This weekend’s New York City Marathon was anything but normal. As the gun went off at 8:40 a.m. on Sunday morning, the Staten Island thermostats clocked in at a toasty 70 degrees, by far the warmest it has ever been for this early November marathon. Despite this temperature setting a record high, this may have been one of the most negligible of this weekend’s anomalies.
The elite women got off to a routine start. Clicking off 5:20-5:30 miles, the front pack consisted primarily of East- African and American contingents. American Des Linden injected an early move just before halfway but was quickly reabsorbed by the front pack. Leading was the East-African born trio of Hellen Obiri, Sharon Lokedi and Lona Salpeter, with both Obiri and Lokedi having never raced a marathon before. Accompanying this big three was a deep peloton of Americans, which headlined former American record holder Kiera D’Amato, 2018 Boston Marathon Champion and two-time Olympian Des Linden and 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials champion Aliphine Tuliamuk.
Despite never contesting the marathon distance before, Obiri was widely considered the favorite. Prior to this Sunday, Obiri was already considered one of the greatest female distance runners of all time from her outstanding track career. She boasts accolades such as World Cross Country Champion, back-to-back World Champion over 5,000m, back-to-back Olympic silver medalist over 5,000m as well as several other major medals.
However, once they crossed mile 22, Obiri began to fade behind Lokedi and Salpeter to ultimately finish sixth. The remaining two then battled together all the way to mile 25, until Lokedi found another gear and surged away from Salpeter as she turned into Central Park. Lokedi ultimately upset the loaded field behind her, and took the victory in her first ever marathon, crossing in 2:23:23, less than a minute off the course record. Less than three minutes later, Aliphine Tuliamuk finished as top American woman in 2:26:18, a personal best time in her first marathon following the birth of her child in January of 2021.
As for the men, the race up front could not have played out anymore differently. From the gun, 24-year-old Brazilian Daniel Do Nascimento set a suicidal pace. Despite his youth, Do Nascimento boasts a blazing personal best of 2:04:51, the fastest marathon result from a non-African born runner ever.
Following Do Nascimento was a loaded chase pack, clipping away a more responsible 4:50-5:00 mile pace. This pack notably included this year’s Boston Marathon champion Evans Chebet, 2020 Tokyo silver medalist Abdi Nageeye and 2020 London Marathon champion Shura Kitata. In addition, arguably the strongest American contingent in recent history was assembled as it included five Americans with personal bests faster than 2:09:00. This includes the likes of 2018 Chicago Marathon Champion Galen Rupp, five-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman and two-time Boston Marathon top American Scott Fauble, who remained unsponsored and without a professional running contract until 11 p.m. the night before after signing with Nike.
After establishing a two-minute lead from the chase pack, Do Nascimento crossed the half marathon split in 1:01:22, the fastest first half split in race history. However, shortly after, the balmy conditions and the undulating hills of the course formed a beast that Do Nascimento began to struggle to conquer. His mechanics appeared to slip away and at mile 18, took an unprecedented stop at a port-potty. This cut his two- minute lead in half but continued to clip away. Several minutes later, he start- ed to wobble and within the minute, collapsed next to a barrier where he immediately received medical attention.
Almost immediately after Do Nascimento’s collapse, Evans Chebet surged through the commotion as the new leader. Prior to his lead, Chebet had surged away from the chase pack early to begin chipping away at do Nascimento’s two- minute lead. In doing so, this pack strung out and ultimately proved to be too herculean of a task. Americans Galen Rupp, who recently has struggled with a herniated disk as well as Shadrack Kipchirchir, who was making his marathon debut both dropped out around mile 20.
Despite establishing himself as the new leader, Chebet’s lead was slowly shrinking to second place Shura Kitata, who condensed it from 40 to 17 seconds in the closing miles. However, the gap to Chebet proved to be insurmountable as he broke the tape in 2:08:41, with Kitata crossing shortly after. Avenging the pair of American DNF’s from Rupp and Kipchirchir was Scott Fauble, who, by finishing ninth in 2:13:35, cements himself as the top American. This is now his third top-American title at a major marathon following his top finishes in the 2019 and 2022 Boston Marathons.
While the results of this year’s New York City marathon were unexpected at the bare minimum, it was far from underwhelming. One of many reasons why New York retains its status as one of the top marathon majors is its unpredictability. From the difficult course and lack of professional pacemakers to guide the elite fields to desired times, this race is always open for any runner, regardless of their resume, to make their own moves and toy with the rest of the field.
New York concludes the Marathon Majors circuit for 2022 and will resume on March 8, 2023, in Tokyo.