The announcement of an elite women’s field at most major marathons usually begins with a superlative or two.
Historic. Unprecedented. Stacked. The strongest it’s ever been.
These days, more often than not, that description is valid. Women’s elite marathoning, and to a similar extent amateur marathoning, continues to hit new standards year after year.
It was true at the 127th running of the Boston Marathon on Monday, when 14 of the women who entered the race had run a marathon faster than 2 hours 21 minutes. Five had run under 2:18.
And it will be true again this weekend at the London Marathon, when another 10 women in that race have run a marathon in under 2:19. Six of them have run under 2:18, including the world-record holder Brigid Kosgei.
This depth of talent is relatively recent, and it’s growing. The 26.2-mile distance has been covered in under 2:18 — a pace of just over 5:15 a mile — by 27 women. Twelve of those times were run in 2022. Two have been run so far in 2023.
It’s something that is echoed, to a small extent, in the men’s field, as world records continue to fall and the number of people running fast times continues to increase. The most obvious explanation for this flood of fast times is the now ubiquitous presence of super shoes, which have a carbon-fiber plate in the sole that acts as a kind of spring.
But while the growth in the men’s field is incremental, the growth in the women’s field has been far more dramatic. For women marathoners, there is more money to be won and new investment in the sport. There are also simply more women racing at a high level.
Mary Kate Shea, the director of professional athletes at the Boston Athletic Association, has had a front-row seat to the talent boom, and has long competed to lure talent to the Boston Marathon. She has recruited elite fields for 25 Boston Marathons, doing so when “there was no depth around the world.”
Not anymore.
“There are so many races around the world, so you are all recruiting from the same pool,” Shea said. “It’s refreshing that each race in the spring season has great fields.”
It’s easy to forget that elite marathoning for women is still in its infancy. It was just over 50 years ago that the Amateur Athletic Union, then the governing body for marathons in the United States, allowed women to officially take part in distance road running.
Since the start of 2022, women have clocked 13 of the top marathon times ever run. In the same time period, men have clocked six of the top marathon times. Eliud Kipchoge is responsible for two of them.
Unlike most professional runners, elite marathoners usually race one or two times a year — once in the spring and once in the fall, unless it’s an Olympic year, or a world championship year, or if an injury pops up.
Recruiting now is far different from what it was when Shea began working with the Boston Marathon.
In 2000, the professional women’s field had 14 runners. The fastest was Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia, who came into the race with a time of 2:23:21. The next fastest runner was Elana Meyer of South Africa with a time of 2:25:15.
In 2010, there were 19 elite runners. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya led the field with a time of 2:18:47, and was followed by Madai Perez of Mexico with a time of 2:22:59. Both were national record holders.
In 2023, Shea had recruited so many high-level runners that it was not until days before the race that she realized her field included six of the top seven finishers from last year’s world championship marathon.
What makes Boston unique is that those speedy times were only part of the equation. There are “so many accomplished people who are just waiting for their day,” Shea said ahead of the race.
On Monday, the fastest seeds in both the men’s and women’s fields failed to come away with a win. Boston is perhaps one of the last pure races, one more akin to the Olympics or a world championship than a time trial. It’s a tactical race, one that demands a special blend of strength and strategy, but plenty of women still ran very fast this year.
There was Aliphine Tuliamuk, who came into the 2023 Boston Marathon with a personal best time of 2:26:50. “If she doesn’t set a personal best I’ll send you a T-shirt,” Shea said in the days before the race. No shirt was needed. Tuliamuk finished with a time of 2:24:37.
There was Emma Bates, who came into the race saying she was a “2:18, 2:19 girl” and had the fitness to set an American record. While she did not do so in Boston on Monday, she was the first American to cross the line, finishing in fifth place with a time of 2:22:10.
And there was Hellen Obiri, who ran her marathon debut in New York City with a time of 2:25:49 in 2022. She learned a thing or two from her first go-round, and ended up winning Boston with a new personal best time of 2:21:38.
“When it comes to running a marathon, anything can happen,” Obiri said after her win. “It’s a long, long way.”
She was talking about her race. But she could just as well have been talking about how good women’s marathoning could get.
Talya Minsberg
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