After dropping out of the Olympic Marathon in August due to an injury, Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich, 27, came to the Chicago Marathon eager for a victory.
She blasted off at world record pace, running 15:37 for the first 5K and dropping her male pacer, Johnny Rutford, by around mile 8.5. But by mile 10, she'd slowed dramatically. Still—despite running much of the race alone and clocking a 5:53 mile between miles 23 to 24—she’d banked enough of a lead to hang on for the victory, crossing the line in 2:22:31.
"This is my first time in the United States, and I have to say I’m so excited and I'm happy for the win today," she said afterward. "The race was good, it was nice, but it was tough. To push alone is not easy."
American Emma Bates, 29, finished second in 2:24:20—a personal best by more than a minute. Sara Hall finished third in 2:27:19, and Keira D’Amato, 36, wasn’t far behind her, placing fourth in 2:28:22.
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Bates ran a far more conservative race than Chepngetich, hitting the halfway point in 1:12:27—in sixth place and a full five minutes behind the reigning world champion. At that point, she said, she began to feel nervous, unsure of how far ahead her competitors were. Despite cramps that had begun in her hamstrings and quads around mile 10, she began picking up the pace, covering the ground between 30 and 35K in 16:59—5:28 pace.
“I caught up to Keira and the pacer that was pacing for 2:24,” she said. “Then I started seeing women ahead of me and that just spurred me along so much, gave me that boost of energy.” The roar of the spectators, too, lifted her mood, she said.
Indeed, cheering crowds lined the streets in the Windy City, excited to witness the first major marathon held in the United States since the COVID pandemic began.
By 35K, Bates had passed Hall, then Kenya’s Vivian Kiplagat, 29, who’d spent much of the race running in second. (Kiplagat eventually faded to finish fifth in 2:29:14). Bates finished the second half of the race in 1:11:53—faster than any other runner by far.
“It was definitely the hardest race I’ve ever run, but to be able to not only podium but PR today was incredible,” she said. "It was very unexpected and I couldn't be happier."
The race represents a significant breakthrough for Bates, who burst onto the scene by winning the 2018 USATF Marathon Championships in Sacramento in 2:28:19. In December, she ran 2:25:40 at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona. In April, she moved from Boise, Idaho, to Boulder, where she began training with the group coached by Joe Bosshard. Her teammates include Olympians Emma Coburn and Cory McGee—and all of them came to cheer her on in Chicago today, she said.
Hall spent some time training with Coburn and some of the other members of the group during higher-altitude stints in Crested Butte, Colorado, this summer and fall; she called Bates' performance "really impressive."
Hot, humid conditions—72 degrees and 70 percent humidity at the start—slowed times and led Hall to adjust her goal from her previously stated attempt to challenge Deena Kastor’s American marathon record. She hit the halfway point with her three male pacers in 1:11:37, rather than the 1:09:40 she’d have needed to dip below Kastor's 2:19:36. It felt “comfortable-ish,” she said afterward, until the humidity began taking its toll. "I thought I could hold that pace, but it just kind of got exponentially harder as the race went on after halfway," she said.
Hall and Bates, both Asics athletes, wore the same shoes—the Metaspeed Sky, the brand’s carbon fiber plated model. And both also had COVID-19. Bates got sick in March 2020, after traveling to Europe following the Olympic Marathon Trials, and said it took her about five months to feel normal again. Hall, meanwhile, said her whole family caught the virus in January of 2021; she still coped with fatigue until late May, but noted that the vaccine significantly improved her symptoms.
Chepngetich takes home $55,000 for the win, while Bates earns $45,000 for second place and Hall $35,000 for third.
Americans fared well throughout the rest of the top 10—Maegan Krifchin was sixth (2:30:17) and first-time marathoners Carrie Verdon (2:31:51) and Sarah Pagano (2:33:11) placed seventh and eighth. Lindsay Flanagan placed 10th in 2:33:20.
In the women’s wheelchair race, 32-year-old Tatyana McFadden claimed her ninth Chicago Marathon victory in 1:48:57—then left nearly immediately to board a plane to Boston, where she and other wheelchair competitors will race again tomorrow. And in her third of six major marathons this fall, Shalane Flanagan finished in 2:46:39, good for 34th place and well within her goal of under three hours.
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
