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Mary Keitany was back where she'd rather be on Sunday at the New York Marathon, far ahead of everyone else. Keitany, a Kenyan Olympian, took off alone in the second half of the race and finished more than three minutes ahead of her rivals with a time of 2 hours 22 minutes 48 seconds. It was his fourth win here and the second fastest race ever made by a woman on this course.
This started generally enough. For the first half of the race, Keitany, 36, sits in a squad of about 24 women, including some of the most talented of this event. Keitany felt like being another jogger – but fast enough – as she headed in the early stages.
Once she reached Manhattan, however, there was a race to run.
Soon out of sight of her closest opponent, Keitany tore up the second half of the marathon in 1:06:58, a time that few women on the field had managed to reach. She was about nine minutes faster than her first half and she never hesitated to line up for the finish.
But now, Keitany is used to running like this. After all, she has the second fastest time of all women in the marathon, behind only Paula Radcliffe.
"Nothing was special today," she said afterwards. "I was just ready for the race."
Her expression was flippant, as if she could have returned to Staten Island and started all over again.
Manuela Schär of Switzerland won the women's wheelchair title for the second year in a row with a time of 1:50:27.
When Keitany is at the top of her game, she is notoriously difficult to touch. She is known to have taken off early in the race and challenged her rivals to follow her – which she did in 2014, 2015 and again in 2016. And then Sunday, while his pace was less than five minutes per mile, none of his rivals had an answer.
Among them, another Kenyan woman, Vivian Cheruiyot, 35, took second place in 2:26:02.
And then, there was a group of American women in pursuit, who collectively finished the best they had since 1978.
The Americans were led by defending champion Shalane Flanagan, 37, who took third place in 2:26:22.
Even though Flanagan did not retain his title, his satisfaction was just as great and his time – with ideal conditions of 46 degrees, calm and sunny – was better. Last year, as she approached victory in New York, breaking Keitany's winning streak, Flanagan screamed excesses in euphoria.
This year, his finish was just as moving. But this time she screamed at the crowds cheering, "I love you."
"I was just overwhelmed by emotions, in this stretch, like everyone else," Flanagan said. "It was like, yes, I love this community, I love the runners community and I love New Yorkers." I had an amazing time playing here. "
This may be Flanagan's last professional race. She used her impending retirement as a motivation to demonstrate how quickly she defeated Kekany last year and earned her a silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2008 Olympics.
While all hope of catching Keitany and reissuing his victory last year was wiping out Sunday, Flanagan came close to Rahma Tusa, of Ethiopia, who was erasing it in the last few miles, and is slender to secure a podium.
"As I run and feel sorry for myself, you need to find the motivation, the elements you can rally around and focus on," said Flanagan. "When Mary and a group of women dropped me, I did not stop saying," Keep fighting. "You never know what's going to happen to you, just go down. head, continue to work and fight for the podium. "
Flanagan's performance completed a medal collection of her appearances at the New York Marathon, adding a bronze medal to last year's gold and a silver medal in 2010.
It was an escape day for American distance runners in general. Four of them finished in the first seven; In comparison, the best American to finish in the men's race was Jared Ward, in sixth place. US Half Marathon record holder Molly Huddle was fourth behind Flanagan. Defending Boston marathon champion Desiree Linden was sixth. And Allie Kieffer, who, as unknown coach – unknown last year, finished fifth, took seventh place today behind Linden.
"The Americans are currently an excellent group of riders," Linden said.
She added, "We are constantly pushing the bar for each other. Now you can win a major year and not even be the best American in the next race, which is crazy. "
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