After tremendous success in Orlando and Boston, we’re back with more events to celebrate the best day in the best city. In addition to our live podcasts and interviews, we’ll be collaborating on group runs and events throughout the weekend. You can find the details and full list of events here. Our on-site CITIUS crew of Chris Chavez, Aisha Praught-Leer, Eric Jenkins, and Mac Fleet will be hosting an alternate watchalong on marathon morning for live reactions, insights, and analysis. The details on CITIUS MAG’s coverage can be found here.

If you’ll be in NYC, catch us at the HOKA 5th Avenue Flagship store at 579 5th Ave, New York, NY 10017 starting on Thursday, Oct. 31st.

Tamirat Tola Rides Into New York On A High Note

Tamirat Tola comes in as Olympic champion as well as defending NYC champion, so he is surely the hot favorite to defend his title. His impressive ability to pull away from hugely talented fields over the second half of big races would appear to give him the edge over his competitors. The only note of caution is his tendency to mysteriously DNF when things are not going his way, as was the case in London earlier this year where he and some fellow runners seemed to disappear a few miles from the finish, and also deep into the World Championships in Budapest in 2023, where he made it over 23 miles in medal contention.

Unpaced, championship style racing tends to favor Tola: while he’s run sub-2:05 five times and has a 2:03:39 personal best, his three big wins in the last three years have all come in races without rabbits. And knowing how to run NYC seems to be a particular advantage, as 16 athletes (eight men and eight women) have won multiple titles in the event’s 52-year history.

Evans Chebet Returns With Something To Prove

Only a year ago, it was a point of legitimate debate whether Evans Chebet had supplanted his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge as the best marathoner in the world. The then-34-year-old Chebet had won three straight major marathons (Boston ‘22, NYC ‘22, and Boston ‘23) and his 2:05:54 winning time in 2023 was the fastest since the legendary 2011 tailwind year. But then Chebet had to pull out of NYC last year with an injury, didn’t get selected for the Kenyan Olympic team, and “only” managed a third place finish in his third Boston run.

So the question now for Chebet is this: was his run in Boston this spring hamstrung by the lingering effects of missed training, or has he lost the lightning in a bottle he captured in 2022? This weekend should provide some clarity.

Potential Spoilers In The Mix

Two other former champions are toeing the line on Sunday: Geoffrey Kamworor (2017 and 2019) and Albert Korir (2021 champ). Korir is particularly consistent on this course as he’s finished 2nd, 1st, 7th, and 2nd in four appearances, so he’s a pretty good bet for the podium, if not the win. It’s easy to forget Kamworor is still only 31 years old, since he was such a formidable presence in the half marathon and cross country over most of the 2010s, and his runner-up finish in Tokyo last year was his best run since the 2020 motorcycle accident that briefly derailed his career. But Kamworor has not raced at all this year outside of a fourth place run at the Kenyan XC champs back in March, so he’s a huge question mark.

Former training partners Bashir Abdi and Abdi Nageeye are reliable competitors in championship settings (both have an Olympic silver medal, and Nageeye has three top-five finishes in NYC). Nageeye dropped out of the Olympic marathon, whereas Abdi finished second, but it’s possible that just means the Dutchman is less beat up from the race and enters the five boroughs in fresher form. And among the handful of 2:08 entrants in the race, one intriguing name is Brit Callum Hawkins, who’s only finished one marathon since the Tokyo Olympics (a disappointing 16th place run in London this spring). He’s an unlikely threat to win or even podium, but a top-10 finish could signal a promising upward trend for the 32-year-old.

Another Friendly Battle For Top American

CJ Albertson is looking to become the top American at each of the three major marathons in the US this year, having already bagged top honors at Boston and Chicago. He’s coming off a newly-minted personal best of 2:08.17 in Chicago only three weeks ago, which usually means another strong effort is not in the cards, but if there’s one thing Albertson has proven over his career, it’s that conventional wisdom doesn’t seem to apply to the eccentric Brooks athlete. Last fall, he clocked back-to-back 2:11 victories at CIM and the Baja California Marathon only seven days apart, so count him out at your own peril.

In all likelihood, however, the battle for top American will once again come down to Clayton Young vs. Conner Mantz, both coming off top ten finishes at the Olympics. The training partners and friends have documented the buildup on Young’s Youtube docuseries and have to be thinking that, even in a stacked international field, a podium finish is not totally out of reach. Their intrasquad battle will also be fun to watch, as Young fans will surely be hoping he can finally turn the tables on his teammate.

Can Hellen Obiri Stay On Top?

Hellen Obiri can cement herself in the pantheon of the all-time greatest championship marathoners with a successful defense of her NYC title. After becoming the first woman in 34 years to win both Boston and NYC in the same year, she lines up looking to repeat the feat following her Boston win in April. In between, she won an Olympic bronze medal off of only six weeks of running following a stress reaction during her Olympic build. A recent workout video shows her looking in peak shape ahead of NYC, and erstwhile training partner Joe Klecker claims she is in 2:08 shape (which seems a lot less crazy after Chicago). She has not yet gone after any fast courses and enters with only the eighth fastest PB in the field, but her strategy of focusing on championship style races is undoubtedly paying dividends as she stacks up major marathon titles.

Sheila Chepkirui enters with the top seed at 2:17:29, but she’s never won a major marathon and only finished sixth in London this past spring. Similarly, Ethiopian Senberi Teferi has been a master of the road 10km over the course of her career, but hasn’t yet found a way to win over 26.2 miles, finishing fifth at Boston this year and Berlin last fall. A shiny fast PB is nice to bring to a starting line, but it only tells a small part of the story when it comes to potential on a course like NYC.

Sharon Lokedi Looks To Grow Her Already-Impressive Resume

Sharon Lokedi has been churning out strong marathon results since she first tackled the distance, with a podium finish in each of her first three marathon majors, most notably including her explosion onto the scene with victory in NYC in 2022. She backed that up with an impressive fourth place at the Olympics in perhaps the most stacked field in history, and was not far behind Hellen Obiri in the kick for that bronze medal, which gives her hope that if it comes down to a kick again, the result is no longer a foregone conclusion.

A Reunion of All-Time Greats

It feels like 2008 again as Vivian Cheriuyot and Tirunesh Dibaba get ready to duke it out once more. The pair have shared many memorable battles on the track and XC over the years, since first racing each other at World junior XC in 2001, and going on to combine for 13 track gold medals over 5,000m and 10,000m. While this could simply be a fun epilogue tacked onto already storied careers – a la Bekele vs. Kipchoge at the Olympics – Dibaba and Cheruiyot enter with the #2 and #3 personal bests in the field. But Dibaba last lined up for a marathon in 2018, and Cheruiyot only mustered a 2:21.46 showing at the Paris Marathon in April. Meanwhile, the evergreen Edna Kiplagat also returns, having shown she still remains competitive at the age of 44 with her third palace finish in Boston earlier this year.

An Intriguing Battle For Top American

The newly married Dakotah Popehn (née Lindwurm) is looking to back up her successful twelfth place finish at Olympics with another excellent showing here, and it would be absolutely no surprise if she took top American honors once again. Popehn has yet to crack the top ten in a World Marathon Major, but with a 12th place in Chicago last fall and a 14th place in Boston ‘22, she’s knocking on the door. Jessica McClain has also had a banner year, starting with her surprise fourth place finish at the Olympic Marathon Trials, which she backed up with a hugely impressive but simultaneously heartbreaking fourth place in the 10,000m at the Olympic Trials. Now running her first major marathon, she’s one of the few high end racers who could clock a personal best in New York – she ran 2:25:46 in Orlando but has immense potential.