What we learned at NYC Marathon media day: Hassan’s prep, team tactics in the women’s race, and Kipchoge’s “huge announcement”

NEW YORK — The 2025 TCS New York City Marathon is two days away, and many of the top stars assembled by the finish line in Central Park on Friday for the pre-race press conference. LetsRun.com had two pairs of boots on the ground to get the inside scoop, including updates on Sifan Hassan and Sharon Lokedi, a tease for a “huge announcement” from Eliud Kipchoge, an explanation from Joe Klecker about why his transition to the roads has been tougher than he envisioned, and some potential team tactics in the women’s race on Sunday that could result in Margaret Okayo‘s course record finally falling after 23 years. Here are the seven biggest things we learned on Friday.

You can view all of our video interviews on the LetsRun YouTube channel here. And if you missed any of our other NYC Marathon articles, including previews of both the men’s and women’s races, you can view them here.

1) Eliud Kipchoge says he will be making a “huge announcement” after the race on Sunday

Yesterday, Olympics.com appeared to drop a major bombshell when it reported that Kipchoge said Sunday in New York will “absolutely” be his final elite marathon. The story also said that Kipchoge is hoping to pursue other endeavors in the sport, such as running in Antarctica and running a 50K in Saudi Arabia.

If Kipchoge, the unquestioned greatest marathoner ever, was actually retiring from the event, that would be a major story. But that does not appear to be the case. LetsRun.com spoke to Kipchoge’s agent Valentijn Trouw in New York, and he said that it was likely Kipchoge will race another marathon in the pro field next year.

We then went to the source, Kipchoge himself, to ask whether NYC will be his final elite marathon. He neither confirmed nor denied it, saying only that he will be making a “huge announcement” after Sunday’s race.

2) Sifan Hassan had some initial doubts after her quick turnaround from Sydney but is feeling a bit more confident now

Sifan Hassan admitted that the short turnaround from Sydney (nine weeks) and the notoriously tough NYC Marathon course left her with some doubts as recently as a few weeks ago. Talks with her coach Tim Rowberry and occasional training partner Vivian Cheruiyot seem to have gotten her into a positive mindset since then. Rowberry relayed that many runners who have done both consider Sydney a tougher course than NYC. Cheruiyot, who was 3rd last year in NY, provided some helpful intel on the course.

Hassan’s apprehension was due to a very difficult Sydney win. Brigid Kosgei showed signs of former greatness in that race. Meanwhile, Hassan regretted pushing the pace at all on the course and said she won’t make that mistake in NYC.

She confirmed that with her presence and reputation for a ferocious kick, she expects the other athletes to try to drop her earlier than the final stages. The biggest threat in her mind seemed to be Hellen Obiri, whom she repeatedly referred to as a “beast.” As it stands, you can expect Hassan to stick at the back of the lead pack as long as she can muster. As we’ve seen before, even if she falls off, she can’t be ruled out to make a rally. If she’s there in Central Park, it is hard to pick against her.

That being said, the pristine low-wind conditions are perfect to push the pace early and insert some doubts into Hassan’s mind. That sounds like exactly how it’s going to play out.

3) The last three NYC champs may team up to defeat Sifan Hassan

In the last four editions of the NYC Marathon, the women’s race has come down to a group of women kicking for the win over the final miles in Central Park. But the addition of Sifan Hassan to the field in September changes the calculus. Hassan isn’t undefeated in marathons – she has won four and lost two – but two of those wins came in dramatic sprint finishes (2023 London, 2024 Olympics). Add in Hassan’s track pedigree (2019 1500m world champion, 3:51 pb), and she is the last woman you’d want to see on your shoulder at the end of a marathon.

So there is an incentive for Hassan’s rivals to ensure that she is not with the leaders when the kicking begins. We spoke to Sharon Lokedi’s coach Stephen Haas and Sheila Chepkirui’s agent Davor Savija, and both suggested it is possible that some combination of Lokedi, Obiri, and Chepkirui could work together to push the pace early in the race in the hope of removing Hassan from the equation. Dropping Hassan is not going to be easy – her pb of 2:13:44 is fastest in the field – but she also ran Sydney just nine weeks ago and said her recovery from that race did not go as smoothly as she would have liked.

The NYC course record of 2:22:31 by Margaret Okayo has stood since 2003, but conditions look to be perfect for racing on Sunday (high 40s, 2–5 mph wind). If the top women do choose to push early, expect them not just to break the CR but to smash it. The pace was hot earlier this year in Boston, and Lokedi (2:17:22) and Obiri (2:17:41) both took more than two minutes off the course record in that race.

4) The men’s race may come down to Kenyans Benson Kipruto and Alexander Mutiso

The sense at media day was that Kipruto and Mutiso are the two men to beat in New York on Sunday. Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele are both in their 40s, and though defending champion Abdi Nageeye is coming off a pb in London, he admitted he experienced a setback during his buildup. Albert Korir, who has finished on the podium in NYC three times (including a win in 2021), could be a factor, but he wasn’t at the press conference. Kipruto and Mutiso both were, and both are confident heading into Sunday’s race.

Kipruto put together a remarkable streak of eight straight marathon podium finishes (seven in majors) from 2021–24 but was only 7th in his most recent race in Tokyo. His coach Claudio Berardelli thought that may have been a result of taking a while to get back into the swing of things after an extended down period after the Olympics. But Kipruto has ramped things back up as he chases a big goal.

“There’s an assignment that I have not finished in the US,” Kipruto said. “And that is winning Boston, winning Chicago, and this one. That’s my goal now.”

Kipruto has already won Boston (2021) and Chicago (2022). Should he win on Sunday, he would be the first man in history to have won Boston, Chicago, and NYC.

5) Benson Kipruto on training partner Esphond Cheruiyot’s doping bust: “He is destroying what Sabastian Sawe and us as a group have started”

On Tuesday, the AIU announced that it had banned Kenyan runner Esphond Cheruiyot for three years after the 24-year-old tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication that has become a popular performance-enhancing drug in recent years. Cheruiyot doesn’t have many major results (he just ran 2:09 at the Buenos Aires Marathon in September) but is notable because he is part of coach Claudio Berardelli’s 2 Running Club in Kapsabet that includes marathon stars Benson Kipruto, Evans Chebet, Amos Kipruto, and Sabastian Sawe as well as Olympic 800 champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi and 3:27 1500 man Phanuel Koech.

The group and its sponsor, adidas, are aware that Kenya is in the midst of a doping epidemic. So in an effort to prove they do things the right way, adidas spent tens of thousands of dollars subjecting Sawe to an enhanced out-of-competition testing program ahead of the Berlin Marathon. Sawe won that race in 2:02:16 – a time that would have been much faster had the weather cooperated, earning the group some serious credibility. Yet just a month later, an athlete in that group has tested positive.

Kipruto was very frustrated by the news. He said that Cheruiyot, who immediately admitted to the violation, was misled and that his mistake reflects poorly on the entire group.

“It was a bad image,” Kipruto said. “And he admits that he himself got the medication outside the camp. He’s a young boy, I think he was mistaught by somebody or whoever got the medicine. And he also said he’s responsible for the medication and the consequences of the ban.

“It’s a disappointment to all of us as a group because he is kind of destroying what Sabastian Sawe and us as a group have started, to try to eradicate this use of prohibited substances and doping in Kenya. This boy, I think he was misled by somebody. But we are still investigating. Right now, we had a couple of meetings discussing and talking about what happened.”

LetsRun also asked Berardelli to comment on Cheruiyot’s positive test; he said he would comment next week so as not to distract from Kipruto’s race in New York.

6) Joe Klecker opens up on his transition to the roads

After making three US teams on the track, Joe Klecker moved to the roads this year and will debut in the marathon on Sunday. The transition has proved tougher than he envisioned, however, and on Friday, Klecker provided tons of insights as to why. Entering his first heavy road training cycle for the Houston Half, he was coming off 6–8 months of injury. Although he got 3–4 months of training in, Klecker felt he was perhaps overly ambitious to think he could perform at the same level relative to his track feats. In retrospect, he didn’t have regrets attacking sub-59 and the American record that Conner Mantz got, but he understood why it didn’t happen.

From there, Klecker did a ton of racing as he found his footing. He enters New York with more confidence for this race and for next year in particular. The OAC has added two key training partners in Ryan Ford (who ran 2:08 in Boston) and former Arkansas standout Patrick Kiprop, who has impressed in domestic road action. They’ve also added former New York City 6th-placer Laura Thweatt into the fold as an assistant coach. Klecker said having a second experienced road voice along with OAC head coach Dathan Ritzenhein has provided a lot of extra value, including course-specific gems when they toured the course a couple of months back.

Klecker said he’s in a much better place fitness- and confidence-wise than 12 weeks ago. He’s put together a bunch of consecutive 100-mile weeks and has dialed back his racing considerably. The plan for next year is to race less and train more. As for his NYC race plan, he wants to run his own race and hang back if it’s a hot pace. New York was a deliberate choice, as the unpaced nature appeals to him and he wants to focus completely on racing. He thinks he’ll have success catching people in the second half.

7) Odds & Ends…Updates on the rest of the field

Alexander Mutiso – Mutiso is a man of few words, but he relayed his buildup has gone very well and he thinks his win at a windy and hilly Great North Run primes him well to win in New York. He’s been at 180–200km in the buildup. He explained one of his few down marathons, the Paris Olympics, occurred due to a suboptimal buildup.

Molly Seidel – The 2021 Olympic bronze medalist has said she will be focusing on ultramarathons and trail races after this season, but she is not completely abandoning the marathon. She isn’t sure how many marathons she will race in the next few years but said she is still hoping to make her second Olympic team in 2028.

“I tend to look at running a little bit more flexibly,” Seidel said. “Just because you run a certain distance doesn’t make you that thing. I see myself as a runner, first of all. Whether I’m doing marathons, whether I’m doing ultras, I’m a runner.”

Abdi Nageeye – Nageeye expressed confidence about his chances to go back-to-back but did let slip that he had some setbacks in his preparation. He also said that at age 36, his body doesn’t always respond as well as it used to, and he’s running 175km/week (108 miles), which is slightly lower than many of his competitors. His win last year gives him confidence, and he said that while he lost a kick finish to Mutiso in London this year, he was dealing with cramping at the time. He said he’s game for a rematch in the last 100 meters if it comes to that.

Nageeye also touched on the European resurgence in both track running and marathoning led by runners like himself and 10K world champ Jimmy Gressier. Nageeye said being born at altitude provides a major advantage, and for athletes like himself and Gressier, it’s about being determined and slowly chipping away until you can beat the best. He called Europe’s development as a force in distance running “good for the sport.”

Sifan Hassan shares her thoughts on Ruth Chepngetich’s suspension – Sifan Hassan gave a lengthy answer to her thoughts on Ruth Chepngetich’s three-year ban for using a masking agent. She called the situation “really sad” and revealed that in an athletes’ meeting with the AIU recently, the organization admitted they couldn’t do anything (at the moment) about the lofty world record staying on the books. Hassan pressed for more education for younger athletes to understand the dangers of doping, how it can destroy their lives, and how the immediate success it provides could undermine their longevity. As for her own time aspirations, she said the first target was 2:11. She won’t rule out the record long-term. She also expressed interest in running each of the World Marathon Majors, which should excite fans in Boston.

Sharon Lokedi – Lokedi is definitely ready to go and probably should be on equal footing with Hellen Obiri and Sifan Hassan despite their more impressive track credentials. She said she wanted to drop a fast time in a half marathon and did so on a rainy Copenhagen course (65:00 in September). Training has gone quite well for her, and she indicated she and others are all thinking about a more honest pace to drop Hassan.

Emily Sisson – Emily Sisson said her time away from the marathon since Paris has been going very well with one exception: she keeps getting sick at inopportune times. Unfortunately, it seems like that has struck again. Her taper has been marred by illness, and she seemed a little unsure she’d be 100% by the race. The work coming in has been good (including strong 5K/10K performances), but it sounds like she plans on going out cautiously on Sunday as a result of the rough taper. This will be the first marathon she runs in a very high-stack supershoe, so that’s also worth monitoring. It’s also a hilly course, though Sisson said her hill-specific prep had been very good.

Eliud Kipchoge thinks sub-2 is coming – In the past, Kipchoge has been a little reticent to talk about others taking on the mantle from him as the world’s top marathoner. Today he agreed that Jacob Kiplimo and Sabastian Sawe have the marathon in good shape going forward, and he expects them to build on what he’s done.