2023 Chicago Marathon Preview
Two weeks ago, Berlin opened the marathon season in record-breaking style. Tomorrow, the Chicago Marathon will be looking to continue that trend with an exciting international field. The Windy City is set to temporarily renounce its titular hallmark, with the forecast promising cool, cloudy, and most surprisingly, still conditions for Sunday morning’s race.
Elite Women
Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s marathon world record in Berlin two weeks ago. Now, Chicago provides an opportunity to see if that dramatic 2:11:53 was an outlier or a sign of things to come.
The gauntlet has been laid for history to repeat itself. Last year in Berlin, Assefa set the fastest time in the world and the third fastest time in history. Just three months later, that time was relegated to only the third fastest of the year. One of the women who ran quicker was Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich, who did so at the 2022 edition of the Chicago Marathon and headlines this year’s elite women’s field.
Ruth Chepngetich wins the 2022 Chicago Marathon
(Photo Credit: Bank of America Chicago Marathon/Kevin Morris)
Bidding to become the first woman to claim three Chicago Marathon titles, Chepngetich comes into this race as the favourite, despite being in questionable form. Her most recent outing was over the half-marathon distance at a race in Buenos Aires in late August, where she finished third in 1:06:18. That being said, we know the 29-year-old is capable of running much faster: she clocked 1:05:44 for the first half of her Chicago Marathon 12 months ago (the fastest ever halfway split for a woman), before slowing in the second half to finish just 14 seconds outside the world record at the time. Nevertheless, she has requested a similar opening pace for this year’s race, and if she can maintain her composure over the closing stages, we may very well witness a historic performance.
However, this race need not be all about time. Chepngetich will face fierce competition from the likes of Joyciline Jepkosgei, two-time World Marathon Major champion and former world half marathon record holder, as well as Dutchwoman, Sifan Hassan, who remains an exciting, albeit relatively unknown, quantity over the distance.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Hassan has redefined the limits of what a professional runner can achieve. In what may well be her most audacious challenge yet, Hassan will take to the streets of Chicago just six weeks after completing an unprecedented treble over the 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships on the track, where she won two medals.
Sifan Hassan (R) and Faith Kipyegon (L) at the 2023 World Athletics Championships
(Photo credit: Getty Images for World Athletics)
Earlier this year, Hassan also won her debut marathon in London, despite fasting during Ramadan and stopping twice to stretch. She has a wealth of racing experience and is unlikely to be troubled by a quick early pace given her track pedigree.
However, even she must acknowledge her limits.
“The last two weeks I was really tired,” Hassan commented when asked about her preparation ahead of Chicago.
“I was tired mentally; I was tired physically…I’m curious what is going to happen.”
Elite Men
While there may be a close race for the title on the women’s side, the men’s race is unlikely to follow a similar storyline. Despite having just two marathons to his name, Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum will start this year’s Chicago Marathon as the overwhelming favourite, and it is hard to see anyone challenging the 23-year-old.
10 months ago, at the Valencia Marathon, the self-coached Kiptum burst onto the global marathon scene by running 2:01:53 to join Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele as the only men to have run under 2:02. Just four months later he ran even faster at the London Marathon, crossing the line in 2:01:25 to finish just 16 seconds shy of Kipchoge’s world record.
Chicago will be Kiptum’s third outing over the marathon distance, after declining an invitation to run for Team Kenya at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest in favour of continuing with his training.
“I have trained really well for Chicago, and I know that Chicago is fast, but I am just looking forward to testing the course. I trust myself and my target is to just run a good race and run under the course record,” explained Kiptum.
The course record in question was set by Dennis Kimetto in 2013 and stands at 2:03:45 – almost two minutes slower than Kiptum’s slowest marathon performance. Despite his insistence that he is not targeting the world record this time around, the running community has largely ignored him, with many expecting he will run close to, if not faster than, Kipchoge’s world record of 2:01:09.
That is not to say he will not actively target that mark in the future.
“When I have trained well, and I am healthy, I can run 2:00. The world record is not in the plan for now, but in the future, I know I can run 2:00 or something like that,” he told Olympics.com.
While it is likely that the prodigious talent will claim his third marathon victory in Chicago tomorrow, if he is to falter, there are plenty of athletes lining up to take the title. Defending champion Benson Kipruto is returning to the Windy City, and European record holder and Olympic and World Championship medallist, Bashir Abdi, will also be on the start line.
However, just as Hassan could cause an upset as a wild card on the women’s side, Kiptum’s most monumental threat could come in the form of Brazilian, Daniel Do Nascimento. While Do Nascimento has only broken 2:06 once (in a performance that made him the fastest-ever marathon runner born outside of Africa), it is his run at the 2022 New York Marathon, where he failed to finish, that is his most intriguing. On a course not conducive to fast times, the Brazilian opened the first half of his race in 61 minutes to separate himself from his closest competitor by more than two minutes and place himself within striking distance of the world record. While he eventually collapsed less than 10km from the finish, his performance showed he is capable of pushing himself at an exceptionally quick pace. Kiptum and Do Nascimento have also been seen training together in Kenya, and the pair could pose an unbreachable double threat if they decide to work together.
The NN Running Team has published a list detailing how you can watch the Chicago Marathon from wherever you are in the world.