By Chris Chavez
June 12, 2023
NEW YORK – U.S. women’s marathon record holder Emily Sisson returned to racing for the first time since March with a fourth place finish at the NYRR Mini 10K on Saturday, June 10. Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi and 2023 Boston Marathon champion Hellen Obiri pulled away from the lead group, which left Sisson in a tight battle with Mexico’s Laura Galvan for much of the race.
Teferi won in 30:12, which is the fastest 10K on U.S. soil. However, the time does not count toward records since it is considered slightly downhill. Obiri finished just seven seconds back. Galvan took third in 31:14 and Sisson ran 31:16 to finish as the top American on the day.
“I feel like I’m starting to come around now,” Sisson said. “I wasn’t entirely sure where my fitness was. I wanted to try and go out with Obiri and Teferi and see what could happen. I was definitely hurting the last couple of miles but I don’t regret it.”
This was Sisson’s first race since a hip injury forced her to withdraw from April’s London Marathon. It was set to be her first marathon since breaking the American record at last year’s Chicago Marathon in 2:18:29, which took 43 seconds off Keira D’Amato’s previous record. In January, she broke her own U.S. half marathon record by 19 seconds in 1:06:52.
“It took a month to get back into training,” Sisson says. “It was just a month at the wrong time. If I forced it and tried to come back faster, I would be compensating and causing more problems. We decided to reset, find some summer races and get ready for the fall.”
She is back in Providence, Rhode Island and plans to train there ahead of a fall marathon that will be announced soon. It will be her final marathon before the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2024 in Orlando. Emma Bates, the top American at this year’s Boston Marathon in 2:22:10, and Bety Saina, the fastest U.S. marathoner of 2023 with her 2:21:40 personal best at the Tokyo Marathon, have both talked about chasing Sisson’s mark this fall.
“I want to run faster,” Sisson says. “(The American record) is not on the top of my mind right now but I think it’s exciting. The one thing I thought I was missing a little bit from Chicago last year was that competition. My pacers Brian (Harvey) and Johnny (Mellor) did an incredible job but there’s something that comes out of you when you’re racing other women. I’d love it if a bunch of us were actually in the same fall marathon and could push each other.”
Stay tuned for updates as fall major marathon field announcements are set to come soon.
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
