My guest for today’s episode is Sharon Lokedi: the back-to-back Boston Marathon champion. Last month, she became only the second athlete since 1994 to win Boston in consecutive years, crossing the finish line in 2:18:51 for her second straight crown. The way she won it was extraordinary: she sat patiently through a 19-woman lead pack, waited until the hills, and then between 35K and 40K ran a 14:48 5K split — faster than the NCAA outdoor 5K record set on the track just two days earlier. She won by 44 seconds.

Sharon won New York in 2022, finished 4th at the 2024 Paris Olympics, won Boston in 2025, and again in 2026. She has become one of the most complete competitors in the women’s marathon — someone who doesn’t need the fastest time on paper to believe she can beat anyone in the field on race day. She also ran the entire race on a borrowed Garmin because she left her own watch at the hotel and only realized it on the bus ride to Hopkinton.

In this conversation, Sharon walks through the build, the pressure of returning as defending champion, and how she managed the expectation while staying grounded. She takes us inside the race itself: covering early moves, reading the hills, using the lead car as her focal point during that extraordinary 35-40K surge, and the moment she finally let herself enjoy it on Boylston Street.

We also get into what it means to her to inspire other women and how she got to throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park.

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Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez

Guest: Sharon Lokedi | @shazrine

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr