The 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon was a tremendously adventurous race on the women’s side. Not since Paula Radcliffe in 2003 have we seen a women run with such abandon. In Mary Keitany’s case, she ran with a pacer, but after halfway, was on her very lonesome. Mary Keitany ran 1:06:55 through halfway, and as BBC pundits Brendan Foster and Steve Cram were wondering outloud when she would collapse, Keitany kept on. Only Paula Radcliffe, the only women who has run faster than Mary Keitany, defended Keitany as she ran 2:17:01.
The Elite Women in 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net
After the race, we were told that Mary had asked her pace setter to slow down. Mary Keitany had run 65 and change, in the early spring, and she had been training for this. This presser is the post conference, part 1, an amazing discussion with Mary Keitany, Tirunish Dibaba and Aselefech Mergia.
Special thanks to the Shoe Addicts, RunBlogRun’s digital partners, for their coverage of this presser.
