boston Marathon will be broadcast live on ESPN 2 from 9am ET. It can also be streamed on the network’s ESPN + service.

In Boston, local television channel WCVB will also be covering the race.

Before the first competitors get off the mark, Mayor Michelle Wu (left) and Governor Maura Healey (right) were among those who stopped to honor those lost and injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

Family members of the victims joined Wu and Healey to lay wreaths at a memorial site on Boylston Street ahead of today’s event.

Three people were killed and hundreds were injured when a pair of bombs detonated near the finish line 11 years ago.

The Navy Guard have already officially launched the 128th Boston Marathon, but here’s the rest of today’s start times in ET – with men’s wheelchair participants up first.

• Military March – 6am
• Men’s Wheelchair – 9:02am
• Women’s Wheelchair – 9:05am
• Handcycles & Duos – 9:30am
• Professional Men – 9:37am
• Professional Women – 9:47am
• Para Athletics Division – 9:50am
• Wave 1 – 10:00am
• Wave 2 – 10:25am
• Wave 3 – 10:50am
• Wave 4 – 11:15am

Here’s today’s weather forecast over in Boston, with a cool morning expected before temperatures rise later on. And thankfully no rain!

A group of Massachusetts National Guard members crossed the start line at Hopkinton to officially begin this year’s Boston Marathon on Patriots’ Day.

Race Director Dave McGillivray sent the group of about 30 military members off shortly after 6am. Lt. Col. Paula Reichert Karsten, one of the marchers, said she wanted to be part of a ‘quintessential Massachusetts event.’

Hopkinton is celebrating its 100th anniversary as the start line of the Boston Marathon. The start was moved from Ashland to Hopkinton in 1924 to make the race the official Olympic Marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42.1 kilometers).

Hello and welcome to Mail Sport’s live coverage of today’s Boston Marathon, with the 128th version of the annual race set to begin over in Massachusetts.

We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates and developments as an estimated 30,000 runners take part in the grueling 26.2-mile slog, which promises to be a memorable one from start to finish.

So stay tuned throughout the day!