2025 Boston Marathon Preview
What a tough life it must be, sharing a race week with the biggest budget in the marathon world.
On Monday, April 21st, the 129th edition of the Boston Marathon will trace its way from Hopkinton to Boston. Unfortunately for the race organisers, the event could be overshadowed by their younger sibling: the London Marathon will take place just six days later and, with the help of the deepest pockets in the distance running world, has convinced many of the sport’s top athletes to snub New England in favour of regular England.
Nevertheless, the prestige that comes with winning the world’s oldest annual marathon and the great equaliser that is the rolling hills of the course have tempted a handful of the best, including last year’s winners Hellen Obiri and Sisay Lemma.
Elite Women
Amane Beriso
Amane Beriso, reigning Marathon World Champion and the fifth-fastest woman of all time, has never won a World Marathon Major. The Ethiopian’s highest placing in such an event came two years ago when she finished runner-up in this race; next month, she will hope to change that fact.
If you take a moment to view Beriso’s entire career, you will see a relentlessly satisfying march towards consistency and mastery of a single event. In 2016, she was 12th in Boston on debut, and the following year had more DNFs than race finishes. She had to grind through three more years of work to finally be rewarded with her first international marathon win in 2020, although any hopes of riding that momentum into the following season were dashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The world was not the same after it emerged from the global lockdowns in 2022, and neither was Beriso. She went unbeaten that year, her crowning moment coming when she won the Valencia Marathon in what was then the third-fastest marathon in history. In 2023, she won the world title, and last year, she picked up a medal in Tokyo and placed fifth in her maiden Olympics.
The Boston Marathon will be Beriso’s first race of 2025, so it’s unclear what kind of form she’s in. However, the Ethiopian has taken a step in the right direction every year for the past decade, so I’m expecting big things from her come Patriots Day.
Amane Beriso Shankule wins the 2023 World Athletics Championships marathon
Yalemzerf Yehualaw
How do you show you’re committed to your sponsor? You make your career progression look like their logo.
In her marathon debut year, Yalemzerf Yehualaw ran 2:17 twice – once in Hamburg and once in London – and won both races. Her career took a small dip the following year when she failed to defend her title in London and missed the podium at the World Championships, and in 2024, an eighth-place finish in London marked her worst-ever marathon finish. However, her fortunes turned in Amsterdam last October when she ran a personal best of 2:16:52 and clocked her first win in two years, sending her career to new heights. (If you’re understandably lost in this weird trope, Yehualaw’s sponsor is Nike; their Swoosh logo a high starting point, followed by a dip, followed by an even higher point).
The Ethiopian is one of those athletes who loves a tune-up race, which is great for spectators as it gives us a sense of form going into the race that we just don’t get from athletes who prefer to train in private right up until the big day.
Yehualaw’s form? Very, very good. She won a half marathon in Dubai in comfortable fashion last month, putting almost two minutes into second-place finisher Eilish McColgan.
Convoluted metaphors aside, her course-record win in Amsterdam last October and her dominance over the half marathon this year suggests that her presence will be felt at the front of the race in Boston. Between her and Beriso, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was enough firepower to secure yet another Ethiopian win on the World Marathon Majors circuit.
Hellen Obiri
But, that will only hold true if Hellen Obiri has an off day.
Before last year’s race, Obiri said that her biggest concern was missing her bottles at the aid stations. Not the fact that her Olympic selection was in question. Not the 15 women with faster marathon bests lining up against her. Such was her confidence that her greatest fear was not picking up her water bottle.
Upon reflection, that was a valid comment. Courtesy of a late 4:41 mile – the fastest mile ever recorded in a women’s marathon, which formed part of a closing 5km split that was quicker than men’s champion Sisay Lemma ran on the same section of the course – Obiri stormed away from her competitors to win her second Boston Marathon in a row.
Obiri picked up an injury after her win that only permitted her to train for six weeks in the lead-up to the Olympics, where, despite twice falling over and once stopping to throw up, she still found her way onto the podium. She was then outkicked in New York last November, meaning that when she lines up in Boston, she will have gone an entire year without winning a World Marathon Major – her longest-ever absence from the podium’s top step.
That being said, if an injured Obiri can “only” win an Olympic bronze medal and come second in New York, a healthy Obiri is more than capable of claiming her third consecutive Boston Marathon title. The Colorado-based Kenyan is the only woman in history to have won world indoor, outdoor, and cross country titles, and she has finished on the podium in her last five marathons. If anyone can delay the onset of the era of Ethiopian Marathon dominance, it’s her.
Hellen Obiri successfully defends her Boston Marathon title in 2024
Sharon Lokedi
Where there’s thunder, there’s lightning. Where there’s Obiri, there’s Sharon Lokedi.
With the exception of their marathon debuts at the 2022 New York Marathon – Lokedi won that race and Obiri finished sixth – Lokedi has made an unfortunate habit out of following her Kenyan counterpart to the line.
She lost to Obiri by ten seconds in New York in 2023 and finished one spot behind her in both Boston (eight seconds behind) and Paris (four seconds behind) last year. Evidently, anyone looking to split the Kenyan duo usually has just a few seconds to do so.
But every rule has its exception, and that came to fruition in New York last year when Lokedi finished ninth, some 176 seconds adrift of Obiri. Contrary to popular belief, you aren’t only as good as your last innings, so I’d be wary about reading too much into that disappointing performance in the Big Apple last November. Before 2024, Lokedi had run just one marathon a year; last year, she ran three, one of them being her Olympic debut. I’m comfortable chalking her run in New York up to some end-of-season fatigue and will be putting more heed into the fact that she has won three medals across New York and Boston in the last three years, a clear indicator that she knows how to perform in a hilly, tactical race.
Irine Chepet Cheptai
A true subscriber to the ways of the old guard, Irine Chepet Cheptai carved out a 16-year-long career on the track before finally graduating to the roads two years ago. She used 2023 as a transition year as she transformed from a 10,000m specialist into a marathon runner, competing in a handful of half marathons to get used to the roads before finally making her debut over double the distance at the Hamburg Marathon last year. Her winning time of 2:18:22 was the second-fastest time ever recorded on the course.
Cheptai went on to finish third in a new lifetime best of 2:17:51 in Chicago last October, so she should arrive in Boston with plenty of confidence following a strong debut year. Admittedly, she is an unknown quantity on a hilly course, although it’s worth noting that she is a former World Cross Country Champion – the question now is whether those abilities have remained in her legs almost a decade on.
Edna Kiplagat
Many of those in the elite field weren’t even alive when Edna Kiplagat won her first international medal back in 1996, hadn’t run a race by the time she made her marathon debut in 2005, and didn’t have a coach when she won her first World Marathon Major in 2010.
Kiplagat will be 45 when she lines up in Boston for her 31st career marathon in April, but don’t let her age fool you. While the Kiplagat of old who won back-to-back World Marathon Championships may no longer be running, the Kiplagat of now is still a threat in any big city marathon.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic ended, the Kenyan has been enjoying the regular cadence of travelling from her home in Colorado twice a year to race in Boston and New York. She hasn’t run a marathon outside of these two cities since she placed fourth at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, but she hasn’t needed to: she won the Boston Marathon in 2021 and medalled in the event last year.
It's difficult to comprehend how impressive Kiplagat’s three-decade-long career has been. While I don’t think she will be fighting for the win next month in Boston, I can almost guarantee that she will play an important role at the front of the race.
44-year-old Edna Kiplagat crosses the line in third at the 2024 Boston Marathon
Elite Men
Sisay Lemma
In 2024, Sisay Lemma – a man who had tried and failed at the Boston Marathon three times already – opened a gap over the rest of the field after only five kilometres and held it all the way to the finish line. The win came four months after he had skilfully deconstructed the Valencia Marathon field to win in a new course record of 2:01:48, a feat that gained him entry into the very exclusive sub-2:02 club, which, until then, had only three members: Kelvin Kiptum, Eliud Kipchoge, and Kenenisa Bekele.
Those two performances launched him to the top of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation’s Olympic shortlist, but an injury kept him off the plane to Paris. He returned to the site of his Spanish triumph in December last year but, still nursing an injury, could only manage tenth.
While there’s every chance Lemma has recovered, the question must still be asked: at what point does experience weigh heavier than its lessons? The 34-year-old will take to his 30th marathon start line in Boston; like a tree that grows taller with each season until the years hollow it from within, have the miles finally caught up with Lemma?
He doesn’t think so. Not yet, at least.
“I was unlucky, because of an injury, not to be able to participate at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and I was not completely ready at the Valencia Marathon last December, but I will be 100% ready next April because the Boston Marathon is a special event,” he told the Boston Athletic Association.
Sisay Lemma wins the 2024 Boston Marathon
John Korir
“…younger siblings tend to model their older siblings” – McHale et al, 2001.
In the case of John Korir, McHale and Et Al (who is Et Al and why have they co-authored so many papers?) are correct.
John’s older brother, Wesley Korir, might have a slower personal best than his younger sibling (that’s what you get for being born too early for the supershoe era, Wesley!), but his record on the roads is legendary. The crowning moment of his career came back in 2012, when he won his first World Marathon Major in Boston: 13 years on, and his younger brother is trying to win the same race.
It’s not a particularly surprising move: for whatever reason, the Korir’s LOVE running in America. Between them, the pair have racked up 14 top-8 finishes at World Marathon Majors, all of which have come in either Chicago or Boston.
This will be John Korir’s third attempt at the Boston Marathon, and all signs point to this being his best chance yet of making it onto the top step of the podium. After a disappointing ninth-place finish at this race in 2023, the Kenyan went on to place fourth in Chicago, fourth again in Boston last year, and finally win his first World Marathon Major in Chicago last October in 2:02:44 – a time that casually propelled him from 105th to 6th on the all-time list. This Patriots Day, and for the first time in his career, Korir will stand on a start line as one of the fastest men in history, backed with a confidence that can only come from a consistent string of excellent performances at the biggest races in the world.
Evans Chebet
Over his 11-year marathon career, Evans Chebet has finished 16 races. These have been his results:
2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 3rd, 2nd.
Need I say more?
We all know I will, but seriously – take a moment to appreciate how nuts Chebet’s consistency is. Even the legendary Eliud Kipchoge had a bad day before Chebet, with his first finish outside the top five coming in his 13th marathon (although it’s worth mentioning his results up until that point read 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st!)
Like Korir, Chebet loves to race in America. He won this race in 2022, won in New York later that year, and returned to Boston in 2023 to successfully defend his title. An Achilles problem derailed the rest of his year, but he returned to the Massachusetts capital in 2024 after a disjointed build-up and finished third. Despite what that performance might suggest, his injuries were not behind him, and a turbulent year of training that his agent, Gianni Demadonna, described as “stop and go” was enough to scare Athletics Kenya into giving away his seat on the plane to Paris. After yet another unconvincing training block, Chebet found himself in New York last November and, seemingly unable to let the marathon get the better of him, crossed the line in second.
That was the last time Chebet raced, and there’s been no update on his level of fitness since. Still, the fact that he’s signed up to race in Boston this year is enough for me to count him as one of the favourites. Even when he’s injured, the Kenyan knows how to execute a strong performance, and I have little doubt that he’ll make an impact at the front whether he’s fully recovered or not.
Evans Chebet wins his second Boston Marathon title in 2023
Daniel Mateiko
Daniel Mateiko’s marathon career got off to a strange start: he intentionally dropped out of his first three.
Acting as an unofficial pacemaker for his countrymen (his countrymen being the likes of Eliud Kipchoge, Geoffrey Kamworor, and Kelvin Kiptum), Mateiko used the races as experience and exposure while keeping his main focus on the track. In 2023, he helped Kelvin Kiptum to his course record in London and his world record in Chicago, and in London last year he helped Alexander Mutiso to his maiden World Marathon Majors win.
Following London, he returned to the track and won the Kenyan national trials over 10,000m to book his ticket to Paris, but an eleventh-place showing at the Olympics inspired him back onto the roads, where he first finished runner-up behind Yomif Kejelcha’s world record half-marathon run in November, before making his official marathon debut in Valencia two weeks later and finishing third in 2:04:24.
Mateiko is still only 26, and with his best performance on the track being an eighth-place finish at the World Championships in 2022, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t stay in the stadium. Then again, if the marathon is his calling, perhaps there’s no reason why he should. With a promising debut behind him, a stellar half-marathon career to boost his confidence, and the rare experience of having run most of the way in some of history’s fastest marathons, graduating full-time to the roads could offer him a brighter future.
Eliud Kipchoge is one man who seems to think so.
“[He has] a huge, huge future ahead of him. I’m putting all my money on Mateiko as the future,” he told Runner’s World.
And when the GOAT tells you to run the marathon, you run the marathon.
Daniel Mateiko (R) and Eliud Kipchoge (L) after a training session in Kenya
To find out how you can watch the 2025 Boston Marathon, click here.