Mid-summer is a good time to catch up with Masters athletes who tested themselves at the Marathon distance from the end of 2024 through spring 2025. In recent years I have focused on the World Majors and that will be true this time. But first I mention the Valencia Marathon which saw two American Masters records set. After that we get to Tokyo, Boston and London.
Valencia. December 1, 2024. There has been growing interest in the Valencia Marathon the last couple of years, especially after the March 2023 performance by the legendary Ethiopian runner, Kenenisa Bekele. He lowered the World M40 Marathon Record to 2:04:19. The existing World W40 Record of 2:22:27 was set by Russia's Mariya Konovalova at the 2015 Nagoya (Japan) Marathon, a daunting record to break. Sara Hall, 40, still competes as an Open athlete. At Valencia she was aiming for a good time and a strong showing, perhaps top ten. To break the World Record, Hall would need to average just under 33:46 for each 10K! On the other hand, if Hall could click off 35-minute 10K’s, she would take away Des Linden’s W40 mark. At the Chicago Marathon two months prior, Linden got the AR with her 2:27:35. As it turned out, Hall ran much of the race in the same pack as Fionnualla McCormack, also 40, an Irish athlete. Hall was content to run with the main chase group for the first half of the race, recording a first half marathon in 1:11:39, off WR pace but well inside AR pace. Hall kept clicking off sub-35-minute 10K’s. Hall had just enough in the tank to withstand a furious close by McCormack, who took 18 seconds out of Hall’s lead in the last two kilometers. That gave Hall a Top-Ten finish overall and a new American record.
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| Sara Hall right and Emily Sisson, competing at the 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
The Official Results show Hall with an Official Time (presumably gun time) of 2:23:45 and a ‘REAL’ result of 2:23:44 (presumably chip time), both well under Linden’s Chicago AR.
Somewhat less heralded than Hall is another elite marathoner, Roberta Groner, 46. Groner was the top American finisher in the Women’s Marathon at the 2019 Doha World Championships. Although Groner does not compete often in USATF Masters Championships, she has won the 12 Km Overall Championship twice. Groner's task was to take down the 2:30:51 AR of Colleen De Reuck, set in 2010 at the Copenhagen marathon. If she could get that, perhaps she could also chase down the 2:29:00 WR of Ukraine’s Tatyana Pozdnyakova?! For the AR Groner would need 35:45 10K splits; for the WR, twenty-six seconds faster at 35:19. Groner clicked off progressively faster 10K splits through 40K: 35:43, 35:38, 35:25, and 35:11. All were below what she needed for an AR but only the fourth was faster than WR-pace. Still, it was a Master Class in pacing to a negative split Marathon! Although her 2:29:32 [REAL = 2:29:30] fell a half minute short of getting the WR, Groner broke the AR by more than a minute! She also won her division by more than ten minutes!
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| Roberta Groner winning the Overall Masters Championship at the 2024 USATF Masters 12 Km Championships Photo Credit: Jason Timochko |
These record-breaking performances were the
only strong performances by American Masters in Valencia. Perhaps the Valencia Marathon will be on the radar for more top Masters Marathoners in the future.
Tokyo. March 2, 2025. When Tokyo was added to the Abbot World Majors, that created an incentive for marathoners who had already collected Stars for Boston, Chicago, New York, Berlin and London to sign up for Tokyo to complete their set of Six Stars. As luck would have it, the weather was warmer than hoped for, with temperatures well up into the 70’s for much of the race. That made for slower times as many runners were focused primarily on finishing and getting that sixth star! Four American Record holders were entered: Jenny Hitchings, who holds W55 2:45:27 and W60 2:49:33 American Records; Gwen Jacobson, with the W65 3:16:04 AR; Jeannie Rice, with W70 3:24:28 and W75 3:33:27 AR’s; and Gene Dykes, with M70 2:55:22 and M75 3:17:01 AR’s. The marks for Hitchings and Rice are also World Records; Dykes's M70 mark is just off the WR. Hitchings, Rice and Dykes also have American Records at shorter distances. Dykes was running with injury; severe knee pain had prevented him from his usual training regime. His goal was to complete the events he had registered for before the pain came on and then decide what to do about it going forward. To no one’s surprise, Dykes, completed the race, finishing a pain-diminished ninth in his division.
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| Gene Dykes finishing off his Record-setting 10Km Run at the 2018 USATF Masters 10 Km Championships in 39:02 Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
The others were all just a bit off their best, perhaps because of the warmth. Hitchings posted after the race that, for the first time, the wheels had come off in the latter stages of the race. On pace for a 2:51 at the halfway point, Hitchings let up over the second half. Of course, Hitchings still finished first in W60, with nine minutes to spare, but her time, 3:02:03, was a good ten minutes slower than anticipated. Warm weather will take its toll though. Jacobson and Rice, also both won their races but in times that were a bit off their norm. Jacobson’s W65 winning time of 3:20:56 was just four minutes over her record from Chicago 2023. Rice’s winning W75 time of 3:38:57 was five minutes off her AR and World Record from London 2024.
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| Jeannie Rice Winning the W75 Title at the 2023 USATF Masters 12 Km Championships in Highland NJ, setting a new American Record at 54:50 Photo Credit: Jason Timochko |
In her post-race comments, Rice noted that she had been aiming for low 3:30's and thought, had it not been for the warm weather, she might have had a shot at lowering her World Record. She passed the half marathon mark in 1:45:18, on pace to do just that. But she had to back off that kind of pace in the second half of the race. Other Americans who landed on the podium included: Donna Grocki 2nd W65 3:34:48; Meifang Zhu, 2nd W70 4:04:03; Kerin Hempel, 3rd W45 2:48:57; Billie Melanson 3rd W70 4:12:47; and Myung Hee Kim 3rd W75 4:32:43.
Boston. April 21, 2025. Note: The course at Boston is not record-eligible as it is point-to-point and downhill. In most years it is considered the most challenging of the Major Marathons because of the weather and the strategic placement of the Newton Hills. Boston, the grandaddy of marathons, is the mecca for so many marathoners. Getting your ’BQ’ and receiving an entry is a big deal, not only in the US, but around the world. The 129th running was no exception. Unlike many years, the weather was propitious by Boston standards. Temperatures were in the upper 40’s to low 50’s under cloudy skies. There was a headwind of 10-15 mph but without gusts. Three American men came home with the top age division prize. M55 Robert Ashby was 2 minutes behind at the halfway point, and still 1:36 behind at the 30 Km mark. Ashby came from behind to win by 39 seconds in 2:43:19. M65 Jeff Duyn held strong to the end to hold off a charging Canadian athlete, winning by 24 seconds in 3:02:26. M75 John Hieb enjoyed a wire-to-wire victory, winning, with six minutes to spare in 3:43:14.
Six American women won their divisions. W40 Des Linden did not get her AR back but had the pleasure of beating the new AR holder, Hall, on what many now think of as ‘Des’s Home Course’. Perhaps Hall had higher Open ambitions or perhaps Linden knows Boston better? Hall was a minute and a half ahead at the halfway point. But Linden came first in the star-studded 'New Masters" field, ahead of Hall, Keira D’Amato, and Stephanie Bruce. Linden’s 2:26:19 left her thirteen seconds ahead of Hall as they went 1-2 in W40. D’Amato won the duel with Bruce, 2:35:57 to 2:36:09, as they finished 4th and 5th. Bruce came from behind but ran out of road to catch D'Amato!
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| Des Linden competing at 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando FL Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
W45 Dot McMahan, another former Elite Open champion, won over Kenyan Edna Kiplagat, a legendary marathon champion at World’s, Boston, London and many others. Over a minute behind at the half marathon split, McMahan passed Kipligat before the 30 Km point and eventually won in 2:33:43, almost three minutes ahead of Kiplagat, who finished second.
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| Dot McMahan orange singlet competing at 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando FL Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
W55 Jennifer Dembeck recorded a wire-to-wire win, enjoying an eight-minute victory margin in 2:56:57. W60 Lisa Veneziano, the W55 12K American Record holder, had no close competitor either, winning by over ten minutes in 2:58:02.
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| Lisa Veneziano finishing off her American Record-Breaking Run at the 2021 USATF Masters 12 Km Championships at Highlands NJ Photo Credit: Jason Timochko |
W65 Nina Caron and Gwen Jacobson had quite the battle. Since Caron started in a different wave, 27 minutes after Jacob4son, they never saw each other. But Caron was seven seconds faster to the half marathon than was Jacobson. In the end, Caron’s 3:22:01 gave her the win with a 53 second margin over Jacobson. W75 Jeannie Rice claimed yet another win at Boston, but this was more painful than most. Her hip had been acting up for a couple of weeks before. On the morning of the race, she decided the pain was not too bad to run. It would be her tenth Boston Marathon! Her winning time was 48 minutes slower than her winning time at Tokyo. But she still won by more than seven minutes, in 4:27:17.
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| Jeannie Rice center, blue gloves, red kit on the way to breaking her own 75-79 World Record at the 2024 London Marathon Photo posted on Facebook by Germaine Tupper |
Others who made the podium included: M40 Samuel Bradbury 2nd, 2:22:23, Dustin Bybee 3rd; M50 Gamini Sugathadasa 2nd 2:39:13; M60 Thomas Tayeri 2nd 2:46:37, 3rd Brian Crowley 3rd 2:47:38; M70 David Parsons 2nd 3:26:37; M75 Paul Baswell 3rd 3:55:28; M80 Christopher Gold 2nd 4:34:46, 3rd Frank Bright 3rd 4:36:17; W45 3rd Laurie Knowles 2:46:26; W50 Shannon Buecher 3rd 2:58:21; W55 Patty Monge 3rd 3:07:06; W70 Dawn Ebbets 2nd 3:47:23, Therese Christo 3rd 3:50:11; W75 Jan Brett 2nd 4:34:42, Sue Landa 3rd 4:55:04; W80+ Carol Wright 2nd 5:57:02.
Crowley, the M60 third-place finisher, went out of his comfort zone to compete at Boston. A feared competitor at National Masters championships at distances from 5K to the Half Marathon, he made the move to the Marathon a good one!
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| Brian Crowley winning the 55-59 Championship at the 2023 USATF Masters 12 Km Championships in Highlands NJ Photo Credit: Jason Timochko |
Baswell, who finished third in M75, competed with me for the M70 win a few years back at the Double Bridge Run over 15K in Pensacola FL. It is good to see he is still running well. Knowles, who finished third in W45, was a strong Open runner out of Atlanta. As a Masters athlete, she was the Overall winner of the 2018 and 2019 USATF Masters 5 km Championships.
London. April 27, 2025. With just six days between
Boston and London this year, few would choose to do both events. As a result, few top
American marathoners had London on their radar this year; only two Americans
enjoyed a podium finish. W65 Gwen Jacobson followed up her Tokyo win and
Boston runner-up finish with a second-place W65 finish at London in 3:35:14. Running six
days after Boston, Jacobson might have been just focused on getting her Abbott Star for
London. That would explain her running much slower than usual. M70 Steven Plakas
overtook a British competitor in the second half of the M70 race to claim
third place in 3:34:19. W70 Two
other Americans, Lynn Bernot and Karen Stevenson just missed the
podium, finishing 4th and 5th in W70.
It will be exciting to see what is in store for the fall
Marathon season. The Marathon Majors start with Chicago--less than three months away!
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