L-R: Peres Jepchirchir, Ababel Yeshaneh, and Viola Cheptoo. (Photo: Derek Call)

Peres Jepchirchir pulls off unprecedented double

Exactly three months after winning the Olympic marathon, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir doubled back with a victory at Sunday’s New York City Marathon, running 2:22:39, only eight seconds off Margaret Okayo’s course record from 2003. Jepchirchir, Viola Cheptoo, and Ababel Yeshaneh ran together until about 800 meters remaining in the race, when Jepchirchir took off like a rocket and immediately gapped her competitors. Cheptoo, also from Kenya, took second in her marathon debut, running 2:22:44, and Yeshaneh, of Ethiopia, took third in 2:22:52.

The conditions were nearly perfect for the 50th running of the New York City Marathon, but even on the best day, the NYC course is not easy. A large pack, often led by the U.S. women, stuck together early on in the race. Minnesota Distance Elite’s Annie Frisbie, who did much of the leading and pace pushing early on, led through halfway in 1:12:43, with eight other women still in it, and Grace Kahura and Sally Kipyego just starting to fall off the pack.

The race didn’t really get going until the runners were on First Avenue, during the 18th mile, which the leaders covered in 5:13. Jepchirchir took control of the race, and Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga and Yeshaneh went with her. Molly Seidel didn’t immediately cover the move, but she worked her way back up to the lead group of four. At a fluid station around 30K, Seidel dropped back again, and Cheptoo started to reel her in.

Shortly after that, Jepchirchir and Yeshaneh, leading the race, began to pull away from Aga, who dropped back to third before getting passed by Cheptoo and Seidel, who moved into third and fourth, respectively. Cheptoo gained momentum from passing Seidel and Aga, and managed to work her way back up to the front to join Jepchirchir and Yeshaneh. 

The lead trio, Jepchirchir, Cheptoo, and Yeshaneh, stayed together nearly all the way to the finish, until Jepchirchir sprinted to victory. (Results)
 

Peres Jepchirchir solidifies her status

Winning an Olympic gold medal is incredible, but doubling back to win the New York City Marathon three months later is next level. Jepchirchir covered the second half of the race in 1:09:56 and looked like she could have gone faster if she needed to. Jepchirchir’s lone marathon loss came back in 2013, when she was only 20 years old, and she finished third in her debut in the event. She took a break from the sport in 2017 to give birth to her daughter Natalia, who just turned four, and she didn’t run her second marathon until 2019. In the four marathons Jepchirchir has done since 2019, she is undefeated, with a personal best of 2:17:16. She’s one of the best in the world in the event, if not the best.
 

Viola Cheptoo rallies for a strong debut

When Cheptoo dropped back on First Avenue, it looked like she might be out of the race, but she later said that her agent had told her not to go faster than 3:20/kilometer pace (roughly 5:21/mile) and that if her competitors were going faster than that, she’d eventually be able to reel them in, which is exactly what she did. Cheptoo and Jepchirchir worked together late in the race, which helped them pull off their 1–2 finish.

Cheptoo ran for Florida State and has gradually moved up in distance throughout her career, after starting as an 800m specialist. Her marathon career is young, but it might be her best distance yet. It was sweet to watch Bernard Lagat, who was doing commentary for ESPN, get emotional over his sister’s runner-up finish. (More on them in this article from last week.) Cheptoo has been outspoken about gender-based violence since Agnes Tirop’s murder and she told reporters after the race, “I ran really hard having Agnes in my heart today. I ran this race for Agnes.”

Molly Seidel is tough as nails

Seidel mentioned before Sunday’s race that she had dealt with some challenges leading up to the New York City Marathon, but she didn’t reveal until the post-race press conference that she broke two ribs about a month out from the race. She declined to say how she was injured but said that roughly two weeks ago, her ribs were “extremely painful and it was hindering my ability to do anything.” She considered not starting the race, but ultimately decided to do it because she had a lot of mental energy invested in the race, not to mention that this was the first opportunity her family had to see her race in person since the Olympic Marathon Trials.

Seidel tried not to think about her ribs but said they hurt badly late in the race. But she said they didn’t interfere with her stride. Nonetheless, she managed to finish fourth in 2:24:42, the fastest time ever by a U.S. woman on the NYC Marathon course. Regardless of what is thrown her way during her buildups, Seidel is consistent when it comes to the marathon. And her tough buildup made her success all the more satisfying. “I think that's why today is really special, because frankly I didn't know if I was going to be able to come out here and do it. I just knew I wanted to go as hard as I possibly could and see where I ended up,” she said.
 

Annie Frisbie shines in her debut

Until the race began to break up along First Avenue, in the 18th mile, Frisbie was the runner who spent the most time at the front of the pack, pushing the pace. She ran like someone who had a race plan and wasn’t going to let what anyone else was doing interfere with it. So it was a surprise to learn after the race that her goal was to run in the 2:30–2:35 range. She wound up finishing seventh, in 2:26:18.

Frisbie led through the half marathon point in 1:12:43, more than three minutes faster than her half marathon personal best. That’s a bit misleading, though, because Frisbie has been running well for a while now, her half PR just isn’t quite in line with her other times. She first caught my attention when she ran the fastest 10K leg at the Michigan Pro Ekiden in 2020. The 24-year-old has dealt with more than her fair share of injuries during her brief professional career, but when she’s healthy, she’s very competitive. In September, she ran 52:26 for 10 miles and 31:55 for 10K. 

This Runner’s World article says that because of Frisbie’s injury history, she runs lower mileage than some of her marathon competitors. She is unsponsored and works full-time as a graphic designer, and in her marathon debut, she became the fourth-fastest U.S. woman ever to run the New York City Marathon course.
 

The World Championships Marathon team didn’t change on Sunday

Last week, I wrote about how the U.S. will select its marathon team for next summer’s World Championships, and the fact that it favored the women who chose to run the Chicago Marathon this fall. Kellyn Taylor (sixth, 2:26:10), Frisbie, and Laura Thweatt (eighth, 2:27:00) had strong races in New York, but for someone other than Seidel, who is already on the team, to qualify for Worlds from NYC, it would have taken an incredible race. Taylor (or any U.S. woman other than Seidel) would have had to finish third, which would require running faster than 2:22:52, to make the World Championships squad.

Assuming I am interpreting the selection criteria correctly, the U.S. marathon squad will be Molly Seidel (third, Olympic Games, 2:27:46), Emma Bates (second, Chicago, 2:24:20), and Sara Hall (third, Chicago, 2:27:19). If they should decline their spots, next priority would be given to Keira D’Amato (fourth, Chicago, 2:28:22), Kellyn Taylor (sixth, New York, 2:26:10), Nell Rojas (sixth, Boston, 2:27:12), and Maegan Krifchin (sixth, Chicago, 2:30:17). 
 

Madison de Rozario also makes history

Madison de Rozario, the reigning Paralympic gold medalist in the marathon, became the first Australian to win the wheelchair division of the New York City Marathon. She opened up a gap after 25K and crossed the finish line in 1:51:01, nearly three minutes ahead of runner-up Tatyana McFadden. Manuela Schär took third in 1:54:02. While McFadden has done all of the Marathon Majors that have been held this fall and Schär has done most of them, De Rozario wasn’t able to travel because of Australia’s border restrictions. She thought she was going to have to skip NYC as well, until the Australian border opened on November 1. So racing New York was a very last-minute opportunity.

De Rozario says she feels like this is the next chapter in her career. “When everything was postponed, we kind of had two years to drop back into base training,” she said. “Obviously, the postponement was stressful and emotional for a million different reasons, but physically, we were able to make huge advances in what we were doing training-wise.”

 

The coverage

I don’t feel like I can fairly give ESPN2’s New York City Marathon coverage a grade, because I didn’t watch most of it. I started out trying to watch the coverage, but I also had access to the media feed, which was really a choice of feeds. My options included an opportunity to watch a feed with cameras on the men’s and women’s wheelchair leaders, or the option to switch over to the pro women, who had two cameras on them at all times. I wish everyone could have had such a lovely viewing experience. The only thing that would have made it better would have been commentary more specific to what was happening on the screen and more information about what mile the athletes were in. (There was a running clock most of the time, but I rarely knew where they were in the race.)

Complaints I heard about the ESPN2 broadcast included that there were too many commercials, there were too many features that took them away from showing the race, Molly Seidel was called Molly Huddle several times, the coverage missed key moves in both races. Positives were that they hired both Carrie Tollefson and Deena Kastor (though Kastor got very little air time), Bernard Lagat’s reaction to his sister finishing second, and the women’s race got a decent amount of air time. I liked the feature on Molly Seidel that included the line, "I literally am so sick of talking about myself.” It was disappointing that the ESPN2 broadcast didn’t even begin until 30 minutes into the wheelchair race, which seemed to get very little air time.

I asked other people to grade it, and they gave it everything from a B to an F-minus. Regardless of what you give it, there is room for improvement in the television coverage of marathons. There are glimmers of hope here and there, and that’s what makes me optimistic that someday, someone is going to really get it right.
 

Other NYC Notes

• Shalane Flanagan finished her six marathons in 42 days with a 2:33:32, her fastest time yet. Her time was the 12th fastest women’s time of the day. Flanagan really made this project more exciting by running each of her races at an elite level, and it became much more fun to follow than if she was just running 2:59s. (She originally said her goal was to break 3:00 in each of the six races.)

• Alexi Pappas started with the elite women but ran the race at a leisurely (for her) pace, finishing in 3:19:32. If you have a chance to watch her Instagram stories before they expire, you’ll see a 26.2-mile long party, and that probably covered a lot more than 26.2 miles.

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Weini Kelati wins her first USATF national title

Saturday’s USATF 5K Championships in New York City, run within the Dash to the Finish Line 5K, was the Weini Kelati Show. Kelati immediately jumped out to the front and just kept extending her lead, all the way to the finish line. She won her first USATF title with a course record 15:18 and called the accomplishment “a dream come true.”

Kelati told USATF.tv after the race that going from the gun was not her plan, she planned to “read the race,” but she felt good and just kept going. Kelati has lived in the U.S. since 2014, when she was a teenager, but she earned her U.S. citizenship on June 23, just days before she ran the 10,000m at the Olympic Track & Field Trials. The race didn’t go as Kelati hoped—she dropped out—and then, exhausted from finishing up her college degree, racing, and working to get her citizenship, she took a long break from running.

That step back has paid off for Kelati. She has raced only twice this fall, but both times, she has broken a Molly Huddle course record, which is no small feat. Kelati is only 24, and I’m guessing there might be many more U.S. titles ahead for her. She admitted after the race that the 5K is pretty short for her. She also excels at the 10K, but I suspect she has a great future in the longer distances, all the way up to the marathon, as well.

Behind Kelati, the Mammoth Track Club’s Grace Barnett, elementary school teacher by day, 4:05 1500m runner on the weekends, used her finishing speed to kick to second, in 15:45. And the B.A.A.’s Erika Kemp continued her strong road racing streak, taking third in 15:46. Kemp’s finish moved her into first place in the USATF Running Circuit standings with one race remaining. Side note: I thought it was interesting that Kemp wrote on Instagram, “Did NOT race in carbon shoes and still had a good day.” We knew it was possible, but it seems to be increasingly rare. (Results)
 

Additional Results

• On Saturday in Lille, France, Ethiopia’s Dawit Seyaum broke the world record for a mixed gender 5K race, running 14:41. It’s not as fast as the 14:29 women’s-only record Senbere Teferi set in September, but apparently it still counts. I had figured that if the women’s-only record was faster, that it would be considered the outright record, because women’s-only races tend to be more challenging. But at the rate these records are falling, it might not be an issue for too long. Kenya’s Celliphine Chespol, an 8:58 steeplechaser, won the accompanying 10K race in 30:21.

• Running in tough conditions, Laura Muir won the Scottish Short Course Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

• Kenya’s Sheila Jerotich outkicked her sister, Jackline Chepngeno, to win the Istanbul Marathon 2:24:15 to 2:25:21.

• Great Britain’s Natasha Cockram won the Los Angeles Marathon in 2:33:17, and Antonina Kwambai finished second in 2:37:36, one second ahead of Nina Zarina. (Results)

• Christina Murphy won the Monumental Marathon in 2:37:52 and the top 12 women all ran under 2:44. (Results) Molly Grabill won the half marathon in 1:10:41, with Maor Tiyouri second in 1:11:47 (Results)

• Allie McLaughlin won the USATF Trail Marathon Championships, at the Moab Trail Marathon, in 3:30:15.

• Allie Kieffer won the Run for the Water 10 Miler in 54:56.

• Elaina Tabb won the Pittsburgh 10 Miler in 56:39.

• Carmela Cardama Baez won the Colleen De Reuck XC Classic. (Results)

 

Other News and Links

• Cindy Kuzma wrote a good pre-NYC article about Sally Kipyego. Kipyego talked about recovering from her Olympic disappointment, adding another child to her family last year, and Agnes Tirop’s murder, among other things. Kipyego unfortunately had a tough race on Sunday, dropping out some time after 35K. (Runner’s World)

• This is a good article from Taylor Dutch about how Kenya’s female runners are responding to Agnes Tirop’s murder. Joan Chelimo shared that she is a survivor of abuse, and that’s part of the reason she is so passionate about the issue. And Viola Cheptoo told Dutch, “[Tirop] was trying to break away from this guy, and he wasn’t having it. He was just lazy, somebody who wanted to use her, and she was actually growing up and realizing that it’s not okay. It’s just hard to know that somebody actually died because she couldn’t take being used anymore.” (Runner’s World)

• I enjoyed this piece from Hannah Borenstein about how winning the 2011 New York City Marathon changed Firehiwot Dado’s life. And until I read it, I had no idea that it’s tradition for Ethiopian winners of the Rome Marathon to finish barefoot, when they have a large enough margin of victory, a nod to Abebe Bikila’s Olympic marathon win in Rome in 1960.

• I didn’t know until reading this New York Times article that Molly Seidel worked for Instacart after making the Olympic team. Hopefully signing with Puma in 2021 (and winning an Olympic bronze medal) put her in a much more stable spot financially.

• Columbia and Notre Dame graduate Katie Wasserman, the 2021 NCAA outdoor 5,000m runner-up, has signed with NAZ Elite. For more on Wasserman, she was a guest on the team’s podcast last week.

• Juliette Whittaker, who has run a 2:01.21 800m and 4:38.65 mile, announced last week that she’ll be attending Stanford University in the fall. Whittaker is part of a stellar recruiting class that includes fellow Olympic Trials 800m qualifier Roisin Willis, Riley Stewart, Ava Parekh, and Caroline Wells.

• The Guardian reported last week that renowned track and field coach Rana Reider will be investigated by SafeSport after multiple complaints of sexual misconduct have been made against him. UK Athletics has told its athletes to cut ties with him until the investigation is over. Reider, who coaches the Florida-based Tumbleweed Track Club, also made news earlier this year when team member Blessing Okagbare tested positive for human growth hormone and EPO.

• Lance Harter, Arkansas’ head women’s cross country and track & field coach, announced that he’ll retire following the 2023 outdoor track season. Harter is in his 32nd season at Arkansas, and his longtime assistant, Chris Johnson, who coaches the sprinters and hurdlers, has been named head coach in waiting. 

• Matthew Futterman wrote about some of New York Road Runners’ struggles in recent years. (New York Times)

• This is a moving article about 24-year-old Jocelyn Rivas, who became the youngest person to complete 100 marathons when she finished Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon.

• Molly Peters, the head cross country and nordic ski coach at St. Michael’s College, is petitioning the NCAA to have equal 8K race distances for men and women, and Joan Benoit Samuelson, Lynn Jennings, Kara Goucher, and Molly Huddle have included their names on the letter that will go to the NCAA committees requesting this change. I understand the arguments that have kept men and women running different distances all these years, and no one is trying to argue these days that women can’t make it 8K or 10K. But I also appreciate that the proposal is somewhat of a meet-in-the-middle compromise. If you’d like to add your name to Peters’ petition, you can do so here.

• Running Out, a 43-minute film about ultrarunner Lucy Bartholomew, is available to rent or buy now. You can watch the trailer here.

• Last week, World Athletics announced that the World Half Marathon Championships, scheduled to take place in Yangzhou, China, in March, have been postponed until November 13, 2022. Depending on who winds up on the team, this could interfere with or alter their fall marathon plans. Likewise, the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, scheduled to take place in Thailand in February, have been postponed until November 2022. Both postponements are Covid-related.

 

Additional Podcasts

• On the Ali on the Run Show, Laura Thweatt talked about why she decided to leave Team Boss, discussed being frustrated by the TV coverage of the Chicago Marathon, and said she’s doing more effort-based training and did nothing with a GPS watch during her New York City Marathon buildup. She said that she is currently self coached but is open to hiring a coach and joining another team down the road.

• There have been a lot of Shalane Flanagan podcasts recently, but I thought Maddy Kelly and Kate Van Buskirk, hosts of the Shakeout Podcast did the best job of asking Flanagan different questions. Flanagan was also on Laughter Permitted last week.

Other episodes from last week: Emma Coburn, Dani Jones, Selena Samuela, and Lizeth Aparacio on a live episode of Ali on the Run | Kate Grace on For the Long Run | Rebecca Mehra on the MindTalks podcast | Judy Shapiro-Ikenberry on Starting Line 1928 | Allison Grace Morgan on the Beer Mile podcast, if you’re interested in the specifics of how beer miling works. (She comes on around the 10:00 mark.)

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It’s been a very long day, so I’ll wrap this up with a quick thanks to Janji for sponsoring this newsletter this month and thanks to you for reading!

Alison