CHICAGO – Half-marathon world record holder Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda showed no fear in marathon #2 today at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

He gave the 2:00:35 world record a scare before settling for the win in 2:02:23, the second-fastest time ever run in Chicago.

Boosted by a tailwind at the start, Kiplimo and defending champ John Korir of Kenya went out super fast — 13:58 for the first 5k (1:57:51 pace).

They hit halfway on world record pace (60:16), and the next few miles were even faster than that pace even though the final pacers dropped out at halfway.

At 25k (71:12), the leading duo were on 2:00:10 pace. By 30k (1:25:31; 2:00:16 pace), Kiplimo was all alone.

He was still on world record pace at 22 miles (1:41:05 – 2:00:28 pace at mile 22) but Kiplimo’s pace would slow dramatically to the finish.

His final 5 mile splits were 4:46, 4:50, 4:55, 5:05 and 5:20 (WR pace is 4:35.95 per mile), but he still held on for his first marathon win.

After crossing the finish line, Kiplimo appeared to be in pain.

After collapsing to the ground, he had to be helped to his feet by race director Carey Pinkowski.

Kevin Morris photo

Behind him, as promised, American Conner Mantz went out very aggressively.

He hit 5k in 14:23 (2:01:22 pace) and 10k in 29:20 (2:03:46 pace).

At halfway (62:18), Mantz was still on pace to break Khalid Khannouchi’s 2:05:38 American record, which had stood since 2002 and, that’s exactly what Mantz did as he ran 2:04:43 to smash the American record and finish 4th overall.

“What took you so long?” joked Khannouchi, who was in the finish area to congratulate Mantz in person.

Tokyo 3rd placer Hawi Feysa of Ethiopia (2024 Frankfurt champ) had a big day as she lowered her pb from 2:17:00 to 2:14:56 to win the women’s race and become the fifth-fastest woman in history.

Natosha Rogers was the top American woman, finishing 6th in a 2:23:28 pb (2:23:51 previous pb).  Top 30 Results

Quick Take: Kiplimo showed no fear in marathon #2 and took the next step towards marathon stardom and made history for Uganda in the process

The opening splits in this one were wild. With perfect conditions (54 degrees, sunny, tailwind of 9 mph wind out of the SE at start), the guys got after it.

Even though the splits were super fast, Kiplimo looked totally relaxed, which makes sense as he’s run 56:42 in the half-marathon — 48 seconds faster than anyone else.

Around 18 miles, LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson’s 7-year-old son walked into his office and saw Kiplimo all alone and asked him, “Is that guy going slow?” No, he wasn’t, but we understand why a child would ask that as Kiplimo just looks so relaxed.

In the end, a world record was not to be. Here are Kiplimo’s mile-by-mile splits on the way home and his 5k splits.

5km Splits

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