Mary Keitany runs 2:17:01, Women's Only WR! Virgin Money London Marathon Diary

#Regram @womenshealthuk And the winner is…. Mary Keitany! Her unofficial time and the new women-only world record, is 2:17:01. Radcliffe’s time was 2:17:42! ðŸ¥‡ðŸ¥‡ðŸ¥‡#londonmarathon #marykeitany (ðŸ“· @chakams)
A post shared by RunBlogRun (@runblogrun) on Apr 23, 2017 at 4:32am PDT

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The women’s race in London was absolutely Electrifying!

Mary Keitany, running with Pacemaker Caroline KIpkirui, Mary took off. Hitting the 5k in 15:31, the 10k in 31:17, and the 15k in 47:15, she had the BBC team of Brendan Foster, Steve Cram and Paula Radcliffe questioning what was going on. Paula Radcliffe knew instinctively. Mary Keitany was hellbent on breaking the women’s only marathon record of 2:17:42.

Issue was, Mary Keitany was on much faster pace, actually at 2:10:41 pace around 12k! Caroline KIpkirui kept company with Mary Keitany through 20k in 1:03:25, and half marathon in 1:06:53, 94 seconds ahead of the course record.

After that, Mary Keitany ran with abandon, and in the cold corner of hell that only a marathon can provide. Hitting 25k in 1:19:43, Mary Keitany was 80 seconds ahead of the world record pace. A WR was hit a 30k, in 1:36:05, where Mary Keitany was 82 seconds ahead of pace.

And then, Icarus fell back to earth.

Mary Keitany kept her fast running through 35k, where she was 88 seconds ahead of pace, and then, slowly came back to earth.

At 40k, Mary Keitany hit 2:09:38, running 7:23 for the last 2.2k, hitting a new women’s only WR in 2:17:01. Tirunesh Dibaba ran the race of her life, in only her second marathon, in 2:17:56, after some stomach distress around 33 k and regrouping and charging on.

After the race, Mary Keitany told this writer that before the race, she did not believe 2:15 was impossible, but, after her 2:17:01, she changed her opinion of that WR.

And she smiled, because, as Mary Keitany knows, anything is possible.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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