Sharon Lokedi Runs Back Boston Marathon Playbook to Win 2025 Boston 10K

BOSTON — The last time Sharon Lokedi was running down Commonwealth Avenue in Boston’s Back Bay, she was breaking Hellen Obiri en route to winning the Boston Marathon two months ago. So when she returned for Sunday’s Boston 10K — whose final two miles includes a stretch of the marathon course — she decided to run it back.

“We came down the bridge, and I’m like, oh, I know where I am,” said Lokedi, who began to gap the field as she ran down the underpass that slopes beneath Mass Ave. “And I just got the momentum from the downhill and just picked it up all the way to the finish.”

Lokedi was clear of the pack by the time she had turned right on Hereford and left on Boylston to reach the marathon finish line, but the 10K course runs for an extra kilometer before finishing on Boston Common. Fellow Kenyan Gladys Kwanboka made a late charge, but Lokedi had just enough to hold her off for the win — and the $12,000 first-place prize — as both were credited with a time of 31:39.

Kevin Morris photo

“I was like, don’t look back,” said Lokedi, 31. “And then on the straightaway, I looked back and I was like, oh, it’s getting close. Let’s go!”

Emily Sisson was the top American in 3rd, running 31:42. In the men’s race, Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay broke up the field with a hard mid-race surge and won in 28:14 for his third victory in Boston, following wins in 2018 and 2023. The top American finisher was Zouhair Talbi (28:18) in 2nd.

Just as in the 26.2-mile race in April, Lokedi was gapped midway through Sunday’s race when Kwanboka and Jesca Chelangat made a move to string out the field as they ran alongside the Charles River down Memorial Drive during mile 3. But Lokedi closed the gap by 5k (15:59) and would remain near the front until making her move just before 5 miles as they exited Kenmore Square.

The Boston 10K was Lokedi’s second race back after her Boston Marathon victory, and she is still working her way back to top form before starting her buildup for a fall marathon. Lokedi only ran two workouts before her previous race, the New York Mini 10K on June 7, where she was 5th in 31:13, and though she ran slower today due to the humid temps (75 degrees and drizzling, 66 dew point), she won the race this time.

Kevin Morris photo

“Even going into today, I knew I wasn’t fast, I didn’t have any speed in me, but I knew I had strength,” Lokedi said. “So I just had to stay strong and fight through it.”

Lokedi said she was not sure about the next race on her schedule but would like to run a half marathon or two before her next marathon this fall. Lokedi has run the New York City Marathon in each of the last three years, and the rhythm-breaking course is a good fit for her skillset, but she did not rule out trying to chase a pb at a flat course, either.

“I just did this to get back into running,” Lokedi said. “[Now I have to] think about what’s next. [Coach] Stephen [Haas] and I will sit down and figure out what’s next from here.”

Top 10 results *Full results

Men’s race
1. Gabriel Geay, Tanzania 28:14
2. Zouhair Talbi, Morocco* 28:18
3. Patrick Dever, Great Britain 28:21
4. Dennis Kitiyo, Kenya 28:25
5. Wesley Kiptoo, Kenya 28:32
6. Joe Klecker, USA 28:35
7. Haftamu Gebresilase, Ethiopia 28:35
8. Andrew Colley, USA 28:37
9. Patrick Tiernan, Australia 28:45
10. Andrew Alexander, Canada 28:54

*The official results list Talbi as representing Morocco, as his transfer of allegiance from Morocco to the US has not yet been finalized. He is an American citizen, though the Boston 10K does not offer a separate prize for top American.

Women’s race
1. Sharon Lokedi, Kenya 31:39
2. Gladys Kwanboka, Kenya 31:39
3. Emily Sisson, USA 31:42
4. Jesca Chelangat, Kenya 32:00
5. Maggie Montoya, USA 32:04
6. Chloe Herbiet, Belgium 32:09
7. Sheila Chepkirui, Kenya 32:17
8. Edna Kiplagat, Kenya 32:29
9. Erika Kemp, USA 32:32
10. Megan Hasz, USA 32:40

Emily Sisson said she was “happy to be disappointed” with a third-place finish

Emily Sisson has not raced a lot the last two years. And when she has, the Providence College alum has rarely felt great.

“I feel like I’ve had little things, like little niggles or side stitches,” Sisson said. “The body just hasn’t been cooperating the last little while.”

Sisson still had enough to make her second Olympic team by finishing 2nd at the US Marathon Trials in February 2024, but she was only 22nd in Paris and took a lengthy break after that race, skipping fall 2024 and spring 2025 marathons. In the last few weeks, she has been making progress. On May 18, she finished 2nd at the Great Manchester Run 10K, running 31:02 to defeat the likes of Obiri and 2022 world marathon champion Gotytom Gebreslase. It was a sign, Sisson hoped, that she had taken a step toward feeling good again in races, as she had in 2022 and early 2023, when she set US records in the half (twice) and full marathon.

After Manchester, however, Sisson was forced to withdraw from the New York Mini 10K due to illness, and today Sisson said she felt flat — perhaps a result of missing time because of that illness or pushing a little too hard in Wednesday’s workout in an attempt to make up for that missed training.

Sisson, 33, will be spending the summer in Ireland, where she has a house in Waterford with her Irish husband (and former Providence teammate) Shane Quinn and said that while she may return for another American road race (perhaps Beach to Beacon on August 2), she is also excited about some new experiences in Europe.

“I’m looking forward to doing races I haven’t done before, and they have a lot of halves in the fall,” Sisson said, noting that she just committed to a fall half marathon in Europe.

We have a bonus interview with Sisson from Saturday’s press event on top of the Prudential Center, where she talked about her comeback after the 2024 Olympics and her 2025 racing plans.

Zouhair Talbi is hungry to keep racing this summer

Talbi, who became a US citizen in January after enlisting in the Army Reserve, likes to race a lot but was prevented from doing so this winter as he went to basic training and then Advanced Individual Training. He returned to racing on May 10 by finishing 4th at the US 25K champs and since then has made gradual progress, running 61:08 to win the Bank of America Chicago 13.1 on June 1 and now finishing 2nd in Boston on Sunday.

Talbi said he is still not back to full fitness — “I’m still climbing, that’s for sure” — but is looking forward to racing some of the classic American road races this summer: Peachtree, Falmouth, and the US 20K champs.

“I was hungry for racing, for training hard, for just doing what professional athletes do,” Talbi said.

Joe Klecker feels like he’s learning the mechanics of road racing, but says it is time to get back to training

As someone who ran 12:54 and 27:07 on the track, made three US teams at 10,000 meters (including a victory at the 2022 US champs), and is still only 28 years old, many expected Joe Klecker to step in immediately as one of America’s top road racers when he made the switch from the track in 2025. But it has been a rocky transition. He was only 18th in his half marathon debut in Houston in January, running 61:06, and was 8th at the US Half champs in Atlanta in March.

But Klecker showed progress by finishing 2nd at the US 25K champs in May. And he feels the experience he has been gathering along the way will pay dividends down the road.

Case in point: today’s race, where Klecker finished 6th in 28:34. As the field crossed the Harvard Bridge from Cambridge back into Boston, they were hit by a huge gust of wind — and that is when Gabriel Geay decided to make his winning move. Klecker said those sort of counterintuitive moves make the roads far less predictable than the track.

“I feel like I’m really learning the mechanics and how these road races play out and what you need to do to be successful,” Klecker said. “There are a lot of unknowns. You don’t know if the first mile is going to be 4:20 or 4:50. In a track race, you know that — you know what the pace is going to be, generally…It’s really having no expectations out there and being comfortable racing that way.”

Of course, another critical component of success on the roads is being in really good shape. And Klecker’s result today told him that he needs to work on that as well — his plan now is to return to Boulder and get in a big block of training.

Klecker: “This boom of 12:40s, I think it’s going to continue”

Klecker began the year as the fifth-fastest American ever in the 5,000 meters at 12:54.99, but he has since been pushed down to #7 after Nico Young (12:45.27) and Graham Blanks (12:48.20) ran fast in Oslo last week. I asked Klecker what he thought about the spate of fast times from Americans (Grant Fisher also set the American/world indoor record of 12:44.09 in February) and he said he had been expecting it for a few years…and thinks the top guys could run faster yet.

“It doesn’t shock me,” Klecker said. “I mean, shit, I ran 12:55, and I’m not as good as Graham and those guys. So to see them running 12:45, I think they can even go faster.”

Gabriel Geay post-race