Cam Levins Could Win NYC Marathon After Top 3 Seeds Withdraw

Daniel Do Nascimento will repeat. All is normal.

Not impossible but I’d make Kitata the favorite. He knows the course and always shows up.

Probably will have the most Americans plus a Canadian in the top ten in a while.

Levins one NYRR race, was the 2019 NYC Half where he ran an uninspiring 105.

That's got to feel weird to be a favorite just because everyone else dropped out.

Ironically, it has made the race more interesting.

Possible doping suspensions incoming?

Wonder if any Americans will show up at the last minute. A top 5 is as good as a 2:08 to unlock a spot, IIRC. Could someone like Faubs squeak in with the weaker field?

That is fair he did get 2nd last year. Levins is the only guy who did two things:

1) good spring Marathon (eg sub 2:06 or within min of win)

2) good fall half/summer full

Lot of these guys dropped out of Worlds or didn’t have a good race in the Spring.

That would be great. Go Cam!

I think you’re understating the difficulty of beating all those guys on the same day, and maybe making too much of DNFing at Worlds. Elites DNF marathons (especially the Olympics and Worlds) and bounce back to their best level all the time.

Like you said, Tola should be considered the favorite. DNFing on a warm, humid day in Budapest doesn’t spoil his resume for the last 3 years:

2021 - 2:03:39 Amsterdam (1st)

2022 - 2:04:14 Tokyo (3rd), 2:05:36 WC (1st), 2:03:40 Valencia (4th)

2023 - 2:04:59 London (3rd), DNF WC

Add in:

- the Olympic silver medalist who ran 2:04:56 last year and 2:05:32 this spring (Nageeye)

- a guy who’s finished top-2 in NYC twice including winning in 2021 (Korir)

- a guy who’s finished 2nd in NYC twice including 2022, and has run one of the fastest times in event history at 2:06:01 (Kitata)

- a guy who’s run a 58:32 half this year and just placed 4th at the World Half 2 weeks ago (not a bad thing) (Yimer)

- a 58:40 half marathoner who won his only marathon this year in Seoul with a 2:05:27 (Walelegn)

- Zouhair Talbi, who was 5th in Boston in his marathon debut

-Edward Cheserek, who is fresh off his best performance in years with a 59:11 half marathon win in Copenhagen

—and Levins’s odds of winning get pretty slim, though, obviously, better than if Chebet, Kamworor and Geremew were still in the race as well

Salpeter is kicking butt in Gaza now. Can’t get a flight to JFK.

Cam Levins is having an interesting career as a marathoner. He has run faster than Galen Rupp but Rupp has an Olympic Bronze in the event. Levins seems like a real hard worker and I am glad it is paying off for him. He probably would do well to finish top 3 here and if he can win NYC he would be cementing himself further as one of the best non Africans of his generation, although I realize he would not be the best or probably even in the top 3 in that category.

Cam has withdrawn and has joined the fight in Gaza.

Rupp got a medal because of the shoes. It will always have an asterisk in my book.

Shame to see so many high level scratches. I agree it would be hard for Levins to win although the chances went up. Just to add Walelegn did win Seoul but DNF in Sydney I believe

Interesting, I never expected you to say anything negative about a white male who’s always wearing a cross necklace.

Definitely fair. Tola probably deserves more benefit of the doubt but as far as the Ethiopians who did Worlds it’d be an exception if he thrives here. It still to me is hard to bounce back and he ran a good chunk of it. Talbi didn’t make it too far pacing in Chicago dk if that was planned. I am high on King Ches. Yimer has just never gotten it right, we’ll see. Korir poor race in Boston as far as staying close to the leaders. Abdi is good tho I think he’s marginally better than Levins, not definitively. Kitata certainly on his day along with Tola is great. I might be too bullish I just think this is a field not too dissimilar (deeper somewhat) than the Chicago field where Rupp won let’s say.

If you had to rank the top 10 on their best day Tola might be the only guy in this one:

Kiptum, Kipchoge, Chebet, B. Kipruto, Kiplangat, Geremew, Tola, Deso. Big pack after that, which might include Levins.

No

I’m sure NYRR would offer him a spot, but I think it would be a bad idea. He’s not a lock for the Olympic team by any means, and needs to focus on training. He already peaked and DNFed Berlin. Trying to do another marathon 2 months after that, then the OT Marathon 3 months later is not a good strategy.