Walt Murphy is one of the finest track geeks that I know. Walt does #ThisDayinTrack&FieldHistory, an excellent daily service that provides true geek stories about our sport.
You can check out the service for FREE with a free one-month trial subscription! (email: [email protected] ) for the entire daily service. We will post a few historic moments each day, beginning February 1, 2024.
by Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected]), used with permission
This Day in Track & Field–October 8
1881—Running on a 640y track in NY City, Lon Myers won the 1000-yards in 2:13.0 and improved his World Record
in the 880y to 1:53.6 along the way. Myers is a charter member of the National Hall of Fame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Myers
https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a20846307/rise-of-a-running-nation/
2006—The Netherlands’ Lornah Kiplagat set a World Record of 1:03:21 for 20,000-Meters at the inaugural IAAF World Road Running Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.
https://www.worldathletics.org/news/news/lornah-the-lion-fearless-and-now-first-de
2017—Galen Rupp became the first American since 2002 to win the Chicago Marathon (2:09:20).
Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba won the Women’s division in 2:18:31, with Jordan Hasay finishing 3rd with a personal best time of 2:20:57.
From Runner’s World:
It’s Rupp’s fourth marathon, his best time and first World Marathon Majors victory. He crossed the finish line with a smile, greeted by his wife, Keara, and three young children. “My wife has given up her life to support me and my kids. I work my butt off, and I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like. So it’s a real emotional thing,” Rupp said. “You put so much into this one race—to see them at the finish line, to see them happy, it means the world to me.”
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/mens-chicago-marathon-winner-2017-449972823.html
Videos
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9zHTc8K-lI
Full Race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRwNLIOlIKg
Past Winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winners_of_the_Chicago_Marathon
2023–And the beat goes on. Two weeks after Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa stunned the running world by setting a Women’s World Record of 2:11:53 in the Berlin, a new chapter was added to this new era of marathoning (thanks to the “super-shoes”?) when Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00.35 in Chicago to break Eliud Kipchoge’s World Record of 2:01:09!
It was the 3rd marathon win in less than a year for the 23-year old, who made his debut at the distance last December in Valencia, Spain, where he ran 2:01.53. He also won in London 6 months earlier with a time of 2:01:25, giving him a 3-race average of 2:01:13! Only Kipchoge has ever run faster in one race. Sadly, Kiptum and his coach died in an auto accident in Februqry, 2024.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5683525/2024/08/09/kelvin-kiptum-tragedy-olympics/
For a good part of the Women’s race, it looked like Assefa’s record might also fall, either to 2-time defending champion Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya or the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, who was racing just six weeks after competing in the 1500 (bronze), 5000 (silver), and 10,000 (fell just before the finish while leading) at the World Championships in Budapest.
The pace eventually slowed a bit, with Chepngetich looking like she might win for the 3rd year in a row, but Hassan then took control of the race and went on to win in 2:13:44, a Course Record and the 2nd-fastest time in history! Chepngetich held on to finish 2nd in 2:15:37.
It was a good day for Americans, who took 4 of the top-10 places in the Men’s race, and 3 in the Women’s race.
Leading the way for the men were training partners and former BYU teammates Conner Mantz (6th-2:07:47) and Clayton Young (7th-2:08:00), both of whom ran personal bests and bettered the Olympic qualifying standard of 2:08:10. 8th was Galen Rupp (2:08:48) and 9th was Sam Chelanga (2:08:50PB).
(BYU’s Ed Eyestone, who still coaches Mantz and Young, was part of the announcing crew for the local NBC affiliate that covered the race—along with Carrie Tollefson).
Emily Sisson, who set the American Record of 2:18:29 in last year’s race, finished 7th (2:22:09) in the Women’s race, followed by Molly Seidel, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist, in 8th with a personal best of 2:23:07, and Sara Vaughn in 10th (2:23:24PB). Emma Bates finished 12th in 2:25:04 (see below).
David Monti’s Report: https://chicago-marathon.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=187&do=news&news_id=667074
LetsRun Coverage: https://www.letsrun.com/events/2023/10/2023-bank-of-america-chicago-marathon
CitiusMag provided commentary and showed splits during its “Watch Party”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5l4unoHDNc
Emma Bates on Instagram: “Got to halfway right where we wanted, just under 1:09:30. I got to the next water stop and stepped weird and messed up my plantar (which I was already having some troubles with). From mile 16 on I was hobbling around, stopped twice, and slowed significantly from the pain.”
