26.2 Parting Thoughts From The 2022 Boston Marathon

It was just so awesome being back in Boston for Marathon Monday in April. The vibes were high. The city was thriving. We had an absolute blast with our Boston Watch Party on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel as we watched the race and provided some alternate commentary and analysis live from the Brooks Hyperion House. We had 20,000+ viewers tune in live with us! Thanks to everyone who watched! Of course a major thanks to Brooks Running, Matt Weiss, Julie Culley, Carly Rebecchi and Benjamin Fleck for carving out the space to let our creativity flow.

If you missed it and you still have an itch for more Boston content, you can watch it all here for 3+ hours. Be sure to smash the subscribe button because we’re going to be doing more of these at the U.S. Championships and World Championships in Eugene, Oregon for the Summer of Hayward.

1. Peres Jepchirchir Is The Best Female Marathoner In The World

On the 50th anniversary of the Boston Marathon allowing women to race as official entrants, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir celebrated the occasion with a memorable race finish, winning a sprint finish down Boylston Street to beat out Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh. The final mile (click here to watch) saw some crazy lead-swapping that made us almost jump out of our seats while watching from the Brooks Hyperion House.

With the 2:21:01 win, Jepchirchir can now reasonably claim the title of best women’s marathoner in the world right now, as she became the first person in history to win an Olympic marathon gold, the New York City Marathon, and the Boston Marathon – all within nine months. 

2. Evans Chebet Makes It A Kenyan Podium Sweep

The seventh-fastest marathoner in history claimed his first major marathon title at 33 years old. He entered the race with the second-fastest personal best in the field and waited patiently as the pack whittled down before flexing his speed in the final 10K. He pulled away from the field coming down the hill at mile 22 by dropping a 4:27 mile, splitting 13:55 from 35K to 40K. Chebet’s winning time of 2:06:51 was the third-fastest winning time in Boston history.

3. Scott Fauble Earns Top American Honors Again

A few months ago, Scott Fauble made the tough decision to part ways with his sponsor Hoka, coach Ben Rosario and NAZ Elite. He moved to Colorado and started working with coach Joe Bosshard. After embracing a new training system, Fauble also bet on himself to try a new race tactic as well. It paid off. While a group of Americans that included Mick Iacofano, CJ Albertson and Elkanah Kibet followed the leaders at 2:06 pace, Fauble decided to stay back and run his own race with another group of Americans. The hot pace took its toll on some of the guys ahead of him and Fauble clawed his way back by running dead-even half marathon splits of 64:26 and 64:26. He overtook Kibet within the final mile to finish seventh overall in a personal best of 2:08:52.

That is the fastest men’s marathon performance by an American in Boston since Meb Keflezighi won the race in 2014. He now sits at No. 10 on the U.S. all-time list for all marathon performances. (Remember that Boston is not record-eligible. Bolded names are still active.)

1. Ryan Hall – 2:04:58

2. Khalid Khannouchi – 2:05:38

3. Galen Rupp – 2:06:07

4. Dathan Ritzenhein – 2:07:47

5. Leonard Korir – 2:07:56

6. Mbarak Hussein – 2:08:10

7. Meb Keflezighi – 2:08:37

8. Bob Kempainen – 2:08:47 

9. Alberto Salazar – 2:08:51

10. Scott Fauble – 2:08:52

Fauble will be back on The CITIUS MAG Podcast on Wednesday to talk about the race and all of the work that went into making this performance possible.

4. Nell Rojas Also Goes Back-To-Back As Top American

Rojas made a bit of news the day before the race when it was revealed that she was choosing to void her contract with Adidas (which she signed in January) to run in Nike’s Alphafly shoes. Rojas told Women’s Running, “I had to make a really tough decision to wear a shoe that works for my foot and that I’m confident in and I knew I could stand on any start line and be competitive.” 

She was the top American in Boston last October when he ran 2:27:12 for a personal best. She lowered it by more than a minute with a 2:25:57 for 10th place on Monday. She’s clearly establishing herself as one of the top women to watch ahead of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

5. Elkanah Kibet Should Get More Credit

Kibet ran a two-minute personal best of 2:09:07, which puts him at No. 15 on the U.S. all-time list. He hung tough for those final miles as most of the guys who went with that lead pack were going backward, holding on to join the sub-2:10 club. Kibet ran 2:11:31 in his debut marathon way back in 2015 and had not bettered that time until five months ago in New York, and now he’s run a new personal best in two straight major marathons. It will be exciting to see what he can put together representing the United States at the World Outdoor Championships marathon in Eugene.

6. Molly Seidel Makes The Smart Decision

Tons of eyes were on Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel running the Boston Marathon for the first time in her career so while I’m sure there were fans who were bummed not to see her after the 16-mile mark, she made the wise decision to drop out and prioritize her health.

She shared the following statement with the media: “I’ve been dealing with a hip impingement on and off through the build. It was feeling good the last few weeks and no indication that it would hurt today. I went out aggressively in the race but wasn’t able to hang with the leaders but tried to give it my best shot even though the hip started to lock up around halfway. By mile 16 I was in a good deal of pain and I had to make the difficult call to stop at a medical tent to avoid really damaging anything.”

She went on to write a bit more about the decision on Instagram on Tuesday morning. Her next marathon will also be the World Outdoor Championships in Eugene.

7. The Grit Tour Finale Gets A Good Show In Boston

HOKA NAZ Elite’s Stephanie Bruce ran the Boston Marathon for the final time as a pro and put together the second-best marathon of her career with a 12th place finish in 2:28:02, finishing as the second American.

8. Des Does Des

When I spoke with Des Linden earlier this month for an episode of The CITIUS MAG Podcast, she opened up about it wasn’t the perfect build-up but she was looking to put up a fight with the leaders in the middle of the race. A pack of women with sub-2:20 women taking off before the Newton hills made that hard but Linden stayed within her own race and placed 13th in 2:28:47 for her ninth Boston.

9. Edna Kiplagat Is Still Outrunning Father Time

At 42 years old, Edna Kiplagat came so close to recording her 14th World Marathon Major podium finish but just lost out to Mary Wacera Ngugi on Boylston Street and settled for fourth place. In the process, she lowered her own Masters world record from 2:25:09 to 2:21:40. Unfortunately, she was not named to the Kenyan team for the World Championships this summer but it’s safe to say that she’s not disappearing from the World Majors scene anytime soon if she’s continuing to be this competitive.

10. Wondering How Gabriel Geay Is Feeling

We didn’t know much about Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay heading into the race. He ran 2:04:55 in Milan last year but wasn’t much of a name on the World Major scene. He looked to make a name for himself by being the only person to go with Chebet’s big move after Heartbreak Hill. He faltered in the final miles and finished fourth in 2:07:53. I’m just wondering how his quads are feeling after accelerating from 5:16 to 4:27 and 4:26 between miles 21, 22 and 23. 

11. Geoffrey Kamworor Has A Tough Day At The Office

For most of the race, I thought we’d eventually see a big move from Kamworor considering his half marathon credentials and cross country prowess. He was with the leaders going up the Newton hills but did not cover Chebet’s big move and then tanked in the final miles. He shared the following on Instagram afterward: “Having a great training period leading up to the Boston Marathon I felt ready for a great result. Unfortunately, yesterday didn't bring the outcome I expected. Luckily, I have a great team around me with professionals from all different angles as colleague athletes as well. We will meet as a team and better days are ahead of us.”

12. Lawrence Cherono Gets Close Again

As I wrote in my preview, Cherono has fallen into a trend of being involved in close finishes. The men’s race wasn’t as close as the women’s sprint finish but you could see Cherono in the distance as Chebet was coming down Boylston Street. He ended up second in 2:07:21 – 30 seconds back of Chebet. 

13. CJ Albertson Plays With Fire

Right from the gun, we saw CJ Albertson make it an honest race by taking it out for the first mile. As we said on our broadcast, CJ wanted to make sure the pace didn’t lag and he would intermittently jump to the front of the race all throughout the first half. He came into this race having run a 26.2-mile split* (he was taken off course for a bit) of 2:10 during his 2:12 Modesto Marathon victory just three weeks ago. He proved he can run that in an actual race by clocking a personal best of 2:10:23 for 13th place. I continue to say that it would be fun to see someone like CJ go and run a race like Tokyo where it’s flat and we know he’ll have company to maybe get in that 2:06 range.

“My only chance to really win or be up there in the top is to kind of break some people,” he said after the race. “I had the mindset that I’m invincible, and you kind of have to run like that.”

14. Trevor Hofbauer Is Back

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Trevor Hofbauer. He earned top Canadian honors at the 2019 Toronto Marathon to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. That performance put him at No. 2 on the all-time Canadian list. After the pandemic hit, we didn’t see him race until he took 48th at the Tokyo Olympics in 2:19:57. He was on pace to break the Canadian record for much of the race but slowed toward the end and finished in a respectable 2:10:52 for 15th place overall.

15. Malindi Elmore Earns A World Championship Berth

It was so nice to see fellow Canadian Malindi Elmore put together yet another strong marathon at 42 years old. Last summer, she was ninth at the Tokyo Olympics, and on Monday she took 11th in Boston in 2:27:58. It’s the second-best marathon of her career. The Canadian record holder also hit the world championship standard for Eugene. I really enjoyed this story from The New York Times’ Scott Cacciola on Elmore and Natasha Wodak’s success in their 40s. Wodak finished 19th overall in 2:35:08.

16. Aisling Cuffe Puts Together A Good Debut

With such deep fields, Aisling Cuffe’s marathon debut was a bit overlooked. When she graduated from Stanford, she was a four-time NCAA All-American and had clocked the then-third-fastest 5000m time, but she’s battled injuries in recent years. The 2010 Footlocker cross country champion from Cornwall-on-Hudson is still going at it while in graduate school for physical therapy. She finished 22nd overall in 2:37:23, fading a bit after hitting halfway on 2:34 pace.

17. Charlotte Purdue Proves She’s A Contender

With no London Marathon this spring, the Boston Marathon attracted the top British marathoner for the first time in a while. Purdue, who ran 2:23:26 last fall to become the third-fastest British woman in marathon history, took ninth overall in 2:25:26. She has already been named to the British Athletics team for the upcoming World Outdoor Championships, which is a nice consolation after she was snubbed for Toyko and it provides a chance at redemption after she dropped out at the 2019 World Championships marathon in Doha.

18. Reed Fischer Gets A Well-Earned PR

Tinman Elite’s Reed Fischer has been working hard in Boulder with a deep focus on the marathon being his event. The excitement started when he ran 61:37 for the half marathon in Jan. 2020. He debuted at the Olympic Trials but fell and struggled to a  2:24:48. In his second attempt, he took 10 minutes off his time with a 2:14:41 in windy conditions in Chicago last fall. The third time was the charm, as he pulled off a 2:10:54 for 16th place overall – 5th American.

19. A Healthy Mick Iacofano Is Good

If you haven’t listened to Mick Iacofano’s appearance on the Run Your Mouth Podcast from 2020, you get to learn a bit more about the runner who had his hair up in space buns toward the front of the elite men’s race. Iacofano is an Ohio native who ran at Kentucky and then moved to Idaho where he works remotely for Tracksmith. He made a name for himself at The Marathon Project in 2020 when he ran a monster personal best of 2:09:55 – without the intention of running that fast. He tried going out with the leaders at 2:06 pace and ended up finishing 17th in 2:11:48. He dealt with a lot of injuries in recent years but he showed that when healthy, he can be a player among the top Americans.

20. Mary Ngugi Likes Boston

Mary Wacera Ngugi finished third in Boston in a new personal best for the second year in a row, this time knocking four minutes off her best time with a 2:21:32 finish. Ngugi and Kiplagat worked together for much of the second half of the race, letting the leaders take off early and running a more measured effort. Her second half of 71:12 was actually 8 seconds faster than the winner Jepchirchir’s.

21. The Home Team Has A Good Day

The Boston Athletic Association’s high-performance team, which often signs runners with a road and marathon focus, defended the home turf well, putting three runners in the top 10 Americans on the men’s side (top 25 overall). Led by Princeton graduate Matt McDonald, who set a personal best of 2:10:35, his teammates Jerrell Mock and Jonas Hampton notched a pair of 2:14s. Mock has battled injuries since his marathon debut in 2019, so it was particularly nice to see him out there on the course again.

22. Boston’s Beefed-Up Para Division Continues to Impress

In recent years, the Boston Marathon has made a concerted effort to increase the visibility and competitiveness of its para division athletes, and those efforts continue to pay off. The fastest para-athlete across all divisions was Australian Michael Roeger, a T46 runner who ran 2:25:42. You may have also spotted a familiar face on the course in retired pro Shalane Flanagan, who paced an athlete she coaches, Adrianne Haslet, to a 5:18:41 finish. Haslet lost a leg in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and has been working with Flanagan as a coach since December.

23. Who Is Ababel Yeshaneh?

With her second-place finish in Boston, Ababel Yeshaneh has now run four different marathon majors, and she’s run well at all of them: 6th in 2019 Tokyo, 2nd in 2019 Chicago, 3rd in 2021 New York, and now 2nd in 2022 Boston. In between, she briefly held the world record in the half marathon, running 64:31 at the RAK Half in 2020 (a mark that has been broken three times since), but she has mostly flown under the radar, as her marathon personal best is “only” 2:20:51. But if she can go kick-for-kick with a stud like Jepchirchir, she’ll definitely be one to watch moving forward.

24. Let’s Get These Runners Some Contracts

Several top Americans in the race, including both Scott Fauble and Nell Rojas, entered the race without a sponsor. In Fauble’s and Rojas’s cases, they made a voluntary choice to leave behind a professional shoe contract to prioritize changes that they believed would maximize performance. In a growing and changing pro running market, it’s become increasingly common that elites will forego a shoe sponsor for a variety of reasons, but it would also be nice to see a greater level of support for our nation’s best distance runners. Let’s get creative with some support from other companies outside of the apparel and shoe companies!

25. Stacked, Unpaced Races Are So Fun To Watch

Boston, unlike some other World Marathon Majors, does not employ pacers for the men’s and women’s elite fields, which can lead to slower finish times but more entertaining racing. Both races this year saw a number of entertaining moves in the first half of the race that kept things interesting, unlike a paced race where most of the racing doesn’t happen until the final miles. Looking forward to the World Championships in Eugene, which will feature many of the same major players as Boston 2022, it will be fun to watch the race dynamics play out in a thrilling, unpredictable way.

26. A World Record and A Good Cause

Philadelphia runner and full-time nurse Samantha Roecker is an accomplished marathoner, with a personal best of 2:29:59 from the 2020 Marathon Project and a 5th-place finish at the 2019 Pan American Games, but when she toed the starting line this year, she was doing things a bit differently. She declined to participate in the women’s elite field, starting in the first wave instead, and was wearing a pair of nursing scrubs for the race. She ran 2:48:11, breaking the unofficial world record for a marathon in scrubs by about 12 minutes, and she raised over $43,000 for the American Nurses Foundation’s mental health and wellbeing resources for health care workers.

.2 – This was just so awesome.

Get some tissues. Henry Richard, the older brother of 2013 Boston Marathon bombing victim Martin Richard, ran the marathon in memory of his brother. After the race, he said: "I know if (Martin) was here, either this year or the next coming years, he would have been doing it with me. So that's all I could think about.”

That’s it from me today. As always, thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, learned something new, or have any questions or commentary on anything featured in this issue, feel free to hit my inbox by replying or writing to [email protected]

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