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Women’s Marathon World Record Shattered in Chicago

Ruth Chepng’etich won today’s Chicago Marathon, becoming the first woman in history to run a sub-2:10 marathon, finishing in 2:09:56.

The Kenyan’s time shed nearly a full two minutes off of the prior world record, which was 2:11:53. That time had been set by Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia last year at the Berlin Marathon.

Chepng’etich, wearing Nike’s AlphaFly 3, stormed to the front of the field at the start, with a 15:00 opening 5 kilometers that gave her a two second lead over Ethiopian Sutume Kebede she would never relinquish.

Kebede was the only runner in the same zip code as Chepng’etich through the 10 kilometer mark with another 15 minute split. But over the next stretch of miles the elastic between the two stretched ever further, and by the halfway mark Chepng’etich had built a 14 second lead.

Chepng’etich’s 40 kilometer split saw her come through in 2:03:11, needing to cover the final 2.2ish kilometers in 6:49 to squeak under the nearly unfathomable 2:10 mark. She barely made it — needing 6:47 to get it done.

Her final margin of victory was seven minutes and 36 seconds.

Chepng’etich dedicated her victory to the memory of men’s marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died earlier this year in a car accident.

Image: Getty Images

Tags:

Chicago MarathonrunWorld Record

Notable Replies

  1. Amazing run in less than ideal conditions. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s definitely not JUST the shoes. Lots of guys getting “chicked” today.

  2. 7 min to the top male

    7/122 = 5.7 percent

    That delta has to be one of the closest of all time. I remember when Radcliffe ran 2:15 at the 2003 London Marathon her delta to the male winner (almost 2:08) was almost the same (7/128 = 5.4…I am neglecting the exact seconds), So we have seen these types of female results on a relative scale previously compared to guys, but the scale moved faster by 6 minutes in the last 21 years !!!

  3. Why were the conditions less than ideal? Compared to years past, this was about as good as it gets - light cloud cover, minimal wind, mild temps

  4. Broke her 5k, 10k and half marathon (x2, back to back) lifetime bests during a marathon. Totally normal.

  5. High 50’s low 60’s and humidity in the 80’s are a little warm for a marathon. Other than that yes pretty good conditions.

  6. Steve Magness has an excellent take.

    The women’s marathon world record was smashed this morning. An improvement by 2-minutes in the world record, breaking the 2:10 barrier.
    She averaged 4:57 a mile…and went out at 2:07 pace… (15:00 first 5k). She came through half in 1:04:16… a time that’s only been bettered by 4 women in history when racing the half-marathon…
    Her first mile that was slower than 5:00 was mile 19.
    It’s mind-blowing, unbelievable. It’s hard how to make sense of this one.
    It’s a barrier that didn’t look like it was going to be broken for many years.
    It was crazy seeing. When major breakthroughs like this occur, you’ve got to consider everything. This one was wild…

    Some context for the people who don’t follow running:
    I’m not accusing anyone of doping. I said…the performance is so mind-blowing it begs the question how? Was it a new super super shoe? A new supplement? Training? I have no idea.
    And YES in modern elite running, we have to ask about doping. It’s sad. I wish we didn’t. But it’s part of elite sport. To not ask, is foolish.
    Some context:
    -Chepngetich’s agent is Frederico Rosa. Let’s just say he does NOT have the best reputation. Partly because of how many past athletes have doped. There’s a long history here. Google it.
    Second, Kenya has had so many doping positives lately that it’s been at risk for non-compliance. Just a few weeks ago the chair of their anti-doping told the news "“We are at risk of not being able to host or send any of our sportsmen for international competitions because the Agency cannot carry out its regular testing activities both in competition and out of competition.”
    This isn’t secret knowledge. Less than a year ago the NY Times ran a piece on Kenya’s national doping crisis.
    Now…there are many wonderful, amazing Kenyan runners. And that’s why supporting clean athlete is so important. Because the dopers tarnish everyone.
    Point being: I’m not accusing anyone. I’m saying this is a mind blowing performance. And sadly, given history and context we have to ask the question of how it’s possible.
    That’s it. If you know the sport, you know.
    It sucks. It’s why so many of us fight for clean sport so that we can celebrate these moments without questioning.

  7. Gotcha, and I am not trying to diminish her great accomplishment… Not perfect, agreed, but pretty darn close, leading Korir to a 2 min PB as well.

    I am not the biggest fan of pacers in majors, but since they are allowed, I think they close the gap to perfect conditions considerably. I think same conditions without pacers, maybe she is a minute slower, considering the swirling wind and additional mental strain.

  8. She had two very tall male pacers, to create a draft effect like for kipchoge’s breaking 2.

    Peres Jepchirchir has the women’s only record of 2:16

  9. Yes, it’s very similar to Radcliffe’s 2:15 many years ago, both in terms of similarity to the men’s record and in terms of progression. I was ecstatic when she produced that performance - I became her biggest fan. I find myself a bit more jaded these days, but I also don’t remember this amount of skepticism when Radcliffe completed her run.

    Please also remember that female marathoners can be paced wire to wire and sheltered by their pacers, so it makes sense that the records would be closer percentage-wise for the marathon than for races in which women don’t have these advantages.

  10. I just wanted to check some math where women can pace each other wire to wire (as do men), so looked at the 1500m world record 3:26 for El Gherrouj vs 3:49 for Faith Kipeyegon. 23/206 = 11 percent.

    In the 100m (no drafting at all) 9.58 Bolt vs 10:49 FloJo, we have 0.91/9.58 = 9.49 percent.

    So indeed having male pacers around helps to close that gap. I guess the best proxy would be Kipchoge’s 1:59 paced to use apples and apples and then we roughly have 10/120 = 8.33 percent.

    So even if we use Kipchoge’s paced sub 2 as the male benchmark, this is a darn amazing performance (as was Radcliffe’s)

  11. Ugh … math!!! LOL

    My manager at Campbell Soup, who was a dedicated and very successful horse handicapper (when Garden State Park was still open, he managed his work hours so he could leave at 3 o’clock to catch the early evening races), often said “Figures never lie, but Liars figure”

    I guess that meant that unscrupulous people will manipulate data to support their position?

  12. In this case I had no position other than saying the spread to the women’s winner was around the same as Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15 day in London 2003. So the check on the 1500 and 100m record spreads was just to see what shakes out in those events (100m no drafting, 1500m women drafting women, marathon can have women drafting men).

    So that’s just where the numbers landed. We can use the numbers to go ahead and do whatever stories we want to propagate now :slight_smile:

  13. One thing scratching my head is why she didn’t do the Olympics this year

  14. It’s been a year of incredible performances in endurance sports. There’s nothing untoward with never been seen before performances - no eyebrows should be raised

  15. Maybe people have heard pogacar switched breakfast cereals and are doing the same. That would certainly explain it…

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