Fifty days until the London marathon, here are 50 profiles, one each day.

Mary Keitany is far from the favourite to be the women's winner, but i think she can be. On the strength of the second half of her last marathon. Surely no male OR female has ever negative split a marathon by ten percent. 75.50 first half in New York, then 66.58, faster than some of the elite men. Mary is 37 years old and is ranked 21. One of her most impressive performances came in 2015 when in New York she went 5.14, 5.13, and 5.15 in miles 21-23 to decimate a quality field.

Shura Kitata is the second best marathoner in this loaded field. IAAF ranks him 5 and his name is listed as Tola Shura Kitata. He is 22 years old and won the Houston half marathon just back in January. Kitata was second in both London and New York in 2018, causing this site to rate him 2nd in the world. The year before they ranked his year's performance as 10th best. Those results were: 3rd in Xiamen, China, then winning Roma and Frankfurt, improving his PB both those last two wins.

Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot could be second among the women. Has had a long and successful career at 5000 and 10000 on the track, winning a gold and a silver at the Rio Olympics; and 4 golds and a silver at 4 World Champs from 2007 to 2015.Ran her first marathon in London 2017, finishing 4th. Was rated best in the world by Letsrun for her 2018 record of first in London, second in New York. She is 35 years old and the IAAF ranks her 3.

Leule Gebrselassie is the second of 3 young talents who I believe will finish between Kipchoge and Sir Mo Farah. He is 25 years old and ranked 3. He was 2nd in Dubai , 2 sec behind Geremew then won Valencia, both in under 2.05. That was enough for letsrun to rank him 5th.

Tirunesh Dibaba is the next best women's marathoner. Had a year to forget last year, finishing third in Berlin and failing to finish london, but will be back with a bang in 2019. Mow 33yo and ranked 6. In 2017 was rated the number one marathoner by this site. She was second in London and won Chicago. Between those two, Dibaba won silver at the World Champs over 10000m on the track. Her first marathon was in 2014, finishing third in London.

My choice for fourth place is Mosinet Geremew, who is 27yo and ranked 4. He is warming up for it today in a half marathon in Lisbon. Last year he won Dubai in 2.04.00 and was second in Chicago. Previous year he was 2nd in Xiamen, China and 3rd in Berlin. He has won the half marathon in Yangzhou four years in a row from 2015-2018, holding the Chinese all-comers record of 59.52 set in the first win.

Did they do a profile on that 50 yr old age group masters guy who is on the juice? His fellow Brits could not handle all the allegations from LR last year, hence all the negative posts about "roid man" were deleted.

Born in the 856 wrote:

Did they do a profile on that 50 yr old age group masters guy who is on the juice? His fellow Brits could not handle all the allegations from LR last year, hence all the negative posts about "roid man" were deleted.

i have no idea what this means including, who are “they”?

Who are the celebrities running?

Aussiestatman wrote:

Tirunesh Dibaba is the next best women's marathoner. Had a year to forget last year, finishing third in Berlin and failing to finish london, but will be back with a bang in 2019. Mow 33yo and ranked 6. In 2017 was rated the number one marathoner by this site. She was second in London and won Chicago. Between those two, Dibaba won silver at the World Champs over 10000m on the track. Her first marathon was in 2014, finishing third in London.

Ok Brigid Kosgei should at least be in top 3.

Don't forget up and comer Jack Rayner

BrigidK wrote:

Aussiestatman wrote:

Tirunesh Dibaba is the next best women's marathoner. Had a year to forget last year, finishing third in Berlin and failing to finish london, but will be back with a bang in 2019. Mow 33yo and ranked 6. In 2017 was rated the number one marathoner by this site. She was second in London and won Chicago. Between those two, Dibaba won silver at the World Champs over 10000m on the track. Her first marathon was in 2014, finishing third in London.

Ok Brigid Kosgei should at least be in top 3.

She will be next, ranked 5 by the IAAF. Chicago was a good win , beating a talented runner by 2.43. Also second to Cheruiyot last year. Will be in the mix

ReignofRayner wrote:

Don't forget up and comer Jack Rayner

Young Aussie talent. Yet to break 61 for the half. Like to see him beat some Americans home in his debut but outside the top ten

Aussiestatman wrote:

BrigidK wrote:

Ok Brigid Kosgei should at least be in top 3.

She will be next, ranked 5 by the IAAF. Chicago was a good win , beating a talented runner by 2.43. Also second to Cheruiyot last year. Will be in the mix

Had a bit more of a think and not Kosgei yet. I believe Gladys Cherono can reverse last year's battle for third and fourth here. Cherono is 35yo and ranked 2. Stumbled into fourth last year, running 75.14 for the second half, then won Berlin for the third time in her fastest time and the fastest by any female in 2018. This site rated her 2018 performances as second best and she was named as the AIMS Best Marathon Runner for the year. In 2017 was 5th in Boston and won Berlin.

Aussiestatman wrote:

Aussiestatman wrote:

She will be next, ranked 5 by the IAAF. Chicago was a good win , beating a talented runner by 2.43. Also second to Cheruiyot last year. Will be in the mix

Had a bit more of a think and not Kosgei yet. I believe Gladys Cherono can reverse last year's battle for third and fourth here. Cherono is 35yo and ranked 2. Stumbled into fourth last year, running 75.14 for the second half, then won Berlin for the third time in her fastest time and the fastest by any female in 2018. This site rated her 2018 performances as second best and she was named as the AIMS Best Marathon Runner for the year. In 2017 was 5th in Boston and won Berlin.

My mistake, Kosgei was second here in London last year, but i still think Cherono can turn the tables and beat her home this year.

Aussiestatman wrote:

Aussiestatman wrote:

Had a bit more of a think and not Kosgei yet. I believe Gladys Cherono can reverse last year's battle for third and fourth here. Cherono is 35yo and ranked 2. Stumbled into fourth last year, running 75.14 for the second half, then won Berlin for the third time in her fastest time and the fastest by any female in 2018. This site rated her 2018 performances as second best and she was named as the AIMS Best Marathon Runner for the year. In 2017 was 5th in Boston and won Berlin.

My mistake, Kosgei was second here in London last year, but i still think Cherono can turn the tables and beat her home this year.

Yeah but Kosgei ran a 29:54 10k recently(beating Helen Obiri), two sub 66-minute half marathons in the past two months, with one of them being a 65:28 with an insane close of 14:52 for her last 5k of the race (1:02:40 pace!!) She left Ruth Chepngetich, a 2:17:07 marathoner in the dust. If you look at her Chicago performance, they were not even on sub 2:20 pace for almost all the race until Brigid made her move and ran a bunch of low 5/sub 5 miles to run away from everyone in the field and run 2:18. She has been undefeated since London last year and has beat some of the best in the world. I would not be surprised at all if she takes the race in London. I guess the field is so good (unlike Boston) that I could really see anyone in the top 8ish taking the race.

Sir Mo Farah is next. Legend of the track and starting to build a career at this distance. Turning 36 soon and ranked 7. Was 3rd in London last year and won Chicago. The previous year, won silver at 5000 and gold at 10000 at the World Champs.

Aussiestatman wrote:

BrigidK wrote:

Ok Brigid Kosgei should at least be in top 3.

She will be next, ranked 5 by the IAAF. Chicago was a good win , beating a talented runner by 2.43. Also second to Cheruiyot last year. Will be in the mix

Brigid is next, 25yo and favourite of some to win this. Won the Houston half in January. Last year was second here in London and broke 2.20 for the first time in winning Chicago. Warmed up for this with a stunning win in the Bahrain half marathon in 65.28, the last 5k in a ridiculously fast time.