Chepngetich wins the 2021 Chicago Marathon despite erratic pacing Inbox

If only they would know the times that they would register at the end of their races, the leading runners would have tried to put in some relatively even splits. Both the men and the women’s races started out with some very ambitious splits. The men crossed the 5k in 14:36, then the 10K in 29:15. In the women’s race, Chepngetich crossed the 5K in 15:37 and the 10K in 31:22.

Ruth Chepn’getich pushing the pace in Chicago, 10 Oct 2021, photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto

The pacemakers in both races became quite irrelevant too early in the race and had to step out before they could cover the first 15km. Shifera Tamru who was making the early surges in the men’s race would at times run side by side with the pacesetter before finally deciding to overtake and run a solo run ahead of his competitors, although he would get caught by the leading pack before long. The same thing happened in the women’s race almost at the same time as Chepngetich could be seen running slightly ahead of her pacesetter and doing the reverse role of urging him to close the gap behind her. She soon broke away to do a solo run as well as she continued to extend her gap against Vivian Kiplagat who was also doing some amazing splits behind her.

However, it would appear as though the runners never learned much from the recent Berlin Marathon where the men had crossed the first half in under 61 minutes, but only to struggle in the second half of the race. The second half of both races here also became slower. But then again, the only way for one to implement the negative splits in a race is when they already have the race results before beginning their run. Negative splits in one’s mental plan would often turn into positive splits after the actual race!

Ruth Chepn’getich, photo by Kevin Morris/@kevmofoto

Chepngetich who was inside the world record pace at halfway point where she crossed it in 1:07:34, despite beginning to slow down even before reaching the mark would win the race in a not-so-impressive time of 2:22:31. Emma Bates who was almost five minutes behind Chepngetich at half marathon came to finish second in 2:24:20 ahead of Sara Hall in 2:27:19. Kiplagat who was close behind Chepngetich in 1:08:50 at the half would fade into fifth place in the end with a time of 2:29:14.

Sara Hall (3rd), Ruth Chepn’getich (1rst), Emma Bates (2nd), photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto

Despite the relatively fast first half in the men’s race, seven runners were all still together in the lading pack up to 30km. They were suddenly down to three at the 35km mark and they were Galen Rupp, Tura, and Eric Kiptanui. Then Tura left them in a single file as they approached 40km and went ahead to win the race in 2:06:12. Rupp followed in 2:06:35 ahead of Kiptanui in 2:06:51.