by Justin Lagat
Today, history was made again at the Chicago Marathon when Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich ran 2:09:57 to win the women’s race and become the first woman to run under 2:10:00 in Marathon. It would not have happened at a better place than in her “second home,” as she describes the windy city in her post-race interview.
“I have fulfilled my dream,” Chepngetich, who had been thinking about breaking the world record after having missed it narrowly during the 2022 edition of the marathon, where she had won it at 2:14:18, said after the race. “I am dedicating this world record to Kelvin Kiptum. I believe he would have been here to defend his title again.
“The weather was perfect this year, and I prepared well for it. The world record was always in my mind during training. It is my fourth year coming to Chicago, and it feels like my second home, with crowds always cheering for me.”
Since then, when she set her PB, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa has pushed the world record further to 2:11:53 at the Berlin Marathon last year. But this did not dampen Chepngetich’s quest to have the world record to her name.
She was intent on getting it, so she went for it from the start of the race, crossing the 5K mark in 15:01. By 10K, where she struck at 30:14, she was slightly ahead of Sutume Asefa Kebede, and their predicted finish times were unbelievably under 2:08 at that point. To explain how fast this was, the Paris Olympics 10,000m qualification time for women was 30:40!
Chepngetich extended her lead at the halfway point as she crossed it at 1:04.16 against Kebede’s at 1:04.30. The gap kept increasing rapidly until she was close to eight minutes ahead of her closest Ethiopian competitor at the finish. Kebede would finish second in 2:17:32.
Kenya’s Irene Cheptai registered a new personal best time of 2:17:52 as she came in third in her career’s second marathon race.
The men’s race was run in a slightly different version. The elites ran a modestly fast pace throughout—not too quick to disintegrate the leading pack and not slow enough to allow a bigger pack at the front. About ten men were still close together as they crossed the half marathon in 1:02.19.
John Korir finally took the lead after the pacers dropped out at 30K, and the men’s field suddenly turned into a long single file. Korir soon found himself running a solo run at the front to win the race comfortably –his first world marathon majors win- in a new personal best time of 2:02:44. He was almost two minutes ahead of Ethiopia’s Huseydin Mohamed Esa, who ran 2:04:39 for second. Kenya’s Amos Kipruto finished third in 2:04:50.
It was another successful edition of the Chicago Marathon for fans and runners alike. Several runners who came in to run for various reasons—to honor runners who could not run, shed hundreds of pounds and keep fit, and prove the nay-sayers wrong, among other reasons—all had a great time.
