Boston Marathon 2014 - The Women's Race

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The 118th Running of the Boston Marathon - The Women's Race
by John Elliott

No Incentive For a Fast Race
The Boston Marathon is one of the few major marathons with no time bonuses to encourage fast times. Because of that, the marathon - and the women's race in particular - are often run with less than world-class finish times. The women have often started at a pedestrian pace for the first twenty miles and left the real race for the final six. In the 2009 race, the women passed halfway in 1:18:12 and the race was run in 2:32:16. In 2012, the first half was reached in 1:17:08 and the winning time was 2:31:50... The winners in those years received the same prize money as the winners in any other year - so

photo credit: Victah Sailer

The History of Running Away
There are really two ways to win a marathon: stay with the pack and try to outsprint the others at the finish line; or try to run away from the pack at some point and hope that they let you go and you haven't expended too much energy too early... In a few marathons, runners have famously made a break from the pack and the pack has let them go, believing the runner making the break is overextending herself and will be caught later - sometimes that ends in defeat and sometimes in victory. Constantina Dita famously won the 2008 Olympics Marathon when the main pack was running slowly and she ran off the front at mile 11 and held on for the Gold Medal. At the 2006 NYC Marathon, Jelena Prokupcuka ran away from the rest of the runners by mile 5, rejoined them and then ran away with just one other runner in by mile 12 and then kept it to the win. In 2011 at the Boston Marathon, Kim Smith ran away from the pack from the start of the race, but struggled and was caught by mile 18. Somewimtes it works to run away, sometimes it does not...

photo credit: Victah Sailer

The History of the Course
The 2014 Boston Marathon women's field was packed - two runners with personal bests of under 2:20, the Gold standard for women's marathoning. The Boston Marathon course is hilly, but the net downhill drop offsets the presence of the hills to create a relatively faster than neutral course; and on the years when there is a tailwind on the point-to-point course it can be super fast if the runners choose to take advantage of it. With that said, it was surprising that the Boston Marathon course record for women was only 2:20:38 and only a dozen women had run sub-....

Shalane Flanagan
Knowing the course, knowing her abilities and knowing that the women at Boston often start slowly; Shalane Flanagan took to the lead from the starting gun at the 2014 Marathon. Flanagan is, arguably, America's best female distance runner and although new to the distance ranks third all-time in the ranking of America's best female marathoners behind only Joan Benoit and Deena Kastor. With speed, power and a plan, Flanagan took the first mile in 5:11 and continued on a pace that was, from the start, crossed all split points faster than the run in 2002 in which Margaret Okayo set the course record; and in the early miles was even ahead of world record pace, although of course that was on the downhill portions of the course.

Flanagan's plan was to run away from the other women, but beginning her push from the starting line the effect was to set the pace for all of the women. Rather than running away, eight women ran together at paces never before seen on the Boston Marathon course.

photo credit: Victah Sailer

Rita Jeptoo
Rita Jeptoo was the surprise winner of the 2006 Boston Marathon in 2:23:38 and followed that up with middling success through 2008: a third and fourth at Boston and a couple of fourth place finishes at the New York City Marathon in the mid-/high-2:20s. Jeptoo took the next couple of years off to have a couple of children and returned to marathoning in 2011 without much fanfare. In 2012, it all changed with a breakthrough runner-up finish and personal best at the 2012 Chicago Marathon (2:22:04). In 2013 Jeptoo won the two marathons she started: Boston and Chicago; and for the first time broke 2:20 in Chicago 2:19:57, which was also the best women's marathon time of the year. It's often said that women marathoners return stronger after having a chilld, and in Jeptoo's case, this has proven to be more than true.

Since returning to the marathon in 2011 and hitting her stride in 2012, Jeptoo seemed the best in the field and was our pre-race favorite. And through the race, she was always strong, even as the field whittled down to five women by mile 23. With the course record pace set in the early miles, when Jeptoo made her break at mile 23 and ran alone to the finish, the course record was nearly a certainty. And indeed, Jeptoo continued on to smash the record and set a new personal best: 2:18:57 - the eighth best time ever run by a female marathoner and a time bettered by only four women ever. With that finish, and her consistency over the most recent years, few can disagree that she has already cemented her place as one of the best ever and is the best marathoner currently competing.

Buzunesh Deba
Buzunesh Deba is one of those marathoners who slipped under the radar for many years. An Ethiopian living in New York City (the Bronx), Deba was a competitor at local New York Road Runner races and the NYRR runner of the year - hardly a prelude to or anything that would suggest greatness on anything beyond a local level. Deba began running marathons with a win at the 2009 Quad Cities Marathon with an unremarkabletime of 2:44:22; but saw consistent improvements in her times as she moved to better and better marathons; including wins at the 2009 and 2010 California International Marathon (2:32:17, 2:32:13 respectively); 2010 Grandma's Marathon (2:31:35) and 2010 Twin Cities Marathon (2:27:24); and 2011 Los Angeles Marathon (2:26:34) and 2011 Rock N Roll Marathon (2:23:19). Since 2011, Deba has continued her improvement and success with a number of runner-up finishes: at the Houston Marathon and twice at the New York City Marathon. With that success and confidence, Deba continued her improvement and position as runner-up by leaving the rest of the pack and running through to a second place finish in 2:19:59. Truly an amazing continuation of Deba's improvement and success since she started marathoning.

Shalane's Finish
Shalane Flanagan believed she knew what it would take to win the Boston Marathon: a 2:22 finish. That was her plan and she hoped to run away from the field to win the race outright from the beginning. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to break away from the pack - and instead she was one of the first to fall back and ultimately she would finish in seventh place - in her time of 2:22:02... We've seen lots of opinions about Shalane's run - most saying they think it was a bad run. We think the opposite - it was a good run, but there was just one piece missing from the strategy.

Of course a 2:22:02 is a strong marathon - there can be no arguing with that. And in most years, that time would win the Boston Marathon. In many years, someone runs away fom the field and continues on to the win. Kim Smith tried that strategy, and might have taken the win if not for some calf trouble. And just behind the women's race, Meb Keflezighi was making his run alone to ultimately win the men's race (which started thirty minutes behind)... The idea of 2:22; and the idea of running away from the others were not bad strategy: the problem was two-fold: i) the women in the field were strong and some more aggressive and harder to run from than in other years, but more importantly, ii) the plan of running away from the rest of the field only works after a slow pace has been started and the women are running together, slowly, in a group before one or more people run away from the group. By starting at her breakneck speed from the start, Flanagan simply set the opening pace for the race and the women continued on that pace. There would be no running away from the pack.

Flanagan was upset with her results - but we think it is promising and that with time, this 2:22 finish shows that Flanagan is capable of even more and better.

photo credit: Victah Sailer

The Other Americans
Besides Flanagan, no other women started with the lead group. Desiree Linden (nee Davila) ran behind at her own pace and finished very strong with a 2:23:54. Many had feared that Linden, who had been injured and not showing as much promise, had seen her best years pass. But her 2:23:54 was arguably her best marathon time to date - bettered only by her 2:22:38 at Boston on a day when the tailwind blew all runners to unbelievable times. The legitimate 2:23:54 bodes well for Linden. Adriana Nelson finished as third American and 15th overall in 2:31:15. We are always big fans of Adriana: since the day she was robbed of the victory at the 2007 Chicago Marathon and had to settle for runner-up spot. Her 2:31:15 doesn't give us confidence that she will make the next Olympic team, but it is her best time in the most recent few years and shows that she is still strong.

Jeptoo Sets New Course Record
photo credit: Victah Sailer

Top Finishers:
1. Rita Jeptoo (KEN) 2:18:57 - $175,000
2. Buzunesh Deba (ETH) 2:19:59 - $75,000
3. Mare Dibaba (ETH) 2:20:35 - $40,000
4. Jemima Jelagat Sumgong (KEN) 2:20:41 - $25,000
5. Meselech Melkamu (ETH) 2:21:28 - $15,000
6. Aleksandra Duliba (BLR) 2:21:29 - $12,000
7. Shalane Flanagan (USA) 2:22:02 - $9,000
8. Sharon Cherop (KEN) 2:23:00 - $7,400
9. Philes Ongori (KEN) 2:23:22 - $5,700
10. Desiree Linden (USA) 2:23:54 - $4,200
11. Belaynesh Oljira (ETH) 2:24:21 - $2,600
12. Yeshi Esayias (ETH) 2:27:40 - $2,100
13. Tatiana Petrova Arkhipova (RUS) 2:30:29 - $1,800
14. Lanni Marchant (CAN) 2:30:34 - $1,700
15. Adriana Nelson (USA) 2:31:15 - $1,500

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Boston Marathon 2014 - The Women's Race