BOSTON — Even after two hours, the standings for the women’s division of Monday’s Boston Marathon looked like a Green Line car pulling out of Park Street during the morning rush.
Twelve women were in a tight group, jostling each other, and yet there was a unity to it all, all those elbows, all those knees, moving as if they were choreographed. You will see these kinds of groupings at the starting line. You will see them in 5K. You just don’t see that many world-class runners sharing an elevator after two hours of a marathon.
But there were only two runners. And then, one. It was at this point that Kenyan Hellen Obiri broke away from the peloton, then broke away from her compatriot Sharon Lokedi, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 22 minutes and 37 seconds to win Boston for a second consecutive time.
GO FURTHER
Boston Marathon: Lemma wins men’s race
What a finish. What a day. For so many of the half-million fans who attended the 128th Boston Marathon on that warm, sunny day were there primarily for the tradition and pageantry of it all – and to cheer on their friends who were competing in a “charity” motivated by a cause. runners” – this edition of the Hopkinton-Copley Square road race had so much more. There was drama mid-marathon. There was an upheaval. And there was this steel cage match of a women’s race.
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The drama of the half-marathon: in the men’s wheelchair division, eternal champion Marcel Hug squeezed an iron barricade just after the legendary Newton fire station, an accident which resulted in a man and a vehicle. land in a heap. He quickly stood up and continued. And won Boston a seventh time – and in a record time of 1:15:33.
“It was my fault,” Hug, 38, said of the accident. “I had too much weight, too much pressure from above on my steering, so it wasn’t steering properly. … Fortunately, nothing happened with the tires, so I was able to move forward.
The upheaval: Ethiopian Sisay Lemma not only managed Boston. He fled to Boston. He jumped out early, built a lead, held onto the lead and finished in 2:06:17, 41 seconds ahead of second place Mohamed Esa of Ethiopia and – and here’s your surprise – a bit more one minute before the marathon. favorite Evans Chebet of Kenya, who was seeking his third straight victory in Boston.
In three previous attempts to conquer Boston, Lemma had dropped out twice and finished 30th.
“Many times after previous races I joked that I was going to come to Boston and redeem myself,” Lemma said through a translator. “So I’m very happy.”
But in a year in which women’s college basketball is captivating America, this powerhouse women’s marathon division has been rocking Boston. It all started with American Emma Bates taking an early lead and holding that lead for much of the day, although she took a few moments to wave to fans as the race passed through the suburbs of Wellesley. She later joked about it, telling reporters what she thought: “Did I just make a mistake?” Am I wasting seconds here?
Some context: Bates, 31, suffered a torn plantar fascia during the Chicago Marathon in October. She didn’t expect to be strong in Boston in 2024.
Bates, who led most of last year’s race before settling for fifth, came out strong again.
“My coach had told me to run your own race, treat it like a long race with a little more spice,” Bates said. “And I found myself coming out on top again and again.”
Eventually, the pack caught up with her. That’s when the steel cage match began.
When asked what it was like in that crowd, second-placed Lokedi said: “I think it’s just about being aware if a move is made, you’re just trying to make sure you stay in this range and you don’t leave it. a breach opens.
Obiri said, “Sometimes you try to communicate when you’re in a crowd of about 15 people. You need to be careful when collecting your water. And you talk to each other.
Kenyan Edna Kiplagat, third, put it beautifully: “I look around and think we could have been 16th (place) or first (place). … From then on, I knew anyone could act.
Obiri and Lokedi made the move. And then Obiri made that last move, the one that settled things.
“I said, ‘Let me go,’ because…anyone is there, anyone can win the race,” Obiri said. “So for me, I (said) let me do the job now, let me pick up the pace.”
She ran the last 4.2 miles at a sub-5 minute pace. Arriving at the underpass beyond Kenmore Square and before the right turn onto Hereford Street, she was absolutely sprinting.
To borrow a line from Kiplagat, Obiri could have finished 16th. She finished first.
Bates finished 12th.
“I am proud of finishing” she said. “I’m proud of my effort and the effort I put into it. Finishing 12th isn’t quite what I expected or hoped for, but there are so many women in the group …and I couldn’t get the wheels at the end, especially since they went 4h40 towards the end and I’m not there yet.
Ah, there she is. She attended a party bringing together the world’s best marathoners, a party held on one of the biggest marathon stages. I could have been first, I could have been 16th. She was somewhere in between, 12th.
But only six women have won Boston and then defended Boston. Obiri is one of them.
“I (said), ‘Let me fight, let me fight,’” Obiri said. “Because when I’m on the road, I see my daughter and my husband…if I win, I can make them all say, ‘Oh my God.'”
Best runners. A beautiful scene. A steel cage match. And then, finally, a winner.
Oh my.
(Top photo of Hellen Obiri of Kenya crossing the finish line to win the women’s division of Monday’s Boston Marathon: Paul Rutherford/Getty Images)