Records were falling like autumn leaves in Chicago this morning as 22 World and American pending records were set at the Chicago Marathon. Most notable of these was, of course, was the Men’s Marathon WR by Kelvin Kiptum (KEN) in a time of 2:00:35 eclipsing Eliud Kipchoge’s 2:01:09 set in Berlin last year. This is only Kiptum’s third Marathon, all of which have been sub 2:02. He may not yet be the GOAT but he is certainly the kid – he is only 23 years old. A sub 2:00 Marathon, which once seemed an impossible dream, now seems to be on life support. Kiptum also set two American All-comers records in route: Men’s All-Comers 25km-1:12:04 and Men’s All-Comers 30km-1:26:31. There were two other Open records of note. Siffan Hassan (NED), who is building her own GOAT resume, ran 2:13:44 (second only to Tigst Assefa’s 2:11:53) for the American Womens All-comers Marathon record. In route, she also set the Womens All-comers 30K record with a 1:34:00.
It was the Masters, however, who did the greatest damage to the record book. The PA’s Jenny Hitchings set her 2nd Marathon WR of the year as she just turned 60. Hitchings, took down Mariko Yugeta’s 2:52:13 World record with a blazing 2:49:43 – 101.72% age grade. (Jenny set the F55-59 Marathon WR/AR in London, back in April with a 2:45:27).
Jenny also set the following ARs:
Women’s 60-64 Marathon-2:49:43
Women’s 60-64 30km-1:59:31
Women’s 60-64 25km-1:39:24
Women’s 60-64 Half Marathon-1:23:39 (breaking her pending mark set at the Urban Cow H Mar last Sunday in a training run)
Women’s 60-64 20km-1:19:12
Women’s 60-64 15km-59:17
The 3rd World Record of the day went to Jeannie Rice (Ohio) who broke Yoko Nakano’s F75 WR of 3:53:42 with a stunning 3:34:32 – 102.39% age grade.
Jeannie also set the following ARs:
Women’s 75-79 Marathon-3:34:32
Women’s 75-79 30km-2:26:51 (old record 3:14:10)
Women’s 75-79 25km-2:02:12 (old record 2:29:33)
Women’s 75-79 Half-Marathon-1:43:09 (old record 1:45:52)
Women’s 75-79 20km-1:37:46 (old record 1:51:43)
Women’s 75-79 15km-1:13:23 (old record 1:19:27a & 1:24:55)
Women’s 75-79 10km-49:14a (old record 50:01)
Here are the last four ARs:
Desiree Linden (F40)
Women’s 40-44 Marathon-2:27:35
Women’s 40-44 30km-1:43:47
Gene Dykes (F75)
Men’s 75-79 Marathon-3:17:01
Men’s 75-79 30km-2:19:00