You can also take part in a host of virtual challenges in the AbbottWMM Global Run Club.
PLUS
Could you be an Age Group World Champion?
The best age group athletes aged 40 and over can compete for invites to the AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships in over 350 events worldwide.
Abbott creates life-changing technologies that help you live a healthier, fuller life. We keep your heart healthy, nourish your body at every stage of life, help you feel and move better, and bring you information and breakthroughs to manage your health.
With good health, you’ll stay on course, no matter what your marathon is in life.
DAWNA STONE
Chief Executive Officer
Abbott World Marathon Majors
Berlin in September 2022 was my first introduction to the Majors in this role, and what a place to start!
We saw Eliud Kipchoge smash his own world record and it was my first opportunity to award some Six Star Medals. It was the perfect example of the unique feature of this sport. On the very same day, on the very same stage, runners from all walks of life share the roads with the giants of the marathon.
We will witness such scenes again in the fall and I am especially excited to see our best age groupers come together in October to race in Chicago at the third AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships.
More than 100 nations will be
The AbbottWMM Team
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represented, with some highly talented names among them vying for an age group title within the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. You can meet some of them within these pages. Our evaluation team will also be visiting Sydney and Cape Town to assess their races as the candidate process to become a Major continues. They are working hard to join this amazing group of races, and we wish them well in their next events.
Whatever your goal for the coming marathon season, I hope training is progressing smoothly. And for those of you aiming for Age Group glory or Six Star satisfaction, I’ll look out for you at the finish!
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Podcast
For guest suggestions or story submissions to the Marathon Talk podcast powered by Abbott World Marathon Majors, email marathontalk@wmmajors.com
The stars of the forthcoming AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships
Illustration by Neil Jamieson
We are fast approaching the next busy period for the Abbott World Marathon Majors as we look towards the fall.
Yuki Kawauchi ran into the hearts of millions when he won the 2018 Boston Marathon. Now the Japanese cult hero has joined the Six Star Finisher Hall of Fame after completing the 2023 TCS London Marathon. Watch out for an in-depth film on one of running’s most fascinating characters coming later this summer.
(Image: David Klein for Abbott World Marathon Majors)
General Entry August 14, 2023 – August 25, 2023
ELIUD KIPCHOGE will return to the scene of his two world records when he toes the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON start line in September. The double Olympic champion ran 2:01:09 in the German capital last year and will
be looking to reassert himself as the world’s No. 1 following a bad day at the office in Boston in April. Kipchoge is joined by 2022 London champion Amos Kipruto, who came second behind Kipchoge in 2018, the first time Kipchoge broke the world record.
Last year’s champion in the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa, who clocked a course record 2:15:37 in 2022, also returns. She will face reigning Generali Berlin Half Marathon champion Sheila Chepkirui, who set a course record 65:02 in that race in 2022.
General entry applications for the Tokyo Marathon 2024 will open on August 1. The race will take place on March 3. Charity entry applications closed on July 13. Tokyo was the scene of a Six Star Finisher world record in 2023 when over 3,000 runners completed their journey through the Majors there. You can read the inside story on that day here
The ballot for a place in the 2024 TCS London Marathon was drawn in early July from a world recordbreaking number of applications. 578,374 people entered an application for a place,
the first time more than half a million people have applied for a marathon. The previous world record total of 457,861 applications was set pre-pandemic in 2019 by applicants for the 2020 London Marathon.
Registration for the 2024 Boston Marathon will take place over five days, from September 11 to September 15, 2023.
Qualifiers can register from 10:00am ET on the 11th until 5:00pm ET on the 15th.
For the 2024 race, the qualifying window began on September 1, 2022 and is open until September 15, 2023.
Click here for the full list of qualifying times and further details.
If you want to sample a flavor of TCS New York City Marathon race day but can’t be there in person this year, the virtual experience could be the one for you.
Slots remain open in the Finisher Medal and free Love of Running registration tiers for this year’s virtual marathon.
Both options include a digital race day toolkit and limited subscription to Strava. There is limited capacity for the Finisher Medal tier. Find all the info you need here
A wonderful battle is brewing in the Windy City this October when reigning Bank of America Chicago Marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich takes on London 2023 champion Sifan Hassan.
The Kenyan ran the second fastest women’s time in history last October in Chicago, while Hassan fought back from early injury problems in London to secure victory in her maiden marathon race.
MAJORS looks at the likelihood of the world’s two fastest marathon runners going head-to-head
WORDS: Danny Coyle
What do we truly remember the greatest sportsmen and women for?
Times posted and medals won will always live on in the pages of record.
But in the memory banks of the watching millions, more often than not, it’s the titanic battles the very best endured against their fiercest rivals that define their greatness.
In boxing, Muhammad Ali wouldn’t be the fabled legend he is without his Rumble in the Jungle or Thriller in Manilla, against George Foreman and Joe Frazier respectively. The average fan on the street can reel off those fights faster than they can his career win/loss record.
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson’s rivalry elevated them, and the sport of basketball, to an entirely new level in terms of the quality of the games and the attention the sport garnered as a result of their back-and-forth tussles.
Even in the statistically obsessed world of American sport, it wasn’t their shot percentages that the public recall, but the contrast in culture, style and substance between the two men and their teams that made them greater than the sum of their numbers.
Would Messi be as great without Ronaldo’s relentless pursuit of his ascent to the title of best in the world? Probably not. It’s the presence of that polar opposite that serves to define the pair.
And in the, the great Daley Thompson was driven to greatness in the decathlon thanks to his relentless desire to beat his German counterpart Juergen Hingsen. Can you name any of the personal bests from the ten events they dominated? No. The Thompson/Hingsen animus is the story we call to mind.
Dance partners. The best on the planet have always had at least one. Which brings us to the great Eliud Kipchoge.
Are we going to see him face up to the first athlete with the first genuine chance of going stride for stride with him?
When Kelvin Kiptum relinquished his place in the Kenyan World Championship team this summer, tongues began to wag that he might be lining up against the great man somewhere on the fall Majors circuit.
It wasn’t to be. Kipchoge is going to Berlin, Kiptum is going to Chicago, but the conversation brought into focus the notion that these two will meet sooner rather than later. It can take a while for the stars to align.
Followers of boxing went gray waiting for a contest to be made between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, while hopes of one day telling the grandchildren about the moment Anthony Joshua stepped into the same ring as Tyson Fury have been fostered for longer than it took Andy Duphrane to tunnel his way out of Shawshank Prison.
It’s the hope that kills you, sometimes. At least Duphrane made it.
In marathon running, we hoped and waited for Kipchoge vs Kenenisa Bekele, and had a near miss in 2020 when they were both announced for the London Marathon.
In 2019 the great Ethiopian had come two seconds away from the then-world record set by Kipchoge a year earlier in Berlin. Bekele ran 2:01:41 on the same course, becoming the second man to breach 2:02 in a record-eligible race. The tantalising prospect of a duel between them was set for the following spring.
Then came the pandemic, a delay, and a rescheduled clash of the titans for October 2020.
They shared a covid-restricted athlete hideaway in the English countryside ahead of the race on closed-off, eerily quiet roads, as though fate had
conspired to set a stage where the focus would be uniquely trained the two great men in an event stripped of its usual throng of humanity and heartrending stories. And then it was gone.
Bekele withdrew through injury just days before the race and Kipchoge, troubled by an ear problem, labored home in eighth on a miserable, wet morning. Their paths have not crossed since.
The hope, now, is that the double Olympic champion, four-time AbbottWMM Series champion and only man to stop a clock before it struck two hours for 26.2 miles, will come up against the only other man to break 2:01:30 in a ratified marathon.
Kiptum, the unknown newcomer, blazed his way around the streets of Valencia in 2:01:53 last year, then pitched up in London and ran 2:01:25, registering an eye-watering 59 minutes and 45 seconds for his second half in April.
Kipchoge has broken two world records, won Berlin three times, won London four times and also has wins in Chicago and Tokyo on his CV. A bad day for him in Boston in April sees him return to the familiar roads of the German capital where he set those record times.
The world will be watching to see if he can recover from his set-back to reassert his status as No. 1. He has been customarily graceful in his only public comment about his countryman’s performances. When asked if the younger man might be the one to attack his current world record, he said: “I always say records are meant to be broken and I hope Kiptum does that in the near future. He is a man with a big heart.”
With Kiptum now confirmed for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, it very much feels like this season will be the phoney war before a potential match-up in 2024, whether that’s in an AbbottWMM race or on the Parisian Olympic course. It’s a contest we need to see, and it has all the ingredients of a classic, but we’ve been here before, hoping and waiting for the race that could define the era.
Kipchoge’s greatness is currently constructed of his tussles with the clock, and they are already the stuff of legend. But a battle with an athlete who can hold a candle to him; that would be a contest to live with the best duels sport has ever seen. It’s the hope that kills you. We’ll nurture it gently. M
The fastest age groupers on the planet are heading for Chicago. Meet the runners who could be world championsWORDS
Danny Coyle
The Bank of America Chicago Marathon also provides a carnival of color and sound, rooted in the distinct and diverse neighbourhoods the course snakes its way through, with a flat profile and often optimal climate providing the chance to threaten your previous best performance.
This year, there’s an extra layer of motivation for 2,500 of the runners who will make the journey through the Second City in search of first place with the prospect of becoming an Age Group World Champion.
Following two years being staged within the TCS London Marathon, the AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships makes its debut on American soil as part of the 45th running of this famous race.
Runners aged 40 and over, hailing from more than 100 countries, have taken up the challenge to run as World Championship contenders after a 12-month qualifying campaign that spanned the entirety of 2022.
More than 200 events spread across six continents gave hopeful competitors the chance to earn a position in their age group, with the aim of finishing high enough in the standings to receive an invite.
Now, they will line up to do battle against each other to join the ranks of world champions who have been crowned in the previous two iterations.
The Age Group World Rankings have been in operation since 2018, with the first world championship originally scheduled for 2020. The
COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas, of course, and it was not until the London Marathon in October 2021 when qualifiers could finally have their moment.
The race produced some stunning performances, from the scintillating 2:30:46 of Tommy Hughes of Ireland in the M60-64 category, to the battle royale in the F70-74 group between the USA’s decorated age grouper Jeannie Rice and the UK’s Yuko Gordon, a 1984 Olympic marathoner. Gordon took the spoils with 3:25:30.
Then there was the indefatigable Gerry Miller of Canada, who’s 5:10:24 secured him first place in the M80+ competition. Miller returned the following year to podium once again with a much faster 4:56:26.
When he received his third-place trophy from the great Eliud Kipchoge, it was hard to decipher who was most impressed. Gerry is slated to return for a third tilt at the title in October.
There are tales of inspiration everywhere you look in this ‘race within a race’, and the urge to defend titles won in London 2022 has driven some of the champions crowned on The Mall to pack their bags for the trip to Chicago in a bid to retain their status as world champions.
From returning winners to newcomers determined to make their mark on the world stage, the championship race promises to deliver another raft of amazing performances. Let’s meet some of the athletes bidding for World Championship glory.
he Windy City always provides a stage for fast running, for both the elite athletes hunting records or the masses behind them in search of a new personal best. Chicago’’s streets are a friend of those in search of speed.
This is the competition to find the best age group runners on the planet. Every year, runners compete in hundreds of marathons around the world. In 2023, more than 350 marathons have partnered with Abbott World Marathon Majors to act as qualifying races for the 2024 AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships.
Each of those events supplies AbbottWMM with their race results. Any athlete aged 40+ competing in one of those qualifying events will have their time added to the Age Group World Rankings. Each runner is ranked by time.
The highest-placed runners in the rankings at the end of the year will receive an invitation. In addition, there is an Automatic Qualifying Time for each age group in each gender. If an athlete runs this time, they instantly qualify for an invite.
This will be announced soon.
For more information, VISIT HERE.
For many marathon runners, the victory is arriving at the start line, not the triumph in crossing the finish.
It will feel like that for Larysa Getman when she takes part in the 2023 AbbottWMM Age Group World Championships. The Ukrainian from Kyiv was unable to compete in 2021 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and could not take part in 2022 as war continued to rage in her home country.
She qualified for Chicago, and hopes to be there to fly the Ukrainian flag despite the continuing conflict. She has certainly refused to let circumstances at home dilute her passion.
“I’ve been running 365 days a year for 17 years. Running is my religion,” she says, “The war could not break me and interrupt my daily training. For us Ukrainians life goes on, and participation in the World Championship is a grand event for me.”
Getman has already completed her Six Star journey when she ran Boston in 2019.
“I started in the Majors in my fifties,” she says. “Perhaps my experience will inspire someone. You can start running at any age. At 49, life is just beginning!”
Since the Russian invasion, Getman says she and her family have also done their part. Her husband participated in the battle for the liberation of Chernihiv region in 2022. “The war is not over for us,” she says. “Runners around the world, let’s unite and stop the war in Ukraine!”
Faisal Shafi will be Pakistan’s sole representative in the world championships in Chicago.
The 41-year-old from from Karachi will compete in the M4044 category. He only began running in 2018 as a way to train for obstacle racing. “The long distance fascinated me, so I ran my first marathon in 2019 in Dubai,” he says.
Now, Chicago will not only be a chance to compete in a world championship, but also to claim his fourth AbbottWMM star as he continues his mission to become a Six Star Finisher. He has completed Berlin, London and New York City already. As well as his own running ambitions, Shafi is proud to be at the forefront of growing participation in the marathon by his fellow countrymen and women.
2 CHICAGO
20
In 2022, Mary Slocum won her age group in London with a time of 3:13:26 to take the crown, and she will be lining up to defend it on October 8 in Chicago
It will be her first trip to the United States, and another chance to take inspiration from her late husband, who encouraged her to see just how far she could take her running success before his death in 2017.
“He had always said to me I could’ve been really good if I’d started younger,” she says. “After he died I really only went (to her local club) to give it a go, but it was a huge help. I made a lot of new friends, and it keeps me going. I’m a coach at the club now, I’m on the committee and I write club articles for the local paper. Sometimes I do too much! But it helped enormously, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved and I like to think he’d have been proud as well.”
“THEY SAY IT’S HARDER TO DEFEND A WORLD TITLE THAN IT IS TO WIN IT FOR THE FIRST TIME, SO I FEEL A LOT MORE PRESSURE THIS YEAR!”
The cycling-obsessed nation of Belgium is usually feted more for its heroes on two-wheels than its runners.
Eddie Mercx’s five overall victories and 34 stage wins on the Tour de France cement cycling as the No.1 sport when it comes to the most celebrated feats of endurance and the Benelux country.
So it’s no surprise that it was in the saddle where reigning M4549 champion Tom Van Ongeval found his love for long distance sport. As a younger man, he was logging 200km per weekend on the roads around his home town of Leuven.
Transitioning to the marathon with an engine built on the bike was a relatively easy switch – as a 2:47 debut during his student career demonstrated. But with family life taking precedence, 10 years had passed without pursuing a distance for which he had an obvious talent.
When did you get back into marathon running?
“My wife said I should do something about my condition, so I wanted to run to get into shape. That was 2015. I started from scratch and the initial idea was to get close to 2:47 again at 45 years old. But anything sub-three would be a great achievement. And I failed. I ran 3:07.”
How did you get faster?
“I knew I could go below three hours, and I wanted to do things differently and train properly, because until then I wasn’t following a plan. A year later I ran 2:55 and then, in 2017, I was back down to 2:47. For me that was great; the same as when I was 20 years old.”
Then the Age Group World Rankings began in 2018. Was that your next source of motivation?
“Yes. I was 45, I ran New York City and came fifth in my age group and my goal was to be at the first World Championship in 2020. In 2019 I came second in Chicago and thought I should be aiming for the podium in London. I finished fifth. Then my goal was set. Maybe I could become World Champion the next year if I could improve a bit, especially going into next category (he was moving into the 50-54 age group).”
How did the 2022 race go?
It went really smooth. I was in a small group and we caught the reigning champion, Jonathan Walton. I knew there must not have been too many people ahead of the world champion, so thought I would be on the podium, but you never know. My brother was also in London, and I saw him at 36km and he shouted to me I was first. Then I knew. I ran 2:25:38, which was also a Belgian national age group record.”
What are your hopes for the 2023 race in Chicago?
“They say it’s harder to defend a world title than it is to win it for the first time, so I feel a lot more pressure! I have seen who is around the top of the rankings, but I haven’t run a marathon this year so I’m not there.
Any further ambitions after the World Championships?
I would like to complete Tokyo for the Six Star Medal, and in my head I would like to win all the Majors in my age group, but that means I would have to re-do them all!
Flying the flag for Japan in Chicago will be the highly decorated endurance athlete Mai Fujisawa.
She began her marathon career in 1999 at the Honolulu Marathon, but since 2020, the 49-year-old has been cutting a swathe through the F45-49 age group, finishing first in the rankings in the last two editions and (at the time of publication) sitting third in the world in the 2023 rankings season.
Her efforts culminated in victory in the AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships in 2022 in London when she won the title with 2:41:40, giving her a cushion of almost six minutes to second place.
“I was very happy because it is not easy to win the world’s best title in any field. Running is part of life. Nothing beats the feeling of achieving a goal,” she says.
Fujisawa has also had success in ultra-marathons. Since 2008, she has competed in 10 100km World Championships, achieving a third-place finish in 2018.
Leslie Cohen was the inaugural world champion in 2021 and reached the third step on the podium a year later. The lawyer, from Santa Monica, California, is mother to three daughters and began running marathons seriously in 2013.
You became a World Champion in 2021 in London. What did that mean to you?
“It was really exciting to be the world champion in the inaugural event. I have to say I was shocked. It was a huge honor just to be selected. And we were selected in 2019 or early 2020 – before COVID – and then everything got delayed a couple of years. So at the time, we didn’t know if (or when) the event was going to happen. I knew there were very few people selected in my age group, and I didn’t know who my competition was. It turned out the competition was very serious. So it was incredibly thrilling to win.”
What would you say running brings to your life?
“Running opened up a whole other world of people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. My running friends range in age from their 20s to their 80s and are from all over the world and from every walk of life.
“Running is a great equalizer in that way. It’s also a great way to see the world. I have a several friends now that I met in Australia when I traveled there for the Gold Coast Marathon. When I went to Ireland on a family vacation several years ago, I reached out to the Dublin Running Club and set up a run with them.
“They were so welcoming – they picked me up at my hotel and gave me a ride back. Running connects us even though we come from different places and have different backgrounds and would have never met otherwise.”
You made the podium in London again last year with third place. What are your goals for the Chicago championship this year?
I’m expecting the competition to be really intense in Chicago this year, so I’m mostly focusing on trying to run a course PR. I’ve done the Bank of America Chicago Marathon twice before. My second time was faster than my first. So for 2023, I would love to see a course PR for myself – I’m hoping for something sub-3:30.
“RUNNING CONNECTS US EVEN THOUGH WE COME FROM DIFFERENT PLACES AND HAVE DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS ”
In Fort Smith, Arkansas, they know Mary Jo Brinkman as The Running Lady.
“It’s because I’m still running at my age. It’s something I do that not everybody does.”
The 81-year-old has run five of the six Majors so far, with just Tokyo to go, but before that she has the chance to contest the title of world champion.
A time of 5:36:47 in Berlin last year punched her ticket to the World Championships.
She had signed up to AbbottWMM.com to ensure she had all her existing stars in her account in the hope of earning a place in Tokyo eventually. It was then that she realised she had run fast enough in Berlin to earn
Wayne Spies is famed for his serial participation in South Africa’s iconic Comrades Marathon. The 50-year-old completed his 11th in 2023 before turning his attention back to the 26.2-mile distance – a distance he is still getting faster over –to prepare for Chicago. He says he has unfinished business with the marathon, and it has been showing in his steady progression from a debut of 3:27 in 2011 to a new PB of 2:25:47 in last year’s Gold Coast Marathon, not far off Tom van Ongeval’s winning mark in London last year. He is in the same age group as the defending champion in Chicago. “I seem to come back strong after an ultra block of training, and I’ve been enjoying a progressive improvement each year. Hopefully I can eclipse that time in Chicago,” he says.
a World Championship slot.
“I was thrilled, and very humbled, I’m training hard so I don’t finish last!”
There is little danger of that. Her time in Berlin last year would have put her on the second step of the podium in London. She wakes at 5.30 every morning to run before completing a gym session at the hospital where she still works.
She runs another two times a week in the evenings and fits in a long distance effort at the weekends.
“I am very competitive. You have to be competitive to run a marathon. I’ve kept trying to place (in my age group), and I enjoy that part of it. Running a marathon is 99% in your head. Training is very important, but you have to have the will to go on when feel like you can’t.”
As we approach the fall races in the AbbottWMM series, a trio of different women
are locked at the top of the leaderboard in the battle to claim the Series XV title.
Manuela Schär, Susannah Scaroni and Madison de Rozario have won one Major each so far this year.
Schär took the Tokyo title in March with a dominant display, before Scaroni struck in Boston to launch the defence of the Majors crown she claimed in 2022.
Then came the turn of Madison De Rozario. The 29-year-old Australian inserted herself into the conversation in London, outsprinting her rivals down The Mall to take the tape.
It was a second win in London for the woman from Perth, adding to her 2018 victory there.
De Rozario also triumphed in New York City in 2021, the same year she became Paralympic marathon champion in a nailbiting finish with Schär in Japan.
De Rozario is box office. The sunshine of Australia’s easygoing west coast is in her soul. She brings a mega-watt smile and ready laughter to every conversation, and was immortalized as a Barbie doll in 2019. But these attributes are matched with an iron will to win, as she proved when she out-sprinted Schär by a hair’s breadth at the Tokyo Games, and again in her most recent triumph in London.
The rivalry between this top clutch of racers is matched only by the friendship they have away from the road.
Camaraderie and cut-throat competition among a group of athletes are rarely common bedfellows, but the combination
of the two in the community she travels the world with is something De Rozario cherishes.
“On the road, people will make the most ruthless moves you could imagine and, in the same breath, still be your friend while doing it,” she says.
good friends sometimes.”
Of the three amigos, only De Rozario has not hoisted aloft the series silverware before. She now has the chance to do it if she can finish on top of the heap following the TCS New York City Marathon in November. Berlin and Chicago precede that finale, and she has not tasted victory on either course so far, but now settled in her new racing
shocking at that. If I don’t hit the corner first, I will be off the back of the pack and spending a lot of time chasing, but once I have that speed and momentum, I’m able to hold that quite well, it’s probably my biggest strength.”
WORDS:
Dave Macnamara
“It’s this really interesting dynamic and I love it. We race so many marathons a year, we spend so much time together as a group and you develop such incredible relationships, and because we all have the same job, it’s an easy thing to bond over and create that relationship.”
And the switch between offroad friendship and on-course rivalry can even surface during the heat of battle, as De Rozario discovered in April.
“In London, I got a flat a tyre. I run sealant in my tyres, so they are able to re-seal when it’s a very small puncture. So with 10 kilometers to go, I thought was out of the race, and I began to pull out.
“The genuine concern from the other three, it takes you back, because they are doing anything to get ahead, and it’s brutal and ruthless. No one really talks, and they are all taking it incredibly seriously, but the minute I thought I was out, it switched to all three of them saying ‘I’m so sorry I don’t have a spare tyre’. You switch immediately back to the love and respect for the person.
“There is so much respect for each other but also the event, and it’s our job to go out there and do everything we can to cross that finish line first. You owe it to the race and everyone who has gone before us to take that as seriously as possible, and that means racing your very
chair, she is aiming to be ready for battle when September 24 arrives.
One thing guaranteed in Berlin is that it will be fast, so will it suit her? De Rozario is nothing if not honest.
“I’m good at holding a consistent speed,” she says. “I get off the line so painfully slow, and if there’s a quick surge, I’ll be off the back of that in no time. Coming off a corner, I’m
It’s also clear that De Rozario has made it her business to study and interrogate every facet of the sport in her quest for continued improvement, at a time when change is gathering pace in the technology and sports science being tapped into by the world’s best athletes.
“For the marathon, we’re moving out of that ‘we’re a growing sport’ mind set to being an established sport,” she says.
“It’s an interesting time to be in because the technology is changing drastically.
“The actual chair (she is now using a chair from Orthotec, the Swiss manufacturer behind Marcel Hug’s racing machine), the frames, the wheels; those are the things you see from the outside, but also what kind of tyre you run, what tyre pressure you need on different courses; the nuance and detail is constantly evolving, and you get small gains out of that.
“The science behind the approach to training is changing as well,” says De Rozario, who is coached by the great Australian Louise Savage.
“When she was training it was her and her coach. Now I have a 10-person performance team behind me. I have a dietician, a bio mechanist, a physiologist, sports psychologist. There are so many resources we haven’t had in para sport before.
“We’re coming to a time where that is becoming the norm, so we are going to see improvements on the track and
“THERE IS SO MUCH RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER BUT ALSO THE EVENT, AND IT’S OUR JOB TO GO OUT THERE AND DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO CROSS THAT FINISH LINE FIRST”
on the road. That creates this environment where everyone is pushing what they can do, and they are bringing those results to the world stage. It’s a growing sport that has hit its stride on the marathon circuit.”
It’s a circuit that could be expanding with the candidacy of Sydney and Cape Town to join the Majors family. The prospect of a Major on home territory is one that excites her.
“I’ve lived there for eight years and never raced Sydney,” she says. “It’s the week before Berlin but I am curious to see what it’s like - a home marathon doing everything to be a Major, I want to be involved in that.”
As the sport expands and the racing opportunities continue to grow, after 17 years, the motivation is still blazing for De Rozario, who foresees the days of racers shifting up and down the distance scale coming to an end, and more marathon specialists focusing on 26.2 miles alone.
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible for much longer,” she says. “Up to this point, we’ve been able to go between the two (short track racing and marathons), and in terms of training, we spend the bulk of year in a big marathon block and do very little track, just keeping one speed session per week in, so that you stay switched on to
what that process feels like.
“Then as you begin to taper into a Paralympics or world championships, you bring speed back into it and rely on longevity of your fitness, and you just have to have faith that come marathon morning at the very end of the Games, you have everything that you had. But I think the marathon is becoming so competitive and so intense that we owe it to the event to begin to specialise in it more than we already do.” M
WANT MORE? Listen to an indepth conversation with Madison de Rozario on the AbbottWMM Marathon Talk podcast.
Abbott World Marathon Majors is running the rule over the races who want to join the club. MAJORS catches up with the latest on Cape Town and Sydney’s plans for their 2023 races
WORDS: Danny Coyle
The candidate program for AbbottWMM is about to enter its busy phase for 2023 as Cape Town and Sydney make their preparations for their next events.
Both races began their multiyear assessment processes in 2022 and will be looked at once again this coming season as they both advance their cases to join the Abbott World Marathon Majors family.
In September, Sydney will welcome its largest ever marathon field with a host of innovations and upgrades across the board.
Chief among them is a revamped course that flows better with more roadways and less 180-degree bends, creating a more enjoyable marathon experience.
“We heard the calls of our incredible running community and we’re pleased to announce that the Sydney Marathon will unveil a brand-new course in 2023,” said Wayne Larden, Race Director.
“We are committed to delivering a world class event that Australia is proud of, and we look forward to welcoming thousands of runners from across the globe to make history on our new course.”
To support first time and casual marathon runners, the event has also extended its official cut off time by one hour, allowing marathon participants seven hours to cross the line.
Organizers have also been busy creating a new Australian Age Group Championship
as part of the marathon and recruiting their strongest ever field of elite competitors.
Leading the lineup is Ethiopia’s 2022 world champion Tamirat Tola, no stranger to Majors podiums himself, with plenty more top tier talent in what will be the richest prize money race in Australia.
Organisers of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon have also
been hard at work to impress the visiting assessors when they stage the 2023 edition of the race on October 15.
Route planners have reduced 90m of elevation on the course by cutting out the District 6 hill and replacing it with a loop in the Greenpoint area of the city that passes the picturesque ocean and Waterfront. The total elevation is now 190m, with
no U-turns and at sea level, all contributing to making Cape Town a super-fast race.
Organisers have also been working hard to improve the flow of traffic, with participant logistics on race day a key priority while deciding on route upgrades for 2023.
The Start has been moved back to Fritz Sonnenberg Road and Cape Town’s blue carpet
finish line has moved back to Vlei Road, shrouded by the support of spectators in the grandstands and adjacent Hospitality areas.
“Not only do the desired route upgrades alleviate stress on traffic, but they also take into consideration the feedback of our marathon runners. We have heard your requests for a flatter and faster route, and are excited
to action these improvements in 2023,” said Race Director, Barry van Blerk.
The race has also engaged its sponsors to address the economic challenges faced by many South Africans with the launch of an initiative to give 1,000 free places to runners who are experiencing hardship. M More info: sydneymarathon. com, capetownmarathon.com
STARTS AND FINISHES AT WHITE STADIUM IN FRANKLIN PARK, BOSTON.
Highlighting Boston and Brookline’s Emerald Necklace park system while furthering the B.A.A. mission of promoting health and fitness.
Third event of the 2023 B.A.A. DISTANCE MEDLEY SCAN
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The coming marathon season can be a great opportunity to see new parts of the world, test yourself in different climates, or aim to improve your time ahead of a push for the 2024 Age Group World Championships.
Our Qualifier focus this month is on races happening between the end of September and the beginning of November to try and inspire those looking for something a little different before the end of the year.
SEPTEMBER 24
They say the perfect marathon is a fairy tale but this 26.2-mile loop around one of Denmark’s oldest cities must surely come close. Describing itself as both the ‘fastest and cleanest marathon in the world’, it offers a chance for a quick time.
On average, runners finish this marathon in just 3:51:22, which is a speedy eight minutes and 50 seconds per mile. If you’re dreaming of a negative split marathon, this could be the race for you.
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From a race named after the author of The Little Mermaid to another with a mythical aquatic connection. The Loch Ness Marathon takes in nearly the full length of one of the world’s most famous deep-water lakes. With a negative elevation over the first 10 miles, this race is perfect to set yourself up for a decent time as you approach the Highland city of Inverness. The Loch is continuously on your left, so you’ll know exactly where to look for any curious creatures breaching the surface.
The Lisbon Marathon is simply a great race around a great city. Starting in the resort city of Cascais, with its golden beaches and historic architecture, over 2,000 athletes will run along the Costa do Estoril, with fresh Atlantic breezes keeping them cool along the way before reaching the mouth of the Tagus River and approaching the finish line in downtown Lisbon. With the promise of some late summer sun and Portuguese hospitality, it’s one of the great destination races on the calendar.
Amsterdam’s popular course takes you through the outskirts of one of Europe’s most enchanting cities, along the banks of the Amstel River, and through the famous Vondelpark towards the old Olympic Stadium. Temperatures at that time of year are expected to be cool, so this race has all the elements to make a PB a real possibility. Its popularity has also seen organizers increase the field size for this year’s marathon with an additional start location taking capacity from 15,000 to 20,000.
The Kansas City Marathon is expecting up to 2,000 runners on its streets on the third Sunday of October. The race starts and finishes on the banks of the Missouri River and takes
you on a figure-of-eight loop around the City of Fountains. As you progress around the course, you’ll take in some of the city’s most famous landmarks and as it’s Kansas, you can guarantee that the BBQ at the finish line will be worth the effort!
The longest running city-based marathon in Germany, the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon participants will follow in the footsteps of some marathon greats when they take on this well-established race..
Past winners in Frankfurt include Robert Kiprono, winner of the 2010 Boston Marathon, Caroline Kilel, who was also victorious in Boston, a year later, and the former marathon World Record holder, Patrick Makau, who rounded the famous Messeturn skyscraper to cross the finish line in first place back in 2012. Needless to say, it’s a fast, flat course that will test you to your limit.
An out-and-back route that starts just one mile north of the Canadian/US border and curves along the bay it’s named after. The course has a total elevation of two meters across the entire 42.2km and will be the last Boston Qualifier of 2023. If you’re looking for a race that showcases the picturesque natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, you just found it.
Celebrating 20 years of the Beirut Marathon, this race has become a symbol of unity, harmony and togetherness to the capital of Lebanon. Starting and finishing in the Hamra area of downtown Beirut and running along the Mediterranean coast and alongside the Beirut River, the race attracts over 3,000 runners, both local and international. Tempertures are often still warm for this November date. M
Hydration is a vital part of our everyday lives, but it’s especially important when training in hot conditions.
Even a seasoned marathoner with a lot of springtime races under their belt will likely need to adjust their hydration plan and pacing during the summer.
Jennifer Williams, a research scientist at Abbott who specializes in hydration, is here with some top tips on how to train through the heat.
“Dehydration can happen relatively fast when you’re training in the heat,” says Williams. “Taking time to get used to hot weather will help reduce your likelihood of dehydration or heat exhaustion during future training runs.”
Limiting your indoor airconditioned runs and spending more time outside will help your body adapt. Transition safely by tracking your heart rate. Listen to your body and gradually ramp up mileage and pace.
“Also, check your urine color,” says Williams. “If it’s clear to light yellow, you’re good to go.” If not, you need to drink more water before starting your workout.
Research shows that endurance athletes can benefit from dropping their core temperature before or even during exercise. The cooler your core temperature when you begin, the more it will have to rise before you overheat. Try making your pre-workout drink a cold one or putting ice in your water bottle or hydration bladder.
With increased sweat rates, it is also likely that you need to drink more during your marathon training runs than usual.
Also, even if you can usually get through short or middledistance runs with only water during and after them, you may need more than that now.
Electrolyte specific formulas, like Abbott’s Pedialyte, are a great way to help you rehydrate and feel better fast.
Use your training app or diary to note the heat index (the “feels like” temperature listed in your weather app), how much (and what) you drank and how you felt during and after your run, Williams says. You can then pinpoint the best hydration strategy for you.
Mild dehydration, consisting of losing at least 2% of your body weight in water, can negatively affect your run performance and result in symptoms of dehydration. So, if you weigh 160lb, your goal is to drink enough that you weigh no less than 156.8 pounds at the end of your run. (Every lb you lose during your workout signals 16oz of water gone, says Williams.)
For the most accurate measurements, weigh yourself naked before and after your training runs. After runs, your clothes will be weighed down with sweat.
You don’t stop sweating the second you cross the finish line. To fully replace any losses, you need to drink more than you think within 90 minutes of your workout.
“It’s recommended to drink 1.25 to 1.5 times the fluid volume that you lost,” Williams says. “For every lb you lose in body weight, you should drink 20 to 24floz.” M
You can read a longer version of this article in the AbbottWMM.com content hub.
We are steaming towards the fall Majors season in the Global Run Club, which means the next Global Marathon is now open for entries!
If you have an in-person marathon in the diary for the latter part of the year, you can enter the Global Marathon as an accompaniment and, if you’re aged 40 and over, increase your chances of earning an invite to the 2024 AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships. 200 slots for the
If you are striving for your Six Star Medal, our Road to the Majors half marathon series also continues this fall. There are three races left, with each race completed earning you an extra chance in one of our fall draws for places in
fastest runners who complete the virtual challenge are available.
All you need to do is log your Global Marathon on race day using the device linked to your Global Run Club account, and your 26.2 miles will be ciunted for that challenge too.
There is also a new 2023 fall Global Marathon medal available to commemorate your effort!
Tokyo, Boston and London in 2024.
To be eligible for the Tokyo and Boston draws, you need four or five stars in your AbbottWMM. com account already, and for London you need three, four or five.
View all challenges here
For 45 years, runners have united on the streets of Chicago to conquer 26.2 miles and call themselves a Bank of America Chicago Marathon finisher. Join us this year as we celebrate their stories, the race’s history and the City that makes the Chicago Marathon one in a million.
BERLIN, SEPTEMBER 28, 2008
The Great Haile Gebreslassie breaks his own marathon world record, becoming the first person to run the distance in under two hours and four minutes.
It is the Ethiopian’s 26th world record of an unparalleled track and road career, shaving 27 seconds off the mark he set in Berlin in 2007.
The 27th and final world record under his belt would come in the 2009 Berlin Marathon, setting 1:27:49, a new record for the road 30km.
Although he would run more marathons, that 2008 world record would go down as the peak of his road career. After announcing retirement following a DNF in New York City in 2010, he reversed that decision and was back on the streets of Berlin in 2011.
There, he saw his marathon and 30km records tumble when he dropped out of the race as Kenya’s Patrick Makau claimed both of them.
Gebreslassie was on the podium at every track world championships from 1993 to 2003, winning four consecutive 10,000m golds in that era. He claimed gold in the same distance at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, coming fifth and sixth in 2004 and 2008.
It is hard to imagine another athlete in the modern era gathering that many track accolades before going on to set multiple road world records. Even the great Eliud Kipchoge has not won four consecutive Berlin Marathons.
As Sifan Hassan embarks upon her marathon career, she is perhaps the next athlete whose light will shine as brightly on the road as it has on the track. She certainly has some illustrious footsteps to follow.
The term icon might be used too liberally in some quarters. Where Haile is concerned, it is entirely apt. M
Join hosts DEENA KASTOR and MARTIN YELLING every other Friday for a deep dive into the world of marathon running, all the latest news from the Majors and special guest interviews.
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