To me, she is the greatest marathoner of all time, male or female. He credentials are insane, and this year she pr'd her half marathon time, and dropped the half marathon WR holder while doing it.
She goes hard, runs with consistency, and has a balance of confidence and humility. She takes on all female comers, and backs down from no one. Everyone knows what she is going to do in each race. There is never a need to guess, question, or think about how she is going to run a race. Once the gun goes off, SHE WILL BLAZE.
Also, I imagine that she did some runs at 2:14 pace to make 2:15 as comfortable as possible.
My prediction:
It will be reminiscent of last year's London race. She will go out at a blazing pace behind her group of male pacers. No one will go out with her, not even Dibaba. Dibaba didn't go out last time, and even though Dibaba went out at 2:18 pace in Chicago by herself, she is not going to go out at 2:15 pace. She will play it like she did last year, and hope that Mary blows up, and just try to hunt her down..... Now, Mary will not go out as fast at Paula did. Paula was on sub 2:14 pace for her first 5 miles, and then backed off when she realized that she was going too fast. Mary will run a steady fast pace of 2:15, and probably just try to stay even for most of the race, and then drop the hammer ( if she is feeling it) between mile 20 and 22. She will finish around 2:15: 15-20, breaking the record by 10 or 5 seconds.
Her half marathon race this year is an indicator that she will go hard hard in the last 3/4 of the race to break the record.
Also, if she blows up, Dibaba will be there to hunt her down, and take the win.
Let blaze , Mary!
LRC Note: We've spoken to both Dibaba and Keitany one on one in London and have written a lengthy article about the WR attempt.