Boston Marathon Highlights: Evans Chebet Repeats as Champion; Hellen Obiri Wins Boston Debut
The two Kenyans outpaced their fields, but their countryman Eliud Kipchoge, the world’s greatest marathoner, stumbled to sixth place in his first Boston Marathon.
Hellen Obiri of Kenya took first place in the women’s race in Boston on Monday.Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
BOSTON — The Boston Marathon can humble even the most decorated champions. Runners who are new to its topography might get the wrong idea at the start, thanks to an opening chunk of Route 135 that unspools toward Ashland, Mass. It is downhill and fast, offering a bit of sadistic sleight of hand that masks the climbs to come as the course works its way toward Boylston Street in Boston.
It is one thing to study a map and be forewarned. It is another thing altogether to lace up your carbon-plated super sneakers and experience it firsthand.
On Monday, the 127th edition of the Boston Marathon served up its usual grab bag of triumphs and small calamities. In defending his men’s title, Evans Chebet of Kenya used his experience to separate himself from a celebrated field that included Eliud Kipchoge, the world-record holder. And Hellen Obiri exercised patience to make it a Kenyan sweep by taking the women’s crown in only her second marathon.
“When it comes to running a marathon, anything can happen,” said Obiri, 33, who embraced her 7-year-old daughter, Tania, after crossing the finish line in 2 hours 21 minutes 38 seconds. “It’s a long, long way.”
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Evans Chebet soared across the finish line to win the Boston Marathon’s men’s race.Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
A long, long way for about 30,000 athletes who tackled the course amid cold, early-morning drizzles, and a long, long way for Kipchoge, the biggest luminary of them all.
Kipchoge, 38, arrived in Boston last week having achieved nearly everything that there is to achieve in the sport of running, winning two Olympic gold medals and 10 world marathon majors. Last year, he broke his own world record when he won the Berlin Marathon for the fourth time in 2:01:09.
But he had never run Boston, which is notorious for its rolling hills. And only rarely has he had to settle for bib No. 2, but Monday was one of those days. Bib No. 1 belonged to Chebet, 34, as the defending champion.
Still, Kipchoge seemed determined to assert himself from the start, leading the elite men through the opening mile in a lung-searing 4:35. And there he stayed, up at the front, all the way to Mile 20, when Chebet made a surge and Kipchoge crumbled.
Chebet and Benson Kipruto, the 2021 champion, are training partners, and they agreed to work together. They even shared a water bottle a couple of miles from the finish. More important, neither seemed in awe of Kipchoge. In fact, they appeared motivated by his presence, as if they had something to prove against him.
“Our confidence in the quality of our training made us feel good about taking on this race,” Chebet said.
Chebet won in 2:05:54. Gabriel Geay of Tanzania finished second, and Kipruto was third. Kipchoge finished sixth in 2:09:23, his poorest showing since he placed eighth at the London Marathon in 2020.
Kipchoge, who did not appear at a post-race news conference, congratulated his competitors in a statement released to race organizers.
“I live for the moments where I get to challenge the limits,” he said. “It’s never guaranteed, it’s never easy. Today was a tough day for me. I pushed myself as hard as I could. But sometimes, we must accept that today wasn’t the day to push the barrier to a greater height.”
Chebet, who also won the New York City Marathon in November, said Monday’s win was the greatest result of his career. He became the first man since Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot in 2008 to defend his Boston title.
“I’m happy because I know this race,” Chebet said. “So maybe next year I’ll come back and win it again.”
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Benson Kipruto, left, and Chebet, center, both from Kenya, and Gabriel Geay of Tanzania, along the course of the 127th Boston Marathon.Credit...Steven Senne/Associated Press
Obiri approached Boston as something of a marathon neophyte, even though she was already a legend on the global running stage. She is the only woman to have won world titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross-country. She also has two Olympic silver medals in the 5,000 meters.
Last year, she joined the On Athletics Club and moved to Boulder, Colo., so she could be coached by Dathan Ritzenhein, the former Olympic marathoner. Obiri’s younger teammates sometimes refer to their training runs with her as doing “Obiri miles,” which means they are hard miles.
But like Kipchoge, Obiri is not immune to tough tests and even the occasional mistake. When she made her marathon debut in New York in November, she went out too hard — she doubled as a “pacemaker,” she said — and faded to a sixth-place finish. She also erred by failing to consume enough water and electrolytes. In hindsight, Ritzenhein said, the experience taught her a great deal.
“It really made her fear and respect the event,” he said.
But Obiri was not exactly in a rush to do another marathon. A few days after she won the New York City Half Marathon last month, Ritzenhein gauged her interest in entering Boston. Obiri asked if she could have a week to think it over.
“No,” Ritzenhein recalled telling her, “text me tonight.”
Obiri decided to go for it. Ritzenhein said her training, which included a long, consistent stretch of 100-mile weeks, gave him the confidence that she could excel in Boston, with a fresh opportunity to put many of the lessons she had learned into practice. Ritzenhein advised her to be cautious through the first 21 miles.
“She was smart and just waited,” he said. “I didn’t think she could wait as long as she did.”
Obiri is a ferocious runner, with long, loping strides. And at Mile 24, she pushed forward. The wait was over. Ritzenhein said he could sense as much from her stride. “The power came out,” he said.
Obiri doubled over with emotion after she crossed the finish line. Amane Beriso of Ethiopia was 12 seconds back in second place, and Lonah Salpeter of Israel finished third.
“I was feeling like my body was ready and everything was ready,” Obiri said. “And I said to myself, I can’t do it from the front. If I can just wait, wait — because my coach told me that the marathon is about patience. So I tried to be patient until the right time.”
Emma Bates, a native of Elk River, Minn., ran in the lead pack for much of the race and placed fifth as the top American. Scott Fauble finished seventh as the top American man.
April 17, 2023, 2:55 p.m. ET
Talya Minsberg
Running the Boston Marathon
Just finished the Boston Marathon. Joining the huddled shivering masses with medals wandering the streets of Boston now.
April 17, 2023, 2:49 p.m. ET
Ben Shpigel
At 2:49 p.m., the time when two bombs exploded on Boylston Street during the 2013 marathon, runners continued to cross the finish line. On Saturday, the 10-year anniversary of the bombings, the bell at the historic Old South Church rang to commemorate the moment.
Former Boston Red Sox player Ryan Dempster is running in honor of Lu Lingzi, a Boston University student who was killed in the attack.Credit...Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox, via Getty Images
A former Boston Bruins star, a Heisman Trophy winner and a renowned chef are among the tens of thousands of Boston Marathon entrants slogging through the wind and rain on Monday.
The list of celebrity runners includes the tennis player Monica Puig Rakitt and the restaurateur Daniel Humm, but most of the familiar runners are fixtures in the Boston sporting landscape — from the beloved defenseman Zdeno Chara to the former N.F.L. and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie to the pitcher Ryan Dempster, who played only one season for the Red Sox, in 2013, when, motivated by the Boston Marathon bombings to help the city heal, they won the World Series.
Not even an hour after Dempster pitched for the Red Sox on April 15, two bombs exploded near the marathon’s finish line, a little more than a mile from Fenway Park. Dempster recently told Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe that he will “never forget that day” and that his season in Boston felt like 10 “with everything that happened.”
“The way the city allowed us to have a small role in people recovering changed my perspective about baseball,” Dempster told The Globe. “That’s why I wanted to come back and run the Marathon. Of course I had to do it in Boston.”
Dempster is running in honor of Lu Lingzi, a Boston University student who was killed in the attack.
Des Linden is the only American woman to win the Boston Marathon this century. She ran the race for the 10th time on Monday.Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
Des Linden, who won this race in 2018, ran her 10th Boston Marathon on Monday, finishing in 18th place with a time of 2 hours 27 minutes 18 seconds. She was one of several athletes, spectators and survivors who spoke to The New York Times about how the meaning of the Boston Marathon finish line has changed in the 10 years since the 2013 bombing:
It’s the most iconic marathon in the world, and the stretch to the line itself is historic. I remember saying in 2013, on Patriots’ Day, that this is where everyone wants to be. This is the focus of the running world but being on a Monday it’s the focus of the whole sports world.
I love this race. It’s what made me fall in love with the marathon. It’s such an epic experience.
You think of all the epic races and the iconic races that have run down that stretch, and then you think of all the masses of people and all their inspirational stories behind them. And you know that shared pride when you get to that finish line.
About 20 percent of the 30,000 runners in the Boston Marathon earned their entry by raising money for charity, but nearly all of the others had to qualify with times that classified them in the upper tier of runners in their age groups.
For the lay marathoner, qualifying for Boston is a crowning achievement. It’s also an opportunity to run a monster of a course that goes mostly downhill for the first 16 miles, deceptively shredding the quadriceps muscles, and then travels uphill for most of the next five. At the top of Heartbreak Hill in Mile 20 of the race, the Citgo sign outside Fenway Park, roughly a mile from the finish, comes into view. It looks so close and so, so far. The amateurs are out on the course now. Here’s a look at what they’re encountering.
Boston Marathon Route
April 17, 2023, 1:54 p.m. ET
Ian MacLellan
Reporting from the Boston Marathon
Runners continuing along Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.
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CreditCredit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
The rain isn’t letting up, but neither are the throngs of dedicated Bostonians. Jim Brinson, 80, said he was still having fun as he sat course-side in a folding chair while holding an umbrella overhead. He estimated that he’s watched 40 Boston marathons. This year, he was waiting to cheer on his grandson’s girlfriend.
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Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
April 17, 2023, 1:46 p.m. ET
Jonathan Ellis
Reporting from the Boston Marathon
Earlier, Hellen Obiri of Kenya spoke to reporters after winning the women’s race in her Boston Marathon debut. “I knew Boston Marathon was a tough course,” she said. But her goal was to “try, try.”
April 17, 2023, 1:45 p.m. ET
Jonathan Ellis
Reporting from the Boston Marathon
When Evans Chebet was asked by a reporter whether he was surprised that Eliud Kipchoge had fallen back in the race, Chebet made it clear that he hadn’t been too concerned with tracking his opponent’s shortcomings. “That I did not observe,” he said through a translator.
He added: “Eliud was not so much of a threat. Bottom line is we had trained well. Our confidence in the quality of training just made us feel good about taking on the race.”
April 17, 2023, 1:43 p.m. ET
Jonathan Ellis
Reporting from the Boston Marathon
Evans Chebet and Benson Kipruto of Kenya, who are training partners, finished first and third. “We agreed to stick together to the end,” Chebet told reporters through a translator.
Students are still dedicated to doling out smooches amid a backdrop of deafening shrieks and “kiss her” chants through the famous “Scream Tunnel” at Wellesley College — despite requests from the school and the race organizers to refrain in recent years because of the pandemic.
“I didn’t really hear anything about kissing this year,” said Heather Gager, 20, a sophomore who was waiting for a peck from a runner she knows. “We wait all year for this,” she said. “It’s a big deal for us.”
Said one sign: “Kiss me, I finished my thesis.”
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Credit...Kylie Cooper for The New York Times
April 17, 2023, 1:29 p.m. ET
Lauren McCarthy
Reporting from the Boston Marathon
SriVani Ganti and her mother, Aruna, had a prime location at the start line to support SriVani’s sister, Sailaja. The Ganti family are longtime spectators of the Boston marathon, but SriVani said her sister “broke the tradition in a good way” this year by taking on the 26.2 miles with Black Girls Run. “It’s nice to see South Asian runners,” she said.
With a time of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 10 seconds on Monday, Emma Bates secured a qualifying time for the 2024 Paris Olympics and bolstered her status as a top contender for February’s trials. Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
For most of the Boston Marathon, Emma Bates ran in the lead pack.
She ran with the major marathon champion, Lonah Salpeter. She ran with the former half-marathon world-record holder, Ababel Yeshaneh. And she ran with the two-time Olympic medalist Hellen Obiri, who would eventually sprint away on Monday to win her first marathon.
Soon after Obiri won, though, Bates crossed the line in fifth place, the best finish by an American woman. Bates, a native of Elk River, Minn., stayed in contention until the final mile and completed the course in 2 hours, 22 minutes and 10 seconds, a personal best by more than one minute.
Afterward, Bates said that she didn’t expect to be in front so late. Her coach, she said, had advised her to focus on staying in the chase pack, behind the top women, and then pounce toward the end.
“But I just felt so good the entire time,” Bates said. “And I got to Mile 20 and was still in the lead, and I just looked at my coach, who was at Mile 20, and I was like, ‘I guess I’m in front,’ and so he said, ‘Just go for it, go for it.’”
Bates, 30, who finished second in Chicago in 2021, secured a qualifying time for the 2024 Paris Olympics — and bolstered her status as a top contender for next February’s trials.
The top American male finisher was Scott Fauble, who came in seventh — for the third time in his last five Boston Marathons. Fauble, 31, finished in 2:09:44, 21 seconds behind the world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge, who came in sixth.
“I was focused on winning my group and trying to finish as high as possible,” Fauble said. “I didn’t realize it was Kipchoge until afterwards.”
The energy on Central Street in Wellesley is strong, particularly at the Mile 13 marker, where runners realize they’re now halfway done. Speakers blaring pop music line the streets, and spectators are stomping, clapping and dancing. Runners are raising their arms and bursting into smiles. Any sense of seriousness is gone — this is just fun.
Hellen Obiri briefly fell behind the pack but ultimately held the group off to win the women’s marathon.Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
By the 23-mile mark, the women’s marathon was still anyone’s race, as five runners jockeyed for position down the final stretch. They were so close that Ababel Yeshaneh fell after clipping another runner’s foot.
Hellen Obiri, a 33-year-old Kenyan, led that group for most of the way, often checking around to see where her competitors were. She briefly fell behind the pack at points, but ultimately held the group off to win the women’s race in 2 hours 21 minutes and 38 seconds.
Obiri, who was competing in just her second marathon, showed her speed with about a half-mile left in the race, pumping her arms hard and leaving the rest of the group behind her. Obiri finished sixth in the New York City Marathon last year, her only other race of this distance. She won the New York City Half Marathon on March 19.
After that race, Obiri moved to Boulder, Colo., with her husband, Tom Nyaundi, and their 7-year-old daughter, Tania, to train. Obiri said she was anxious about racing in Boston, unsure how she would match up with the talented field.
“It’s a surprise to me,” Obiri said with a smile, her daughter standing next to her. Obiri said her daughter motivates her, and often peppers her with questions like, “You can’t be number one?”
“So I try to make them happy,” Obiri said, “because sometimes I don’t want to go, but something tells you to try to keep on fighting. So I kept on fighting.”
Amane Beriso of Ethiopia finished second, and Lonah Salpeter of Israel finished third.
Yeshaneh, who finished second in this race last year, recovered from her fall and at moments looked as if she could win, but she faded away at the end, finishing fourth.
American Emma Bates, who was a part of the group at Mile 23, could not keep the pace at the end of the race, finishing in fifth place.
Evans Chebet, a 34-year-old Kenyan, crosses the finish line to win the Boston Marathon.Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
When Eliud Kipchoge takes the course for any marathon, it typically turns into a race for second place.
But that trend shifted at Monday’s Boston Marathon, as Kipchoge could not keep up with the pace in the pouring rain, and Evans Chebet pulled away to win his second straight Boston Marathon in 2 hours 5 minutes and 54 seconds.
Chebet, a 34-year-old Kenyan, is the first man to win the Boston Marathon in back-to-back years since Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot won three straight in 2006 to 2008. Chebet hinted at a three-peat after the win.
“I’m happy because I won last year and this year, so maybe next year I’ll come back again,” he said. Chebet said his experience running the course last year gave him an advantage during Monday’s rainy conditions. He was faster by nearly a full minute.
Chebet had been among a pack of eleven runners that Kipchoge seemed to be comfortably leading, until Gabriel Geay, who finished second led an aggressive move at the 19-mile mark, and the pack left Kipchoge behind them.
Chebet has won his last three marathons, also winning the New York City race last year.
It was a shocking upset for Kipchoge, the greatest marathon runner of all time, who finished in sixth place. Kipchoge’s time was 2 hours 9 minutes and 23 seconds, his slowest marathon finish ever.
Kipchoge has only lost two marathons in 15 attempts, which includes 10 world marathon major wins. It was his first time running at the Boston Marathon on a day laden with rain and a course with a hilly terrain that forces many runners to struggle. Kipchoge’s last marathon loss came at the 2020 London Marathon in similar rainy conditions.
Kipchoge, 38, has said that running all six major marathons is on his “bucket list.” He now has just the New York City Marathon to check off his list, which will happen in November.
April 17, 2023, 11:56 a.m. ET
Victor Mather
Emma Bates, Hellen Obiri, Lonah Salpeter, Ababel Yeshaneh, Amane Beriso and Joyciline Jepkosgei are the six in front of the women’s race now. Then Yeshaneh falls! She rushes to catch up. Two miles to go.
April 17, 2023, 11:49 a.m. ET
Ben Shpigel
The men’s champion, Evans Chebet, averaged a mile in 4 minutes 48 seconds — giving hope to anyone on the Tumbleator who could not match Eliud Kipchoge’s world-record pace.
Eliud Kipchoge finishes sixth in 2:09:23, his poorest showing since he finished eighth at the 2020 London Marathon.
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Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
April 17, 2023, 11:47 a.m. ET
Victor Mather
The women hit 21 miles in a group of about eight. Lonah Salpeter, Emma Bates, Hiwot Gebremaryam and Hellen Obiri are prominent.
April 17, 2023, 11:44 a.m. ET
Victor Mather
Evans Chebet of Kenya wins back-to-back Boston Marathons, this time in 2 hours 5 minutes 54 seconds. Gabriel Geay of Tanzania is second, 10 seconds behind.
April 17, 2023, 11:41 a.m. ET
Victor Mather
In the last mile, Evans Chebet breaks away! The defending Boston and New York champ could be on the way to victory.
The finish line at today’s Boston Marathon.Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
The fastest finishers of the Boston Marathon this year will share in more than $1 million in prize money, with bonuses awarded to the winners who set course records in the open and wheelchair divisions.
In all, at least $876,500 will be distributed across the four divisions — open (elite), wheelchair, masters (over 40) and para. First-place finishers earn $150,000 in the open division, $25,000 in the wheelchair division, $5,000 in the masters division and $1,500 in each of five para designations.
Second-place finishers receive $75,000, $15,000, $2,500 and $750 in those respective categories.
By breaking his own course record by nearly a minute, Marcel Hug of Switzerland, the men’s wheelchair champion, will receive an additional $50,000.
Susannah Scaroni wins the women’s wheelchair race.Credit...Ian MacLellan for The New York Times
Susannah Scaroni of the United States added to her portfolio of major titles on Monday, sprinting away from a crowded field to win her first Boston Marathon women’s wheelchair race.
Even after stopping early to repair a wheel, Scaroni encountered little resistance, finishing in an unofficial time of 1 hour, 41 minutes 45 seconds. She zipped past last year’s winner, Manuela Schӓr of Switzerland, between the five- and 10-kilometer marks, and broke the tape with the pack trailing by roughly five minutes.
Scaroni, 31, who came in second in Boston last year, won the Chicago and New York City marathons in 2022.
Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya, left, Amane Beriso of Ethiopia and Hellen Obiri of Kenya.Credit...Associated Press; EPA, via Shutterstock; Getty Images
Pick a favorite, any favorite. Could the women’s champion be Amane Beriso of Ethiopia, who won the Valencia Marathon in December by running a personal best of 2:14:58, the third-fastest marathon time in history?
Or perhaps it will be Hellen Obiri of Kenya, a track legend who feels that she learned a great deal from her marathon debut last fall, when she finished sixth in New York. Then again, maybe the winner will be one of six women in the field who already have world marathon majors. Among them: Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya, who won in New York in 2019 and in London in 2021; Lonah Salpeter of Israel, who won in Tokyo in 2020; and Gotytom Gebreslase of Ethiopia, the 2021 Berlin champion who went on to win gold at last year’s world championships.
There are sentimental favorites, too, starting with Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, who, on Thursday, was honored as the 2021 champion after the original winner, Diana Kipyokei, was disqualified for doping. (A two-time champion, Kiplagat, 43, won the race outright in 2017.) And there is the crowd favorite Des Linden, an American who won the race in 2018 by persevering in horrendous conditions.
Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya opted to enter the London Marathon later this month rather than defend her title in Boston.
Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia set the course record of 2:19:59 in 2014.
