Mary Keitany Of Kenya Wins Third Straight New York Marathon

Mary Keitany, a 34-year-old Kenyan mother of two, put on an incredible performance Sunday on route to winning her third consecutive New York City Marathon title.

Mary Keitany Of Kenya Wins Third Straight New York Marathon

Approximately 10 miles in, in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Keitany picked up the pace and began gaining a strong lead.

In fact, she was so far ahead of her competitors that she could have taken a walk through the Sheep Meadow in Central Park before reaching the finish line. Instead, Keitany took the most direct path, her 5-foot-2, 93-pound body effortlessly cruising along for 26.2 miles.

Keitany finished in 2 hours 24 minutes 26 seconds, well ahead of the second-place finisher.

“I was not planning to do this, but I had a time I wanted to run, and I needed to keep the pace,” Keitany said of her breakaway. “I’ve run alone many times, and I trained well. And if anyone caught me, I was going to chase them.”

Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, a 20-year-old from Eritrea, won the men’s race. He emerged from a tight group of three at Mile 20 and finished in an equally impressive 2:07:51 to become the youngest winner in race history.

Ghebreslassie, who won the World Championship in Beijing in 2015 at age 19, won fourth place in the Rio Olympics. Behind him on Sunday came Lucas Rotich of Kenya (2:08:53). Abdi Abdirahman, a Somali-born 39-year-old who is based in Arizona, finished in third (2:11:23).

Keitany’s unexpected break from the lead pack stirred up the competition in the women’s race. Sally Kipyego of Kenya, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000 meters, placed second in 2:28:01, more than three and a half minutes behind Keitany, and American track and cross country runner Molly Huddle, a two-time U.S. Olympian in her marathon debut, finished third in 2:28:13.

“On the breakaway, I had to decide if I go or stay,” Huddle said. “I kind of went a little harder around Mile 8 and was alone for a while. Then slowed down a little bit too much on the bridge at Mile 15, and I think that just — I need to measure myself a little better.”

Joyce Chepkirui, also from Kenya, likewise attempted to catch up with Keitany, but was unable to sustain the pace and fell back before the halfway mark. She was overtaken by Huddle and finished fourth.

Keitany’s strategy of taking off alone from early on led to the largest margin of victory in the women’s race– 3 minutes 34.98 seconds– since Grete Waitz won in 1980.

Breakaways in this marathon are common, although early ones can ruin a front-runner as often as they carry him/her to victory. Many typically begin speeding up at Mile 16 after they have safely passed the Queensboro Bridge and are in Manhattan.

Meb Keflezighi, then 38, used the tactic in the 2014 Boston Marathon, when at Mile 11 he eluded a strong group of younger runners who likely believed the older American would fade back. Other Americans, including Ryan Hall, said they realized Keflezighi had a chance to win and slowed the pace of the chase pack. By the time his younger rivals realized their faulty rationale and saw his lead was insurmountable, it was too late. Keflezighi became the first American to win the race since 1983.

Frank Shorter pulled away just over nine miles to win gold in the 1972 Munich Olympics. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Joan Benoit Samuelson took the lead early on as well, at Mile 3 in the first Olympic women’s marathon, on route to her historic victory.

“I tell people all the time, you need to run your own race,” Benoit said Sunday. “That’s what Mary did; if you play into somebody else’s hands, especially early on, it can foul your plans.”

Benoit’s decision to gain the lead was completely spontaneous.

“I didn’t want to take the lead that early, but I knew what I was capable of running, and I went with it,” she said. “You’ve got to go with what you know.”

In the 2011 New York City Marathon, Keitany broke away but was overtaken by two Ethiopians who steadily reeled her in. Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia, who lives in the Bronx, ran nearly the entire course minutes ahead of the rest of the professional field with her friend and teammate Tigist Tufa through bracing wind in 2013 before Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya caught her in Central Park. Deba finished second.

Keitany became the first woman to win New York three times in a row since Waitz won five from 1982 to 1986.

Keitany acknowledged the risk in her race strategy Sunday.

“Sometimes if you break off and you’re not ready to follow through, they will catch you,” she said. “But I was ready.”

 NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 06: Mary Keitany of Kenya crosses the finish line to finish first in the Professional Women’s Division during the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon in Central Park on November 6, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)