Rupp win Chicago

Galen Rupp became the first American-born winner of the Chicago Marathon in 35 years by running a personal best of 2:09:18 to win over last year’s champ Abel Kirui in 2:09:48.

Rupp is the first American born winner in Chicago since Greg Meyer won in 1982

This just isn’t about me – there are so many people that are part of the Nike Oregon Project. I’ve felt like I’ve always had such great support from the Nike family, my coach Alberto Salazar, obviously m wife and kids – they’ve all sacrificed so much – it’s for all of them. It’s just a great day.”

While Rupp’s victory was unquestionably the headline today, Salazar had another athlete in Chicago. Jordan Hasay’s 2:20:57 puts her #2 on the all-time U.S. list, behind only Deena Kastor. Once again, Hasay blew even her optimistic expectations out of the water. Going into her debut in Boston in April, Hasay was aiming for a 2:25:00 and ran 2:23:00. Today, under “perfect conditions,” Salazar believed she could run 2:21 or 2:22.Salazar has coached Olympic champions (Mo Farah, Matthew Centrowitz) and coached Galen Rupp to two Olympic medals, but in terms of personal satisfaction, it’s hard to imagine anything topping this. Salazar’s goal when the Oregon Project was established in 2001 was for American distance runners to compete with and beat the world’s best.

2017 Chicago Results

Top 10 Results1 Rupp, Galen (USA) Portland, OR 2:09:20

2 Kirui, Abel (KEN) 2:09:48

3 Kipyego, Bernard (KEN) 2:10:23

4 Lemma, Sisay (ETH) 2:11:01

5 Sambu, Stephen (KEN) 2:11:07

6 Matsumura , Kohei (JPN) 2:11:46

7 Chebii, Ezekiel (KEN) 2:12:12

8 Tadese, Zersenay (ERI) 2:12:19

9 Derrick, Chris (USA) Portland, OR 2:12:50

10 Shelley, Michael (AUS) 2:12:52

Tirunesh Dibaba Wins The First Marathon Of Her Career In Chicago in 2:18:31 As Jordan Hasay Runs The #2 Time in US History (2:20:57)

Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, added a new accomplishment today she won her first marathon as she captured the 2017 Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2:18:31.

Jordan Hasay, Galan Rupps NOP team mate ran 2:20:57 — the second fastest time ever recorded by an Americanfinished 3rd.

The Race

Dibaba’s ran her first 5k in 16:09 (that’s 2:16:09 pace) but five women were still with her at halfway. Shortly after that it became a two-person battle between Dibaba and Kosgei as Kosgei did her best to stay with Dibaba, A 5:15 20th mile gave Dibaba a sizeable lead, which only grew to the finish.

As for Hasay, while she did slow down over the second half, she picked the pace back up after 40k when she realized a sub-2:21 clocking was possible.

Top 10 Results

1 Dibaba, Tirunesh (ETH) 2:18:31

2 Kosgei, Brigid (KEN) 2:20:22

3 Hasay, Jordan (USA) Beaverton, OR 2:20:57

4 Perez, Madai (MEX) 2:24:44

5 Kipketer, Valentine (KEN) 2:28:05

6 Weightman, Lisa (AUS) 2:28:45

7 Krifchin, Maegan (USA) Atlanta, GA 2:33:46

8 Gray, Alia (USA) Boulder, CO 2:34:25

9 Ward, Taylor (USA) Ogden, UT 2:35:27

10 Wade, Becky (USA) Denver, CO 2:35:46

Rupp said he purposely wanted to wait until late in the race to take the lead.

“I hadn’t really planned out when I was going to go but I definitely wanted to wait until at least 20 miles – 22 miles – the longer the better. I made the mistake in the past of going a little too hard too soon and you still got a long ways to go – several mile. I really wanted to wait. I kind of just felt a little gap and at that point it’s you’ve got to put the hammer down and just drive to the finish so that was my plan.”

. Rupps final 5 miles were under 4:40. As late as 35k, Rupp was on 2:11:03 pace but he ended up with a 38 second pb and final time of 2:09:20 as he ran his final 5.2188 miles in an unofficial 24:02 – that’s 4:36.3 per mile or 2:00:45 marathon pace.