2024 Boston Marathon Preview: Evans Chebet, Hellen Obiri And The Top Athletes, Storylines To Watch

By David Melly

The biggest and best weekend of marathoning in the U.S. is finally here! With sincere apologies to the New Yorkers and Chicagoans, nothing can quite compare to the storied legacy of the Boston Marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world: now in its 128th edition.

As we speak, 30,000 runners of all backgrounds are flocking to Beantown to race from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, covering 26.2 epic miles lined with cheering fans from start to finish. Only a lucky few will don the traditional laurel wreath crown of the champion at the end of the race, and even with many athletes’ preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics already underway, the competition is going to be fierce.

After the success of the CITIUS Cafe down in Orlando, we’re back partnering with HOKA to bring you an awesome weekend of events and coverage for all the marathon fans both coming to town and watching from home. We’ll be posted up all weekend right by the finish line at Marathon Sports – located at 344 Newbury Street. Join us for a Friday shakeout run, CITIUS MAG LIVE preview show on Saturday, tell us your Boston story on Sunday and watch along with our free alternate broadcast commentary on Monday morning.

Learn more and RSVP to all our weekend events here.

Schedule: All the Marathon Monday action gets underway on April 15th with pro races beginning at 9 a.m. The professional men’s field starts at 9:37 am E.T. and the pro women at 9:47 am E.T. A full listing of waves and start times can be found here.

Results: Live results and tracking of your favorite runners can be found online and on the BAA Racing app. When the race is live, you should also be able to get mile-by-mile splits of the leaders here.

How to watch: Locally, the race will be viewable live on TV or online at WCVB-5. If you’re not in Massachusetts, the race will be shown live on ESPN2 with coverage beginning at 8:30 am E.T.

The Course

Famously, the Boston Marathon might have the hardest net-downhill point-to-point course in the game.

A steep downhill first mile out of Hopkinton leads into a series of rolling descents through Ashland, before a few relatively flat miles and small uphills in Framingham and Natick. Runners then enter the “scream tunnel” outside Wellesley College, where, they’ll get treated to a nice three-mile descent into Newton – just enough to lure you into a false sense of security to let the pace get hot a little too soon.

After pounding your quads into submission for 16 miles, the Newton hills arrive. Four miles of rolling climbs culminating in the historic “Heartbreak Hill” at mile 20, a series of well-placed hurdles that seem to be designed to derail race plans. As you pass Boston College and tumble back downhill into Brookline, you think you’re done with climbing, but even the smallest inclines through Brookline can be brutal once you’re 23 miles deep. Boston’s Kenmore Square lets runners know they have a mile to go with the famous flashing triangle of the Citgo sign, and then it’s two key turns: right on Hereford, left on Boylston, before the final flat kilometer of racing toward Copley Square.

You can find more information about the course here.

The Weather

There’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news? It looks like this year, the forecast predicts something of a tailwind for runners traveling west to east from Hopkinton to Boston. Currently, Monday is expected to have a 10-15mph wind out of the northwest, which may feel more like a cross breeze at points, but the days immediately before and after the race also feature westerly winds. Barring a major change in weather patterns, some level of tailwind is likely.

It will, however, be pretty warm for ideal racing conditions. As of the Thursday before the race, Monday’s forecasted high is a still-balmy 66 degrees Fahrenheit – hey, earlier in the week forecasts called for 75 degrees or warmer! If the cooler trend continues, much of the race (especially for the pro fields) will be run in 55-60 degree weather, which is quite conducive to running fast. However, if the temperature ticks slightly warmer, things could get sticky and slow – particularly for those who haven’t been training all winter in African heat.

Men’s Preview: Evans Chebet Goes For The Threepeat

Maybe Athletics Kenya knows something we don’t, but the team at CITIUS MAG is generally of the consensus that it’s crazy that 2x defending Boston champ Evans Chebet is not on his nation’s shortlist for Olympic marathon selection. Chebet did most recently withdraw from the 2023 NYC Marathon, but his record in the two years before that is spotless: 2022 and 2023 wins in Boston plus a W in New York in 2022 to boot. Throw in a 2:03:00 personal best from Valencia in 2020 and the fact that Chebet has shown that championship-style racing on tough courses is his forte, and it seems like a no-brainer that, if healthy, he’s one of Kenya’s best chances at gold in Paris.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, Chebet has the opportunity to win his third straight Boston Marathon title, a rare feat in the modern era of road racing. Robert Kipkoech won four times, including three straight from 2006-2008, but over the last decade no one not named Eliud Kipchoge has shown that level of consistent dominance at any marathon major. A third victory here would solidify Chebet’s claim as not just an Olympic favorite, but one of the all-time great marathoners. To threepeat, however, he has to take down five other sub-2:05 runners, including 2023 Valencia champion Sisay Lemma, the fourth fastest man in history at 2:01:48, and Tanzanian Gabriel Gaey, last year’s runner-up who also sports a 2:03:00 PB.

International fans will be excited to see what Japanese superstar Suguru Osako (2:05:29 PB) and European record holder Sondre Moen (2:05:48) can do against this field, and whether they or someone like 2024 Houston champ Zouhair Talbi can contend for a podium finish. Another name to watch is Albert Korir, last year’s fourth-placer who won the NYC Marathon in 2021 and, despite “only” having a 2:06:57 personal best, always seems to be in the mix in major races.

The battle for top American will include sub-2:09 man Sam Chelanga, Olympic Trials fourth-placer Elkanah Kibet, and perennial Boston wildcard CJ Albertson. Albertson, the self-fashioned “best downhill runner in the world,” rose to widespread fame with his epic 2021 effort, leading Boston through 20 miles before being swallowed up late in the race. After a disappointing Olympic Marathon Trials experience, he’ll be racing with an extra chip on his shoulder. And don’t count out the “new dad strength” of Matt McDonald, who finished 10th in Boston last year and whose wife and teammate Maegan Krifchin gave birth to their son Mason in March.

Women’s Preview: Hellen Obiri Takes On A Stacked Field

Few women in history have the resume or the range of defending Boston champ Hellen Obiri. The Colorado-based Kenyan has a personal best of 3:57.05 in the 1500m, 14:18.37 in the 5000m, and 64:22 in the half marathon, plus two Olympic medals, four World Championship medals (two gold) on the track, and a World XC title. And that was all before she moved to the roads full-time, where in three marathons she’s finished sixth (NYC in 2022), first (Boston last spring), and then first (NYC last fall), outkicking one of the greatest women’s fields ever assembled. In an era where women’s marathoning is faster and deeper than ever before, Obiri is quickly making a name for herself as one of the best of the best.

But if you’re going by personal best alone, Obiri is only the 16th(!) fastest entrant in the race. That’s largely a misleading stat as Obiri has never run a flat, fast marathon course and her 2:21:38 PB from Boston last year is surely worth a 2:18 or faster on a course like Chicago or Valencia, but it nevertheless speaks to the talent of the field the BAA has assembled to challenge her. The fastest entrant is Ethiopian Tadu Teshome at 2:17:36 (Valencia 2022), but in three marathons last year Teshome never finished higher than fifth. Similarly, her compatriot Hiwot Gebremaryam ran 2:17:59 in Valencia last year, but only finished third in that race and eighth in Boston. Looking through the entry lists, there are only two sub-2:20 women who’ve won a marathon in the last year, and they’re two of the most likely to give Obiri a strong challenge. Workenesh Edesa is coming off a victory and personal best in the Osaka Marathon in January and recorded two top-10 finishes at World majors and a victory at the Prague Marathon in 2023. Mesiret Belete is not yet a household name, but she may soon be: last year she went two-for-two in marathon wins at Amsterdam and Doha and improved her personal best from 2:23:14 to 2:18:21 in two races.

If the race is tactical or top contenders set out at a foolishly fast pace, don’t count out Boston stalwarts Edna Kiplagat and Mary Ngugi-Cooper, as they’ve gotten accustomed to picking apart the field late to finish on the podium in World Marathon Majors. Kiplagat, at 44 years young, is one of two former Boston champs competing for the top masters title alongside 2018 champ Des Linden.

The American battle will feature a slew of comeback stories as Emma Bates returns to racing after withdrawing from the Olympic Marathon Trials with a plantar injury and the fifth and sixth placers from Orlando are back in action after failing to make the team. Sara Hall has been no stranger to racing frequently in the past, but after battling injuries on-and-off in the last two seasons she’s back to improve on her 17th-place finish from Boston 2023 just 10 weeks after her last marathon. And 2015 Boston Marathon champ Caroline Rotich, who quietly transferred allegiance from Kenya to the U.S. last fall, surprised many by mixing it up with the leaders late into the Trials race at age 39 after a few “down” years of racing. She’ll be toeing the line in Hopkinton reinvigorated from that performance and looking to return to the top 10.

More Marathon Weekend Racing: BAA 5k and Mile

With all the excitement around Marathon Monday, it’s easy to forget that two other big pro races take place in Boston this weekend: the BAA 5k and the Invitational Mile. On Saturday, April 13th, the middle distance elite (and 10,000 or so of their friends) will warm up the roads for the marathoners, first with the out-and-back 5k kicking off at 8:00 am E.T. from Boston Common and then with three laps around the block in Back Bay at 11:20 am E.T. (for the pros), finishing across the marathon finish line.

Last year’s mile races were early signs of big things to come for their champions, as Krissy Gear would go on to make the World team in the steeplechase and Hobbs Kessler picked up a World indoor medal this winter in the 1500m. Gear is back to defend her title against the likes of Helen Schlachtenhaufen and Taryn Rawlings, but Kessler is not, leaving the men’s field wide open. Casey Comber and AJ Ernst are both coming off big PBs from the indoor season and will want to keep their momentum going into outdoor, but they’ll have to take on World U20 champion Melkeneh Azize and his 3:33.74 1500m PB.

In the 5k (which has been rebranded from “BAA 5k” to “Boston 5k”), steeplechase specialist Getnet Wale of Ethiopia takes on Americans Cooper Teare and Drew Hunter, as well as Very Nice Track Club’s Ben Flanagan and Dark Sky’s Edwin Kurgat. Kurgat, coming off a 12:57.52 PB indoors, is trending in the right direction at the right time, but the beauty of the April road 5k is that it’s hard to know who will show up in peak fitness.

In the women’s race, road warrior Emily Durgin, fresh off a strong performance at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler, will take on track stars Rachel Smith, Taylor Werner, and Vanessa Fraser, as well as a strong local contingent led by BAA’s Annie Rodenfels and two Kenyan NCAA champs in Everlyn Kemboi and Mercy Chelangat.

Molly Huddle’s American 5km record of 14:50 was set at this race in 2015, and Ben True’s former American record of 13:22 was set in the same race, so it’s not out of the question that, with a stacked field and a hot early pace, we’ll see some history in the making before the marathon even kicks off. You can follow along with live results from both races on the BAA Racing App and with us on social media.

Thanks for reading! If you can’t make it to the CITIUS CAFE in Boston this weekend, follow along with us virtually for all the action on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.