2023 Boston Marathon Recap
The third Monday in April can mean only one thing for endurance sports: the Boston Marathon. On the tenth anniversary of the bombings, more than 30,000 athletes toed the starting line in Hopkinton with a trip towards glory in Copley Square in downtown Boston. Along the way they'd face cooler than average temperatures, rain ranging from a mild drizzle to a full downpour, and winds that began to kick up as the day progressed.
The first athletes to take to the streets were the wheelchair divisions. Marcel Hug of Switzerland put forth a dominating performance from the opening miles, with a final margin of victory of over ten minutes. Hug set a new course record on the day, finishing in 1:17:06 to claim his sixth victory in Boston and the fourth time that he lowered the course record. Daniel Romanchuk of the United States took second in 1:27:45, and Jetze Plat of the Netherlands rounded out the podium in 1:28:35.
In the women's wheelchair division, Susannah Scaroni of the United States did not have such an easy time, but would eventually claim the Boston crown in 1:41:45. Scaroni noted that from miles 20 to 23 that she was having difficulty with her chair and would eventually stop to tighten the right wheel. She said in her post-race interview that she had learned from past experience with mechanical issues and brought an Allen key with her.
Australia's Madison de Rosario came second, narrowly edging Wakako Tsuchida of Japan by nine seconds.
The men's race seemed to blow up way earlier than the women’s race this year. The rain started falling on the field about 30 mins in and at the halfway point (1:02 on the race clock), pre-race favorite Eliud Kipchoge seemed to tell everyone to “Get together” and by that time the lead group was down to 10 men.
By mile 16, the relentless pace had whittled the group down to 7 men.
Around mile 19, Gabriel Geay started to make a move, and as Boston tends to do to first-timers on this course, Kipchoge started to fade from the front. At mile 21 the group truly splintered, leaving four to battle for victory: Evans Chebet, Benson Kipruto, Albert Korir, and Geay. As the men turned onto Beacon Street at mile 23, it was Korir who would fall off. And then along Beacon Street, it seemed like it would be a two man battle between Geay and Chebet. Yet Kipruto tried to claw his way back into contention.
Chebet made his decisive move near Kenmore Square, and in turn defended his Boston Marathon title in convincing fashion. Geay would finish second, Kipruto third. Kipchoge would finish seventh in his Boston debut, another poor for him performance in the rain (along with London 2018). Two Americans finished in the top 11, led by Scott Fauble in eighth.
Evans Chebet (KEN) 2:05:54
Gabriel Geay (TAN) 2:06:04
Benson Kipruto (KEN) 2:06:06
Albert Korir (KEN)2:08:01
Zouhair Talbi (MAR) 2:08:35
Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2:09:23
Scott Fauble (USA) 2:09:44
Hassan Chahdi (FRA) 2:09:46
John Korir (KEN) 2:10:04
Matthew McDonald (USA) 2:10:17
The women’s race had a much deeper pack than the men’s race, with a huge group that stayed together through the opening 16 miles. As they approached the Newton hills the group still had 13 women strong with American Emma Bates taking her pulls at the front.
Through the first of the hills and the group was down to 11. With another mile passing and the group now down to 10 and Bates was leading the group like a boss. Admittedly, it had me turning into a couch quarterback wondering why she wasn’t settling into the pack a bit more to save some of the energy.
With four miles left to run the lead pack was down to 6 runners and I was saying, "Let's f***ing go Bates!"
And then Ababel Yeshaneh tripped and fell — but immediately got back up and running and surged. What if she won off of that?
Bates, meanwhile, was the casualty of that pacing surge, falling slightly off the back of the group and settled into fifth place (where she would eventually finish).
The final four running along Beacon Street were Lonah Saltpeter, Hellen Obiri, Amane Beriso and Ababel Yeshaneh.
Obiri and Beriso made their moves to splinter the group, and then Obiri went for it about mile 25 and would prove to be unstoppable at that point.
Hellen Obiri (KEN) 2:21:38
Amane Beriso (ETH) 2:21:50
Lonah Saltpeter (ISR) 2:21:57
Ababel Yeshaneh (ETH) 2:22:00
Emma Bates (USA) 2:22:10
Narzet Weldu (ERI) 2:23:25
Angela Tanui (KEN) 2:24:12
Hiwot Gebremareyam (ETH) 2:24:30
Mary Ngugi (KEN) 2:24:33
Gotytom Gebreslase 2:24:34
Final Notes:
–What a rad Monday watching the race online. It’s always exciting to watch and get inspiration from not only the best in the world but the other 30,000 or so runners making their way to finish on Boylston Street.
–Some personal shout outs to American super star runner Sara Hall for taking the Masters champion title in a time of 2:25:48 (she was 4th overall American with that time too. Maybe you shouldn’t have retired so soon…)
–Triathlon pro and Ironman Foundation athlete Sika Henry ran in Honor of one her childhood heroes Marilyn Bevan’s who was the first Black women to break 3 hours in the marathon.
–Of course I was sad to see person friend Des Linden not have a great day at Boston but like everything she does in life. She will be pressing forward to help grow the sport and rock life. Des looking forward to having you on the podcast soon…
Takeaways from the live broadcast:
–How nice was it to not have the commenters give us 1000 sponsorship call outs during the live stream? (Your move, Ironman.) Some good logo graphics and a couple of good commercials. Zero product call outs. (At least I didn’t hear any of them on the ESPN stream.)
–Getting equal women’s race coverage is still a challenge and unless they start having their own race or return to putting the women's race before the men's, I'm not sure how and when that will change. I think they did a really good job splitting up the coverage but like all races things get pretty tight towards the end and it’s usually whoever starts second, which is usually the women, that get hosed when things really starting to heat up towards the end of the first race.
All images courtesy of the B.A.A.
