Join Us In Boston With PUMA Running

🏃‍♂️ Friday: Here’s your chance to be a guest on The CITIUS MAG Podcast and share your Boston story with our Talking To Strangers segment (4:30 PM) + test your race knowledge at Trivia Night (6:30 PM) for a shot at PUMA prizes.

🎙️ Saturday: Hear from PUMA’s pro athletes on racing + innovation (10 AM). There’s also an unsanctioned race taking place in Boston on Saturday evening where the top prize is PUMA’s new Fast-R 3 + a full year of PUMA gear.

🔥 Sunday: Shake out with us at 8 a.m. for a 3-mile run led by PUMA Elite pros + top run crews.

📺 Monday: Watchalong with our alternate commentary livestream on YouTube.

RSVP + event details here. Let’s chase that runner’s high together 🏁

The Course and the Weather

The Boston Marathon is famously a bear of a course, with 14 miles of rolling net downhill leading into a gauntlet of climbs through the Newton hills from miles 17 through 21. The lack of pacers often leads to funky race tactics, with big packs crawling through the early miles or bold individuals opening up an early lead and trying to hold off late attacks.

The point-to-point, east-to-west course makes racing conditions highly susceptible to wind impacts. Current forecasts range from a light crosswind to a 10mph headwind, but the projections seem to be changing by the hour as is common for the highly variable New England spring. Temperature-wise, the forecast predicts high 50s to low 60s Fahrenheit, which is generally on the warmer end of ideal racing conditions but low humidity should make conditions seem closer to the pleasant side.

A crazy stormy race like 2018 looks unlikely at the moment, and runners should expect cooler conditions than last year, but overall it does seem like Marathon Monday will be decent, but not ideal, for fast racing.

Men’s Race Preview

Return Of The Champ

Sisay Lemma | 2024 Boston Marathon Champion, 2:01:48 Personal Best (Valencia, 2023)

Last year Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia put together one of the boldest front-running displays in the storied history of the Boston Marathon. On a perfect day for day (sunny, 56°F with a tailwind), Lemma surged ahead during Mile 5, then built up an astonishing lead of nearly three minutes by mile 20 after splitting the fastest opening half in Boston history—60:19. Although the Newton hills and hot early pace took their toll, Lemma held strong. He managed to win in 2:06:17, finishing 41 seconds ahead of his compatriot Mohamed Esa, with Kenya’s Evans Chebet taking third. Lemma’s aggressive strategy broke convention, positive-splitting by over five minutes—but with the field also fading, he was never seriously threatened.

His win marked redemption after disappointing past Boston attempts, including DNFs in 2017 and 2022. Prior to Boston 2024, Lemma showed what he can do when fully healthy with a 2:01:48 personal best from December 2023 in Valencia. He was a favorite for the Olympics but withdrew due to injury and was replaced by Tamirat Tola, who went on to win gold. Following his Olympic pull-out, Lemma chose to return to Valencia and ran 2:04:59 for 10th place in Valencia last December. He has not raced since.

The Top Contenders

John Korir | 2024 Chicago Marathon Champion, 2:02:43 Personal Best

Korir has been marathoning in North America since 2018 but finally got his World Marathon Major breakthrough in Chicago last fall, where he clocked a 2:02:44 to become the sixth-fastest marathoner in history. Now he’s looking to bring the second Boston Marathon title to his family after his brother Wesley’s epic 2012 win in the heat. Chicago marked a massive breakthrough for the younger Korir, who had placed 3rd in the Windy City in 2022 then 4th there in 2023, running 2:05 on both occasions. Coming into Chicago 2024, his coaches, Ron Mann and Haron Lagat, fully believed that Korir was ready to run 2:02—perfect weather conditions and a big 28:09 10K split from 30K to 40K made it happen. It’s not just that Korir is good on a flat, fast course, however. He was fourth in Boston last year and ninth in 2023, so he has experience on the course.

Evans Chebet | 2022 and 2023 Boston Marathon Champion, 2:03:00 Personal Best (Valencia, 2020)

Last year, Lemma dashed Chebet’s hopes of becoming the fifth man in history to win three consecutive Boston Marathon titles. Chebet came into the race as arguably one of the best marathoners in the world, but there were question marks surrounding his health since he had to scratch from the 2023 New York City Marathon. His third-place finish in Boston and then a runner-up finish in New York last fall reminded us of the athlete that he’s capable of being. Chebet races infrequently even when fully healthy, but given his resume and no news as of yet about any setbacks in training, he absolutely must be considered a contender for the win in Boston.

Look at his record in Boston over the past few years:

• 2022 – Win in 2:06:51
• 2023 – Win in 2:05:54
• 2024 – 3rd place in 2:07:22

Daniel Mateiko | 2:04:24 Personal Best (Valencia, 2024)

At 26 years old, Daniel Mateiko is just coming into his own as a marathoner and has previously been tabbed by Eliud Kipchoge as the next top talent out of Kenya. He was the only man who chose to go stride for stride against Klevin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023 and ultimately DNF’ed, but made it to about 30K on world record pace. He finally got a personal best on his resume with a 2:04:24 for third place in Valencia last December. He’s got speed with a 26:50.81 personal best for 10,000 meters (and he nearly matched it with a 26:50.83, 11th place showing at the Paris Olympics) and a 58:17 half marathon personal best, both set last year. This is his first Boston Marathon so we’ll see how he fares on hills, but if the pace lags and he’s still in contention late into the race, he’s worth watching out for.

Tebello Ramakongoana | 2:06:18 Personal Best (Xiamen, 2025)

I hope the BAA placed an order for a Lesotho flag ahead of race day because there’s a chance Tebello Ramakongoana puts the country of 2.3 million on the podium at a World Marathon Major—in his debut at the stage. If you haven’t heard of Ramakongoana, you probably aren’t following his coach, James McKirdy, on Twitter because he’s been tipping off that this guy has the makings of a champion for a while. However, 2023 and 2024 were the years it started coming together.

He took fourth in a personal best of 2:09:57 in the crazy hot conditions of the 2023 World Championship Marathon in Budapest. Last summer, he was seventh at the Paris Olympics in 2:07:58 on the hilly course. He finished one spot ahead of Conner Mantz (we’ll get to him shortly) and dropped a 14:01 5K split in the middle of the Paris Olympics to prove that he can handle the ups and downs of a course better than anyone.

And he opened 2025 with a runner-up finish at the Xiamen Marathon in 2:06:18—a respectable personal best heading into Boston, where previous winners have had PBs in the 2:08 range, and race day throws all times out the window.

So his resume: having fared well in unpaced/championship-style races, in dry conditions and on hilly courses, is certainly sufficient to call him a legitimate contender for Boston.

Conner Mantz | U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Champion, 2:07:47 Personal Best (2023 Chicago Marathon)

We posed the question to Conner Mantz on the CITIUS MAG Podcast last week as to whether he believes that he could win the Boston Marathon and he said, “I have a shot. I have a chance. What I’ve done to prepare has been really good. We’ll see… I think I have that outside chance.” He may not have high odds but this is the best that Mantz has been positioned heading into a World Marathon Major. 

He’s looking to become the first American man to win since Meb Keflezighi’s iconic 2014 victory (one year after the bombings). Mantz told us that he’s put together a healthy stretch of training since his 59:15 performance at the NYC Half—which was not the case leading into his 59:17, then-American record-setting run at the Houston Half.

This is a different Mantz than the one who ran Boston in 2023 and finished 11th in 2:10:25. There is great momentum on Mantz’s side and he’s only been getting better in races against international competition, based on his showings at the Paris Olympics and New York City Marathon. To be clear, we’re not billing him as a favorite (even though we’re an American media outlet). It’s a deep field that he’s up against, but a Mantz win is certainly not an impossibility.

Abel Kipchumba | 2:06:49 Personal Best (Berlin, 2022)

If we’re saying that Mantz has a chance to win, we also have to include the guy who beat him at the NYC Half in 59:09. That said, Kipchumba’s marathon record isn’t as good as his half marathon prowess (he’s got nine career sub-60 performances to his name) and Mantz (6th in 2:09:00) did beat Kipchumba (8th in 2:10:39) at the New York City Marathon last fall.

The Other Americans

Clayton Young | 2:08:00 Personal Best (Chicago, 2023)

Now, because of Mantz’s mindset and insistence on running with the top East Africans in the race, there’s a consideration to be made as to how Clayton Young chooses to approach his race. He told the CITIUS MAG Podcast that the gap between him and Mantz has only gotten bigger in workouts this build, but it wouldn’t shock him to be side-by-side with him on race day. We’ve learned how Young can clutch up for marathons. But there’s also a likelihood that if Mantz goes for it with the top runners—suppose the leaders go out in 62:00 or faster—and he blows up, Young can play the clean-up role and finish as the top American. There’s also a chance Young takes a swing and goes for it as well. He mentioned how he structured his deal with the BAA to take a risk and try and truly finish on empty—something he’s yet to do in his recent marathons.

CJ Albertson | 2:08:17 Personal Best (Chicago, 2024)

Albertson strung together one of the best year long strings of marathoning by an American in recent years, particularly if you award bonus points for frequency of competition. After finishing a disappointing fifth at the U.S. Olympic Trials, he only lost to two Americans total in his next four marathons, finishing with top U.S. honors in Boston, Chicago, and at the California International Marathon, alongside a tenth place finish in NYC behind Mantz and Young. His average finish time across all five races was 2:09:52, including a personal best of 2:08:17 in Chicago. Albertson was credited with a 2:21 finish in Houston this January, but don’t read too much into that result—he paced the 2:10 group through halfway and essentially jogged the rest of the way home. Albertson’s best bet to retain top American honors would likely be to let Mantz and Young go with the leaders then pick up the pieces, but the Fresno native is not exactly known for conservative running. He very well may be the one throwing in early attacks or breaking away from the pack in the first half.

Zach Panning, Colin Bennie, Brian Shrader, Reed Fischer, Nathan Martin

There are five other U.S. entrants with sub-2:11 personal bests, all of whom have experienced some degree of success on the World Marathon Major level. The elite field is stacked enough this year that any or all of these men could run a really strong race and still not crack the top ten, but should they pop off or others falter, they’ve got a chance to finish in the single digits. Panning is coming off a particularly strong 2024, with a sixth place finish at Olympic Trials and tenth-place personal best of 2:09:16 at Chicago, but Bennie has the best Boston performance on his resume, a seventh-place showing from 2021.

Women’s Race

The Aspiring Threepeater

Hellen Obiri | Two-time defending Boston champion | 2:21:38 Personal Best (Boston, 2023)

Obiri may only be the 11th seed in the field by personal best, but don’t get it twisted: she is the favorite, and all eyes will be on her distinct running form come Monday. Obiri has one of the best track records of success of any marathoner in the world: she’s started six career marathons, won three, and since her 2022 debut (sixth in NYC), she hasn’t finished off the podium. As she heads into the race in search of her third straight title, she won’t be the first three-time winner in Boston history (there are five others), but she would be the first since 2005 and the first of the Abbott WMM era. Obiri hasn’t raced yet in 2025, but her coach Dathan Ritzenhein thinks she’s as fit as ever and only getting better at the distance. Obiri has only lost to three women over 26.2 miles in the last two years and none of them are lining up in Boston. She beat two of her biggest Patriot’s Day challengers—2023 Boston runner-up Amane Beriso and 2024 runner-up Sharon Lokedi—head-to-head at the Paris Olympics last summer. Lokedi has started 2025 off strong (more on that below), but she and Obiri have raced five marathons and Obiri hasn’t lost since their first matchup in 2022.

Obiri isn’t quite the virtual lock for the win that her compatriot Eliud Kipchoge was a few years back, but she’s as close as it gets in a terrifically strong era of women’s marathoning. Usually in marathons, the battle of “one runner versus the field” puts the odds in the field’s favor, but in this instance, Obiri is equipped to make it a better-than-fair fight.

Top Contenders

Amane Beriso | 2023 Boston Runner-up, 2023 World champion | 2:14:58 Personal Best (Valencia, 2022)

Amane Beriso has come a long way since her first Boston, where she finished 12th, running 2:38:39 back in 2016. After an up-and-down few years to start her marathoning career, Beriso has broken out in a big way since 2020. Her 2:14:58 run in Valencia in 2022 places her at No. 5 on the all-time list, and she proved she wasn’t just a one-trick pony the following year with a runner-up finish in Boston and a gold medal in Budapest in 2023. 2024 was a strong year by almost any standards, but arguably a bit of a step backward for Beriso, who only managed a fifth-place finish at the Olympics and a third-place finish in Tokyo, but she certainly has both the tools and the experience to contend for the win in Boston. Reducing the 33-year-old Ethiopian to a fast run in Spain would be foolish—Beriso has more than demonstrated the ability to get the job done on a variety of courses and race styles.

Sharon Lokedi | 2022 NYC Champ, 2024 Boston runner-up | 2:22:45 Personal Best (Boston, 2024)

Lokedi would surely love to flip the script on Obiri after finishing behind her in three straight marathons in 2024, including a runner-up finish in Boston one year ago. The 31-year-old is cut from a very similar mold as her fellow Kenyan in many ways: a tough game-day performer who thrives in championship settings and whose personal best doesn’t reflect her talent or resume. And she sent a clear message to the competition that she’s here to win it with a victory at the NYC Half in March, beating U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champ Fiona O’Keeffe by 42 seconds.

Often, it feels like Lokedi flies under the radar despite her incredible run of road racing over the last few years, and that might be the best asset in her disposal come Monday. Surely, Obiri or anyone else would be silly to discount a WMM champion’s chances, but if Lokedi can fly under the radar in the lead pack as long as possible, she’s as well-equipped as anyone to battle for the win over the final few miles, and one of these days, she’s bound to (re-)flip the script on her rival.

Yalemzerf Yehualaw | 2022 London champ | 2:16:52 Personal Best (Amsterdam, 2024)

The big question for the 25-year-old Yehualaw is whether she’ll be able to perform just as well in her Boston debut as she has elsewhere on the circuit. Yehualaw has run 2:18 or faster in four of her six career marathons, including wins in London in 2022 and a 2:16:52 PB to win Amsterdam last fall. Her lesser performances include an eighth-place finish in London last spring and a fifth-place run at the 2023 World Championships, so she’s not always able to triumph against deep fields, but she’s clearly got the talent to hang with anyone in the world on a good day.

Irene Cheptai | 2:17:51 Personal Best (Chicago 2024)

Cheptai only made her marathon debut last year after a solid decade on the track, but she quietly logged one of the stronger rookie marathoning seasons in history as she won the Hamburg Marathon in her debut in 2:18:22 and followed that up with a 2:17:51 third-place finish in Chicago. Cheptai may be new to the distance but she’s not entirely new to the roads, with a half marathon PB of 64:53 from 2023 in (where else?) Valencia. It’ll be interesting to see how she fares on a hillier course than either of her first two efforts.

Edna Kiplagat, Mary Ngugi-Cooper, Viola Cheptoo

This trio gets grouped together not because they’re not individually worthy of mention, but because they fit the same sort of racing mold: experienced, wily veterans who know how to navigate a challenging course like Boston and often find themselves picking off stragglers in the final miles. Kiplagat is, incredibly, still going strong at 45, finishing third in this race last year, and Ngugi-Cooper has finished in the top ten in the last five Bostons (twice landing on the podium). Cheptoo had a rough outing at Boston last year, finishing 12th, but she’s consistently in contention for the Boston/NYC double in recent years, her best run being a runner-up finish in 2022. If a hot pace or early attacks causes the lead pack to splinter late, expect these three to be there picking up the pieces.

Top Americans

Keira D’Amato | 2:19:12 Personal Best (Houston 2022)

D’Amato’s first Boston will serve as a key test of her new setup, training under BYU Coach Ed Eyestone in Utah for the last year. D’Amato hasn’t run a marathon since dropping out of the 2024 Olympic Trials, and Monday signifies both her return to her signature distance and her first marathon as a master, since turning 40 in October. As the second fastest American woman ever in both the half and the full, D’Amato should be able to hang onto a hot early pace as well as anyone, and though her best results have come on flatter courses, she’s a gritty road warrior and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her outlast a lot of the competition over the hills.

Sara Hall | 2:20:32 Personal Best (Chandler 2020)

Hall is now a good five years removed from her breakout 2019 season and, at first glance, it’s reasonable to suggest that she may have plateaued around the time of her 2:20:32 PB at the Marathon Project. But after injuries limited her racing in 2023, Hall was quite busy last year, finishing four marathons, including a fifth-place finish at the Olympic Trials. A pair of 69-minute halves this spring suggest she’s healthy and training well, and while a podium finish may be a stretch, a top five or six performance is certainly in the cards.

Emma Bates | 2:22:10 Personal Best (Boston 2023)

Emma Bates missing the 2024 Olympic Trials is one of the biggest “what ifs” in recent American track history. Until a torn plantar fascia derailed her run, Bates had a well-earned reputation as one of the most consistent American marathoners and was coming off a personal best in Boston the prior spring. She was able to return to racing later in 2024 but clearly wasn’t back to her usual self, finishing 12th in Boston and 11th in Chicago after not missing the top ten in her first eight marathons. But Bates is coming off a 1:08:21 half marathon PB at the NYC Half, and all indications suggest she’s back to full strength. Don’t be surprised if she’s hanging tough with the leaders through the Newton hills.

Dakotah Popehn | 2:24:40 Personal Best (Chicago 2023)

Popehn broke out in a big way in 2024, qualifying for the Olympic team with a surprise third-place finish at the U.S. Trials and claiming top American honors in Paris with another surprise performance that included moments of leading the whole race around halfway. Popehn’s won a few editions of Grandma’s Marathon, but in five World Marathon Majors she’s never finished higher than 12th, so cracking the top ten here would be a strong statement. But if the race stays packed up early and there’s a large group in contention late, Popehn’s fearless racing at the Olympics should prepare her well to hang alongside the heavy hitters.

Gabi Rooker, Jessica McClain, Jackie Gaughan

These three up-and-comers share a very high ceiling and shorter resumes than some of their more experienced compatriots, which can be a double-edged sword on a course like Boston. On one hand, the sky's the limit, and huge improvements can often be found at the start of a marathoning career. On the other, the smaller sample size of performances can lead to foolish mistakes or big swings that come up short. Rooker, McClain, and Gaughan all head into 2025 with a lot of momentum—Rooker’s coming off a 2:24:29 PB in Chicago, McClain finished fourth at two different U.S. Olympic Trials, and Gaughan finished the year with a huge negative-split breakthrough at CIM, running 2:24:40. Should any of them finish in the top ten or higher in Boston, they could cement a spot as a true contender on the domestic scene.

Can Never Count Out Des Linden and Sara Vaughn

Experience pays off big time on a course like Boston, and this last group of Americans has experience to spare. Beyond Linden’s iconic 2018 victory are a long string of strong WMM performances that continues into her 40s. While she hasn’t cracked the top ten in a major in six years, Linden’s 11th place finish in NYC last fall was her best performance since 2019. Vaughn is on the comeback trail after missing the Olympic Trials, but she bounced back with a sixth place finish in NYC.