Top Storylines To Watch At The 2024 New York City Marathon

By David Melly and Preet Majithia

The final World Marathon Major of 2024 is almost here! In a banner year for road running, it’s hard to imagine how anything could top the Olympics, a historic Chicago, or even the early thrills of the U.S. Trials, but NYC has assembled a field full of living legends, rising stars, and fascinating narratives primed to end the year on a high note.

Three 2024 Olympic medalists are hitting the five boroughs: Olympic champion Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, silver medalist Bashir Abdi of Belgium, and bronze medalist Hellen Obiri of Kenya. Obiri and Tola also happen to be the reigning NYC champions, and Obiri will be trying to win the Boston-New York double for the second straight year. Five other former NYC champions are in the mix (three men and two women), plus a pair of stacked U.S. fields vying to produce top-10 overall finishes… or even higher.

The race kicks off on Sunday, November 3rd with the women’s race starting at 8:35am E.T. and the men following at 9:05am E.T. (Don’t forget to set your clock back an hour the night before!) The race will be streamed nationally on ESPN and locally on ABC (more info here), and live results can be found here.

After tremendous success in Orlando and Boston, we’re back with more events to celebrate the best day in the best city. In addition to our live podcasts and interviews, we’ll be collaborating on group runs and events throughout the weekend. You can find the details and full list of events here. Our on-site CITIUS crew of Chris Chavez, Aisha Praught-Leer, Eric Jenkins, and Mac Fleet will be hosting an alternate watchalong on marathon morning for live reactions, insights, and analysis. The details on CITIUS MAG’s coverage can be found here.

If you’ll be in NYC, catch us at the HOKA 5th Avenue Flagship store at 579 5th Ave, New York, NY 10017 starting on Thursday, Oct. 31st.

Tamirat Tola Rides Into New York On A High Note

Tamirat Tola comes in as Olympic champion as well as defending NYC champion, so he is surely the hot favorite to defend his title. His impressive ability to pull away from hugely talented fields over the second half of big races would appear to give him the edge over his competitors. The only note of caution is his tendency to mysteriously DNF when things are not going his way, as was the case in London earlier this year where he and some fellow runners seemed to disappear a few miles from the finish, and also deep into the World Championships in Budapest in 2023, where he made it over 23 miles in medal contention.

Unpaced, championship style racing tends to favor Tola: while he’s run sub-2:05 five times and has a 2:03:39 personal best, his three big wins in the last three years have all come in races without rabbits. And knowing how to run NYC seems to be a particular advantage, as 16 athletes (eight men and eight women) have won multiple titles in the event’s 52-year history. 

Evans Chebet Returns With Something To Prove

Only a year ago, it was a point of legitimate debate whether Evans Chebet had supplanted his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge as the best marathoner in the world. The then-34-year-old Chebet had won three straight major marathons (Boston ‘22, NYC ‘22, and Boston ‘23) and his 2:05:54 winning time in 2023 was the fastest since the legendary 2011 tailwind year. But then Chebet had to pull out of NYC last year with an injury, didn’t get selected for the Kenyan Olympic team, and “only” managed a third place finish in his third Boston run.

So the question now for Chebet is this: was his run in Boston this spring hamstrung by the lingering effects of missed training, or has he lost the lightning in a bottle he captured in 2022? This weekend should provide some clarity.

Potential Spoilers In The Mix

Two other former champions are toeing the line on Sunday: Geoffrey Kamworor (2017 and 2019) and Albert Korir (2021 champ). Korir is particularly consistent on this course as he’s finished 2nd, 1st, 7th, and 2nd in four appearances, so he’s a pretty good bet for the podium, if not the win. It’s easy to forget Kamworor is still only 31 years old, since he was such a formidable presence in the half marathon and cross country over most of the 2010s, and his runner-up finish in Tokyo last year was his best run since the 2020 motorcycle accident that briefly derailed his career. But Kamworor has not raced at all this year outside of a fourth place run at the Kenyan XC champs back in March, so he’s a huge question mark.

Former training partners Bashir Abdi and Abdi Nageeye are reliable competitors in championship settings (both have an Olympic silver medal, and Nageeye has three top-five finishes in NYC). Nageeye dropped out of the Olympic marathon, whereas Abdi finished second, but it’s possible that just means the Dutchman is less beat up from the race and enters the five boroughs in fresher form. And among the handful of 2:08 entrants in the race, one intriguing name is Brit Callum Hawkins, who’s only finished one marathon since the Tokyo Olympics (a disappointing 16th place run in London this spring). He’s an unlikely threat to win or even podium, but a top-10 finish could signal a promising upward trend for the 32-year-old. 

Another Friendly Battle For Top American

CJ Albertson is looking to become the top American at each of the three major marathons in the US this year, having already bagged top honors at Boston and Chicago. He’s coming off a newly-minted personal best of 2:08.17 in Chicago only three weeks ago, which usually means another strong effort is not in the cards, but if there’s one thing Albertson has proven over his career, it’s that conventional wisdom doesn’t seem to apply to the eccentric Brooks athlete. Last fall, he clocked back-to-back 2:11 victories at CIM and the Baja California Marathon only seven days apart, so count him out at your own peril.

In all likelihood, however, the battle for top American will once again come down to Clayton Young vs. Conner Mantz, both coming off top ten finishes at the Olympics. The training partners and friends have documented the buildup on Young’s Youtube docuseries and have to be thinking that, even in a stacked international field, a podium finish is not totally out of reach. Their intrasquad battle will also be fun to watch, as Young fans will surely be hoping he can finally turn the tables on his teammate.

Can Hellen Obiri Stay On Top?

Hellen Obiri can cement herself in the pantheon of the all-time greatest championship marathoners with a successful defense of her NYC title. After becoming the first woman in 34 years to win both Boston and NYC in the same year, she lines up looking to repeat the feat following her Boston win in April. In between, she won an Olympic bronze medal off of only six weeks of running following a stress reaction during her Olympic build. A recent workout video shows her looking in peak shape ahead of NYC, and erstwhile training partner Joe Klecker claims she is in 2:08 shape (which seems a lot less crazy after Chicago). She has not yet gone after any fast courses and enters with only the eighth fastest PB in the field, but her strategy of focusing on championship style races is undoubtedly paying dividends as she stacks up major marathon titles.

Sheila Chepkirui enters with the top seed at 2:17:29, but she’s never won a major marathon and only finished sixth in London this past spring. Similarly, Ethiopian Senberi Teferi has been a master of the road 10km over the course of her career, but hasn’t yet found a way to win over 26.2 miles, finishing fifth at Boston this year and Berlin last fall. A shiny fast PB is nice to bring to a starting line, but it only tells a small part of the story when it comes to potential on a course like NYC.

Sharon Lokedi Looks To Grow Her Already-Impressive Resume

Sharon Lokedi has been churning out strong marathon results since she first tackled the distance, with a podium finish in each of her first three marathon majors, most notably including her explosion onto the scene with victory in NYC in 2022. She backed that up with an impressive fourth place at the Olympics in perhaps the most stacked field in history, and was not far behind Hellen Obiri in the kick for that bronze medal, which gives her hope that if it comes down to a kick again, the result is no longer a foregone conclusion.

A Reunion of All-Time Greats

It feels like 2008 again as Vivian Cheriuyot and Tirunesh Dibaba get ready to duke it out once more. The pair have shared many memorable battles on the track and XC over the years, since first racing each other at World junior XC in 2001, and going on to combine for 13 track gold medals over 5,000m and 10,000m. While this could simply be a fun epilogue tacked onto already storied careers – a la Bekele vs. Kipchoge at the Olympics – Dibaba and Cheruiyot enter with the #2 and #3 personal bests in the field. But Dibaba last lined up for a marathon in 2018, and Cheruiyot only mustered a 2:21.46 showing at the Paris Marathon in April. Meanwhile, the evergreen Edna Kiplagat also returns, having shown she still remains competitive at the age of 44 with her third palace finish in Boston earlier this year.

An Intriguing Battle For Top American

The newly married Dakotah Popehn (née Lindwurm) is looking to back up her successful twelfth place finish at Olympics with another excellent showing here, and it would be absolutely no surprise if she took top American honors once again. Popehn has yet to crack the top ten in a World Marathon Major, but with a 12th place in Chicago last fall and a 14th place in Boston ‘22, she’s knocking on the door. Jessica McClain has also had a banner year, starting with her surprise fourth place finish at the Olympic Marathon Trials, which she backed up with a hugely impressive but simultaneously heartbreaking fourth place in the 10,000m at the Olympic Trials. Now running her first major marathon, she’s one of the few high end racers who could clock a personal best in New York – she ran 2:25:46 in Orlando but has immense potential.

Aliphine Tuliamuk’s last completed marathon was Boston in early 2023 and she has since been plagued by injury issues. But it’s worth noting that when she finished 7th in NYC in 2022, it was off an abbreviated buildup. Tuliamuk and training partner Kellyn Taylor started the year with an Olympic Trials to forget, but as both have logged strong runs on the NYC course in the past, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them in the mix.

Others who would be a slightly longer shot for top American but are fun to consider nevertheless include 41-year-old Des Linden and four-time 1500m medalist Jenny Simpson, who has dipped her toes into the marathoning world but hasn’t quite yet mastered the event, dropping out of Trials and finishing 16th in Boston. Both women have proven themselves to be gritty racers, and if cheering alone can move you up a few places, their large fan bases will be a huge asset.

Two National Titles On Tap For The Abbott 5k

As has become tradition, the Saturday before NYC features the USATF road 5km national championship as part of the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K. With a $12,000 first prize, it does tend to attract a strong mix of road warriors and track stars battling it out head-to-head, but its awkward placement following the end of the track season usually means no one is heading into the weekend particularly sharp.

On the men’s side, it’s funny to see 1500m specialist Josh Thompson and 2:08 marathoner Sam Chelanga on the same start list. But it’ll probably be the 5km specialists who steal the show on this one, and Morgan Beadlescomb of Very Nice Track Club has shown a particular propensity for winning short road races. He’s the reigning champ here and also won the 2024 BAA 5k.

In the women’s race, reigning champ Annie Rodenfels will have to fend off the track speed of runners like Elly Henes and Taylor Werner, while Natosha Rogers may just have the perfect mix of both to beat them all. The women’s race has seen more early breakaways than the men’s in recent years, but there’s only so far ahead you can get in three short miles.

You can follow along with that race here.

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