By JIMMY GOLEN<\/p>\n
BOSTON (AP) \u2014 John Korir outran the strongest field in Boston Marathon history and still had enough energy left to bounce around Boylston Street after learning he had blistered the course record, too.<\/p>\n
The defending champion rode a tailwind on Monday to the fastest finish in the race\u2019s 130-year history, winning in 2 hours, 1 minute, 52 seconds. That was 70 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai\u2019s then-world best in 2011, and the fifth-fastest marathon of all time.<\/p>\n
Korir said he knew he was on a record pace at the 40-kilometer mark, but he didn\u2019t bother to check the clock as he crossed the finish line. He was informed of his accomplishment by Boston Athletic Association president Jack Fleming, and jumped for joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they told me I had run the course record, that\u2019s when I started to be happy,\u201d said the 29-year-old Kenyan, who last year joined his brother to become the first relatives to win the race. \u201cI knew I would defend my title. But I didn\u2019t know I could run that fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharon Lokedi joined Korir as a back-to-back champion<\/a>, winning the women\u2019s race in 2:18:51 \u2014 a year after she shattered the course record by more than 2 1\/2 minutes<\/a>. The winners receive $150,000 and a gilded olive wreath sent from the plains of Marathon, Greece; Korir will receive another $50,000 for the course record.<\/p>\n Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania, who was 55 seconds back, and 2021 champion Benson Kipruto, another 3 seconds behind him, also were fast enough to beat the previous record on the hilly course that typically rewards racing strategy more than footspeed.<\/p>\n Kelvin Kiptum holds the marathon world record, with a 2:00:35 on the flatter Chicago course in 2023. <\/p>\n \u201cBoston is not (usually) about time,\u201d Kipruto said. \u201cToday, it was about time.\u201d<\/p>\n Zouhair Talbi and Jess McClain<\/a> ran the fastest times ever in Boston for Americans \u2014 leading the seven U.S. men and 12 U.S. women who finished in the top 20.<\/p>\n Talbi, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics for Morocco and became a U.S. citizen last year, was fifth in 2:03:45; McClain, who crossed in 2:20:49, also finished fifth.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re in an era in distance running, on the men and women\u2019s sides, but especially the women\u2019s side, where we\u2019re all making each other so much better every time we line up with one another,\u201d McClain said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s just going to get stronger and stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n Korir recovered after falling at the start last year to claim the title won by his brother Wesley in 2012. <\/p>\n This year, he broke away from the pack as it headed into the Newton hills and opened a 40-second lead. Korir peeked behind him as he went through Kenmore Square with a mile to go, sticking out his tongue and spreading his arms as he ran down Boylston Street.<\/p>\n Lokedi moved toward the front of the pack around Mile 17 and charged up Heartbreak Hill to pull ahead. On a day that started in the 30s but warmed to 45 degrees (7 degrees Celsius) by the start, Lokedi pulled off her gloves as she went through Coolidge Corner in Brookline and smiled her way down Boylston Street.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know how fast I was going. I just wanted to run as fast as I could,\u201d said Lokedi, who realized on the bus to the start that she forgot her watch and had to borrow one. \u201cI just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Loice Chemnung was second, 44 seconds back \u2014 a performance that would have been a course record before Lokedi\u2019s 2:17:22 last year. Mary Ngugi-Cooper was third, completing the Kenyan sweep of the women\u2019s podium.<\/p>\n Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his ninth wheelchair title in 1:16:06, a time second only to his 2024 course record. He is one shy of the all-category record of South African wheelchair athlete Ernst van Dyk\u2019s 10 Boston Marathon wins.<\/p>\n Two-time winner Daniel Romanchuk of Champaign, Illinois, was second behind Hug for the fourth straight time.<\/p>\n In the women\u2019s wheelchair race, Eden Rainbow-Cooper of Britain won her second Boston title, finishing in 1:30:51 to beat runner-up Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland by more than two minutes.<\/p>\n The athletes arrived in Hopkinton with frost on the ground and temperatures in the 30s. Although it warmed up through the day, it was the coldest starting temperature since 2018, when 38 degree temperatures combined with a headwind and driving rain that led to the slowest winning times in more than 40 years.<\/p>\n But the clear skies and a tailwind on Monday had the fastest field in the event\u2019s history expecting fast times<\/a> for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously the tailwind played into a lot of the approach,\u201d McClain said. \u201dYou don\u2019t get these conditions every year, so if you\u2019re going to go full send and \u2018Carpe Diem,\u2019 this is the year to do it. And that was kind of the mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n Runners may have noticed some changes this year, with the race turning to a crowd scientist<\/a> for help in spreading things out a little so they don\u2019t face bottlenecks on the narrow streets of the eight cities and towns along the course. And at the start is a new statue of and by marathon pioneer Bobbi Gibb<\/a> \u2014 the first statue on the course honoring a woman.<\/p>\n Jack Fultz, who was serving as grand marshal on the 50th anniversary of his \u201cRun for the Hoses,\u201d said the weather was the \u201cpolar opposite\u201d from the day of his 1976 win in temperatures approaching 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n \u201cI am just trying to soak it all in, to remember it all,\u201d he said in Hopkinton on Monday before the race. \u201cThere are almost are no words to fully describe the kind of experience. You have a dream of a lifetime and all of a sudden it comes true.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press Writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n