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A Race Like No Other
The 45th Running of the New York City Marathon - The Women's Race
by John Elliott
The Women at the New York City Marathon
Looking at the professional women's field for the 2015 New York City Marathon, it looked a lot like the field that competed at the 2015 London Marathon. At London, Tigist Tufa was the winner, outrunning the defending New York City Marathon champion, Mary Keitany. Also at London and coming to New York were Aselefech Mergia, past NYC champion Priscah Jeptoo and Ana Dulce Felix. Add to that list Sara Moreira, the 3rd place finisher at the 2014 New York City Marathon; past champion and perennial top five finisher, Jelena Prokopcuka; and New York resident and regular top three finisher Buzunesh Deba - and then you knew the women who would be running in New York. Given their performance at London and at the prior New York City Marathons, most considered the race a contest between Keitany, Tufa, Deba, Mergia, Jeptoo and Moreira. Plenty of qualified women to make up a complete and competitive field.
The Pacer
Given that the New York City Marathon does not employ pacers as do some events, the races can be slow and strategic or fast; it depends on the depth of the field and whether any of the women will take leadership. For 2015, Sara Moreira seemed to choose to ensure the pace was honest and reasonable. From the start, the women, led by Moreira ran a solid and consistent pace - clicking off miles in about a ten second range between 5:30 and 5:40 en route to an estimated/calculated finish time of about 2:26. The pace was one that most of the women could achieve and had achieved, although the New York City Marathon is a bit more challenging than some. With Moreira in the lead, eight women ran together through the 18th mile...
photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun
Laura Thweatt, Debuatante
and Top American in the Field
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The Debutantes
The marathon is a tough distance - and anyone who has run 26.2 miles knows this. But there must be a first marathon for everyone and it can be difficult to know one's abilities and those first marathons can be either miraculous or devastating. At the 2015 NYC Marathon, there were two women worth watching who were running their first marathons. Sally Kipyego (KEN) who won the silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games and was the NCAA 5000m and 10000m champion while attending college in the USA was expected to do well. With many of America's top marathoners saving themselves for February's Olympic Trials, the top American was a woman who had never run a marathon: Laura Thweatt. Thweatt was the 2015 USA X-Country champion and a talented 10,000m runner.
Through the halfway mark, both of these women - Kipyego and Thweatt - were still in the pack. In our estimation, however, the 1:12:56 half split at New York should have been easy enough for Kipyego who had run a 1:08:31 half marathon while winning the NYC Half Marathon; but dangerously fast for Thweatt whose half marathon best of 1:11:02 was nearly the pace the field was running in the full marathon. At the end, though, the marathon can take its toll and Kipyego would have to drop out while Thweatt would finish in seventh place in an impressive 2:28:23 - a time that makes her the sixth highest ranked woman qualified to run the Olympic Trials Marathon. Of course Thweatt explained to us that she plans to stick to her original plan of sticking to the track in this Olympic cycle - but given the quality of her run on the difficult New York City Marathon course, we hope she'll reconsider...
photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun
Mary Keitany Wins the 2015 NYC Marathon
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The Dominatrix
Ultimately, one woman dominated the race. And at this point we must say that Mary Keitany is currently the best marathoner running. By mile 19, Mary Keitany was setting the pace and only one woman, Tigist Tufa, who had beaten Keitany in London was following suit. Through mile 19, the women's pack had averaged a 5:33 pace. Into mile 20, Keitany brought the field through in a 5:22 mile before she threw down the hammer running the next three miles in 5:14, 5:13 and 5:15 miles - devastating the field. To put the 20th mile into perspective, Keitany's 5:22 mile compares closely to the 5:14 the men ran for that mile on the same day... By mile 23, Keitany had built a 45 second lead. She said later that she feared that Tufa, the London Champion, might catch her but she had no idea how far back she had fallen. Keitany would win the race, fully dominating the field and winning by more than a minute in 2:24:25.
The Rest of the Women
Impressively, the top five women ran times sub-2:27:00, providing each with a time bonus. That could be compared to the men on the day, none of whom earned a time bonus for their run. Aselefech Mergia, the fourth finisher at London managed to pass Mergia at mile 25 to take the runner-up spot in 2:25:32. Tufa held on for third place in 2:25:50, while Moreira closed to finish fourth in 2:25:53. Each of these women ran a negative or even split race - well done.
Buzunesh Deba was the one disappointment in the field as the woman who was 2011 NYC Marathon runner-up, 2014 Boston Marathon runner-up and 2015 Boston third place finisher - all in times faster than the 2015 NYC Marathon winning time - fell off of the pack after mile 9 and ultimately dropped out. Also of note, American Teresa McWalters ran her debut marathon in 2:40:37 to also qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon.
Top Finishers
1. Mary Keitany (KEN) 2:24:25 $100,000 + $25,000
2. Aselefech Mergia (ETH) 2:25:32 $60,000 + $15,000
3. Tigist Tufa (ETH) 2:25:50 $40,000 + $15,000
4. Sara Moreira (POR) 2:25:53 $25,000 + $15,000
5. Christelle Daunay (FRA) 2:26:57 $15,000 + $10,000
6. Priscah Jeptoo (KEN) 2:27:03 $12,500
7. Laura Thweatt (USA) 2:28:23 $10,000
8. Jelena Prokopcuka (LAT) 2:28:46 $6,500
9. Anna Incerti (ITA) 2:33:13 $3,500
10. Caroline Rotich (KEN) 2:33:19 $2,500
Other women below the USA Olympic Trials standard:
13. Teresa McWalters (USA) 2:40:37
Coverage Homepage
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A Race Like No Other
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