Good Conditions Could Lead to Great Times for the Pros at 2023 Chicago Marathon
Kenyans Kelvin Kiptum and Ruth Chepngetich have set their sights on the course records on Sunday -- and maybe more
By Mike Knapp
October 6, 2023
CHICAGO – One of the selling points of the Chicago Marathon, and one that makes it so appealing, is that it’s flat – with the potential of being fast.
That second item gets a bit of a caveat. Since the event moved to its now-traditional Columbus Day weekend, the race-day weather has always been a bit of a crapshoot. Of course, Chicago always presents the opportunity to run fast times, but when the weather cooperates, it unlocks a whole new potential.
As the world converges on the Windy City for the 45th Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Mother Nature has put this course on a tee, and now all the elite field has to do Sunday morning is take their biggest swings.
With the cloudy conditions and temperatures predicted to be 47 at the 7:30 a.m. CT start, the course will be ripe for the taking, and it doesn’t sound like anyone is going to let this opportunity get away from them.
How that is defined differs depending on who you ask, but with the field consisting of six men who have run faster than 2:05 and eight women who have broken 2:19, there will be plenty of competition, and that can lead to fast times.
While most of the runners at Friday’s pre-race press conference were pretty coy, as expected, there was a lot of interest in the current men’s and women’s course records of 2:03:45, which was set by Dennis Kimetto in 2013, and 2:14:04, set by Brigid Kosgei four years ago — a world record at the time.
Kelvin Kiptum made it clear that Kimetto’s record is in his crosshairs. The 24-year-old Kenyan has broken 2:02 twice in the last 10 months and last April in London finished in 2:01:25 to fall just 16 seconds short of Eliud Kipchoge’s world record.
With the rainy season in his home country putting a bit of a kink in Kiptum’s training, he said about a month ago that he wasn’t in world-record shape, but the course record is absolutely doable.
“My plan has not changed at all,” he said. “If I feel good on Sunday I will [break] the current course record. It will mean a lot to me. I think the field is very strong and that should help.”
Kosgei’s world record, which was lowered in explosive fashion by Tigst Assefa (2:11:53) two weeks ago in Berlin, was still the standard last October, and Ruth Chepngetich went after it in earnest. After dropping a monster first half in 65:44, she was still on record pace through 40K before finishing in 2:14:18.
Chepngetich emphasized that winning here for the third straight year is her priority, but also said that anything is possible, and she hopes to set a personal best in the process. Later she told LetsRun.com she is aiming to run a similar first half to last year — somewhere in the 65:40-66:00 range — and finish stronger than 2022.
In other words: expect her to go big.
The pace at the front of the men’s field may be too rich for Conner Mantz’s blood, but he’s chasing a time as well. With the Olympic Marathon Trials set to be run in Orlando in four months’ time, Mantz is looking to crack 2:08:10 and achieve the Olympic standard.
Conner Mantz in Chicago last year (Kevin Morris photo)
While there are other ways Mantz could find himself in the field in Paris next summer, he’d feel much better with the standard under his belt at the Trials.
“I’m not feeling too much pressure, I’m just trying to focus on my processes, and being ready to run fast,” Mantz said. “I think if I run my race plan, pace it out well, and make sure I get my bottles, I’m pretty sure I’ll run under that time. [The standard] is my time goal.”
In his marathon debut here last year, Mantz finished in seventh in 2:08:16, then followed that up with an 11th-place effort at Boston, where he ran with the leaders before fading late and finishing in 2:10:25.
He comes to Chicago in good form, having logged more than 5,000 miles in training since last year, and finished second behind training partner Clayton Young at the US 20K Championships over Labor Day weekend. Mantz also brings more experience to the starting line, and that will help him stay patient during the race and not get swept up in doing something that he doesn’t want to do.
“I’ve done multiple marathons, I’ve had another full year of training, and that gives me confidence that I can show up and compete,” he said. “I’ve just got to mentally be like, ‘I have to run my own race, I can’t go out too hard.’”