On a warm and windy October morning in Chicago, Ruth Chepng'etich pulled clear of the field and ran alone for most of the race to claim her first Chicago Marathon title in 2:22:31. The victory was built on daring and resolve, and it launched a trilogy of wins on this course that no woman had completed before.
Alone from the 13th kilometre
Chepng'etich tore through the opening kilometres. She crossed 5km in 15:37 and 10km in 31:22, a ferocious rhythm that put her on world record schedule. The early surge soon became a solo mission when her pacemaker stepped off around mile eight and gusty winds rose against her.
Mid-race temperatures climbed to roughly 24°C, and her pace softened. She passed halfway in 1:07:34, holding a lead of over a minute. From the 13km point onward, no one else shared the road at the front.
She pressed on alone, extending her margin to three minutes by the 35km mark. Emma Bates ran a personal best of 2:24:20 for second, and Sara Hall followed in 2:27:19, but Chepng'etich was already a race apart.
A world champion’s comeback
The win restored Chepng'etich’s standing after a painful exit at the Tokyo Olympics, where she had dropped out at 30km. She arrived in Chicago as the reigning world marathon champion and the freshly minted world half marathon record holder. Every race she had finished since her debut had put her on a podium, and this one would not break the pattern.
“The race was good but it was not easy because I pushed alone from 13km until the finish line,” she told reporters afterwards. “I just believed in myself, I was confident and I just pushed myself.” The marathon itself was a homecoming—the first in-person US Major in nearly two years, with 35,000 runners returning after the 2020 cancellation.
A first of three
A year later she defended her title in 2:14:18, the second-fastest women’s marathon in history at that moment. In 2024 she returned to break the world record in 2:09:56, becoming the first woman ever under 2:10 and the first three-time winner of the race.
The quiet October morning when she first broke the tape alone in Grant Park, worn by wind and heat, gave Chicago the shape of things to come.