NYC Women’s Media Day: Is This the Year the Course Record Finally Goes Down?

NEW YORK – Thursday was media day at the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon, which features women’s pros like Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi (the last two NYC champs), Tirunesh Dibaba, and Jenny Simpson. We spoke to all of them, so read on for the scoop on why we may finally see a fast race on the women’s side, how fit Dibaba is for her first marathon in six years, and Simpson’s reflections on her incredible 15-year professional career before she runs her final race on Sunday.

Lokedi mulling change of strategy – could the women’s course record finally go down on Sunday?

As we noted in our women’s preview, 2022 NYC champ Sharon Lokedi and Hellen Obiri have been involved in close finishes in their last three races against each other, including NYC last year. Each time, Obiri prevailed in a final-mile kick. We spoke to Lokedi’s coach Stephen Haas, who suggested they may try a different approach this time around rather than allowing it to come down to the final mile. With near-ideal conditions forecast on Sunday, could we see Lokedi push the pace early and attack Margaret Okayo’s 2:22:31 course record from 2003? Lokedi wouldn’t commit to pushing it herself, but said she would welcome a quick pace.

“There’s a lot more women that I think would push it early and I like that,” Lokedi said. “I’m just going to be ready to go whenever that is. We’re trying a few things and hopefully it goes well. I’m confident with where we are.”

What to expect from Tirunesh Dibaba?

Gemedu Dedefo, coach of men’s Olympic champ Tamirat Tola and former women’s world record holder Tigst Assefa, has also been coaching Ethiopian star Tirunesh Dibaba, now 39, for her NYC buildup – her first marathon since 2018. Dedefo said it has taken time for Dibaba to return from giving birth to her third child in 2021 because they have had to be careful to avoid injuries along the way. Now, Dedefo says, he believes she is in around 2:20 shape on a flat course.

“But on this course,” he said, “[that’s] difficult.”

Given the competition in New York, it will be a challenge for Dibaba to contend for the win on Sunday. A slower race, which would allow her to hang around the lead pack longer, favors her. Long-term, Dedefo said, it will be hard for Dibaba to return to peak form given her age – especially tough because Dibaba’s marathon peak (2:17 pre-super shoes) was so high. But he said the competitiveness that allowed her to dominate the sport in the 2000s and 2010s is still there.

“She is a competitor, especially in tactical races, she becomes stronger,” Dedefo said.

One certainly wouldn’t want to tell Dibaba, arguably the greatest female distance runner ever,  that she’s not going to win as the 12-time individual gold medallist (4 in XC and 8 on the track, including 3 Olympics), has a champion’s mindset. 

When we asked her what her goal for Sunday was, she said through an interpreter, “If God is willing, I will be a fierce competitor. And if God is willing, I will win this race.”

She told us she came back to the sport after a four-year break because she “loves running.” While she did acknowledge it’s possible she never gets back to her old form, she said she wants to get as close to it as possible and also said she’s hoping to run 2:20 even though she acknowledged the course record is 2:22. 

And US distance fans, let us share some good news. Dibaba confirmed to LetsRun today that all there of her children were born in the US, so they are US citizens and eligible to run for the US in the Olympics. Dibaba said it would be their choice as to whom to run for. Her eldest son is now nine years old and she said he runs on a school team and is “very good” which makes sense as his dad, two-time Olympic silver medalist Sileshi Sihine, was also very good at running,

Olympic alternate Jess McClain showed zero bitterness about not getting to run in Paris even though Fiona O’Keeffe didn’t make it 5k and was seen limping at the start: “It was her spot to begin with”

We spent a lot of our time talking with Jess McClain, who was the US alternate in both the 10,000 and marathon for the Paris Olympics. McClain flew to Paris a few days out from the Olympics thinking she might run as rumors swirled that an American Olympian was injured. She ended up not getting the chance to run even though Trials champ Fiona O’Keeffe dropped out early, but McClain had no problems with how things went down.

“It was her spot to begin with. (And) honestly, when I got the call [that I might get the chance to run], I was pretty devastated for whoever was going through whatever they were going through,” said McClain. 

“My heart goes out to her. I mean, honestly, she’s got such a long career ahead of her. I totally understand wanting to become an Olympian. And as our sport is right now, it’s like the only way to do that is to line up. So I wasn’t going to put any pressure on her either way. I honestly didn’t even know who the athlete was until the race started,” said McClain, who was hoping to run the Paris mass participation marathon as a consolation prize but couldn’t get into that as they had a hard cap of 20,024 athletes for the 2024 Olympics.

Dakotah Lindwurm has a new name and is the 2nd-fittest she’s ever been

We have good news for US distance fans. The lone American Olympian in this year’s New York women’s field, Dakotah Lindwurm, told us she’s the second most fit she’s ever been. And she thinks she’s fitter than she was in Paris when she ran well and finished 12th in 2:26:44.

“I think [my fitness is] super similar, honestly [to the Olympics and Olympic Trials]. I think Paris was probably the third-fittest I’ve ever been. The Olympic Trials was the first. This might be the second most fit I’ve ever been,” said Lindwurm.

Lindwurm said the extreme hills in Paris beat her up so it took a couple weeks to get back into things after a lot of PT work. 

“I did take a full week off, like I always do after a marathon. And then my first week back was pretty challenging. My body was still pretty beat up. Like, my quads were legitimately still sore from Paris. So it took a little bit to get back into it the way I would like. Normally, I feel like I can get back and feel like myself right away. 

“But it did take me, I’d say, two or three weeks to feel normal running. And it took a lot of PT, a lot of chiropractor work to get there. But once I was back, I felt like my fitness was still there and I was able to just extend my training cycle from Paris.”

Lindwurm will run with Popehn on her bib as that soon will officially be her last name as she got married last weekend in Taylors Falls on Minnesota/Wisconsin border (she needs her wedding license to come back before she can legally change it). The week before a marathon, most people are trying to do whatever they can to relax and reduce stress, not get married, but Dakotah said it wasn’t stressful at all. 

“You know, we hired a wedding planner. There were 20 people at our wedding. The morning of my wedding, I went for a long run with the team and then got breakfast with my now husband, so it wasn’t stressful whatsoever. It was very low-key, very easy.”

That’s fine and dandy. But why didn’t she have it the week after NYC?

“Because the weather in Minnesota turns quickly. I think we were just kind of hoping we’d get a good weather day since it was an outdoor wedding,” said Dakotah, who added that they got great weather with temps in the 70s.

Jenny Simpson says goodbye to professional running

On Thursday morning, Outside broke the news that Jenny Simpson is retiring from professional running, with her final race coming in Sunday’s NYC Marathon. After 15 years as a pro, Jenny and her husband Jason will be spending 2025 touring the country in a Winnebago with their Jack Russell Terriers, Truman and Barkley. They will be documenting all of it on YouTube (teaser video here) and their aim is to host an “open run” in every state.

Simpson had moved to the roads in 2023 with a new sponsor, Puma, and the hope to one day be competitive in the marathon. That did not quite materialize – she dropped out of the Olympic Marathon Trials in February and ran 2:31 in Boston in April – but she is hoping to at least go out with a pb on Sunday, hopefully sub-2:30.

Ultimately, however, Simpson will be remembered for her track career – and what a career it was. Her collegiate career at the University of Colorado was one of the best in NCAA history, as she set NCAA records in the 1500, mile, 3000, 5000, and steeple. The 5,000 record lasted until last year, when Parker Valby finally broke it, while her 1500 record of 3:59.90 still stands.

Simpson found early success in the steeple, winning three NCAA titles and two US titles and setting the American record from 9:27 to 9:12. But her best event was the 1500, where she was the most successful American woman in the history of the event. Simpson won the 2011 world title as well as silver medals in 2013 and 2017 and Olympic bronze in 2016. Of all women in history, only Faith Kipyegon has won more career outdoor 1500 medals than Simpson.

But when we asked Simpson for her favorite memories from her time in the sport, she did not select any of those medal races. Instead, she highlighted her time in college, where she was able to run for a team, represent Colorado, and discover just how good she could be.

“Winning the Prefontaine Classic [in 2009] will just always be – I’m sorry, I didn’t win, I was second, but running sub-4:00, I mean, for a college kid, that’s winning, right?” Simpson said. “That is a moment that just transformed my idea of what I could do and who I could be in the sport.”

Rarely hurt and always up for the big moment, Simpson made every US World or Olympic team from 2007 through 2019, uncommon longevity in this sport. Towards the end, she got a first-hand look at the women she inspired along the way.

“We’re on the starting line in Eugene to run one of the dozens of 1500s that I’ve in Eugene. And there was a young woman in college running probably the US championships. And she came up to me as we’re on the starting line and said, Oh, it’s such a dream to – I don’t remember exactly her words, but like, you know, it’s privileged to race against you, I watched you growing up. And that was like both sides of the coin. It took me off. It took me aback. I was surprised that, like we’re about to race each other. You just should want to beat me, you know? But it made me feel so amazing, like my career has been even a tiny little part of leading this woman to this moment to being in this position to race at such a high level.”

LetsRun.com had boots on the ground on Thursday and we learned so much we wrote three separate articles about the press event. The second is on the men’s pro race. In the third, we asked many of the women’s pros like Obiri, Dibaba, Lokedi, and McClain for their thoughts on Ruth Chepngetich’s marathon world record. 

Talk about the race on our world-famous messageboard: *MB: Official 2024 New York City Marathon Discussion Thread