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Boston Marathon 2015 - The Preview
by MarathonGuide.com Staff
At 119 years old, the Boston Marathon has the greatest history of any marathon and has been home to some of the greatest running contests in history. Scheduled each year within weeks of the London Marathon - the race with the deepest pockets in the world for elite athlete recruitment - the Boston Marathon has often struggled to recruit the elite field that it deserves. With a new head of elite athlete recruitment over the past two years, Mary Kate Shea (and this is a callout for someone doing a great job), Boston's fields have started to excel and the 2015 field is arguably the best ever.
The 2015 field features five past champions - Meb Keflezighi, Lelisa Desisa, Wesley Korir, Sharon Cherop and Caroline Kilel. In addition, the field contains world champions, Olympic medalists and without argument the best American marathoners. We should expect to see a great race on Marathon Monday and we should also expect to get a great preview of who we'll expect has the best chance of making the cut for the 2016 USA Olympic Marathon team.
The Men's Race
Seven men in the field hold a personal best time under 2;05:30 and ten have a personal best time under 2:06:30. We will admit that some of those personal bests are from 2011 and 2012, but these men continue to run well and they know that adding a Boston title to their resume will reinvigorate their career, not that they aren't still running near the top of their game. And a few have an ax to grind - we'll mention here that Wilson Chebet waited too long to chase the leader in the 2014 race and missed the win by just ten seconds after having been nearly two minues behind earlier in the race. Chebet won't make that mistake again, and Frankline Chepkwony who finished third in 2014 will also know he should not let the leaders get too far out of sight.
The Women's Race
The drug-doping scandals have rocked the running world, but none has been worse than the positive substance tests recorded against Rita Jeptoo in out-of-competition testing. Jeptoo won the 2014 Boston Marathon, in a new course record, and also the 2013 and 2014 Chicago Marathons and should have been returning to Boston as the defending champion. Instead she is sitting out a two year suspension from competition. Despite the absence of the defending champion, the women's field remains strog. At the front of the pak expect past champions Sharon Cherop and Caroline Kilel and 2014 runner-up Buzunesh Deba. Also in the mix will be Americans Shalane Flanagan who has the fastest time for an American woman at Boston has the speed to compete for the win as well as Desiree Linden whose toughness allowed her to capture the runner-up spot in 2011.
The Americans
Being an American institution, the Boston Marathon attracts Americans to its field and also enjoys focusing its efforts on bringing in those Americans. With the Olympic Trials Marathon for the selection of the American team just ten months away from the 2015 Boston Marathon, the performance of Americans at Boston will give us a good insight into what to expect in 2016 - and the very best of America's marthoners will be running. Favorites for making the Olympic Marathon team are past Olympians at the marathon: Meb Keflezighi and Dathan Ritzenhein on the men's side and Shalane Flanagan and Desiree Linden on the women's side. These four are unrivalled and true favorites. Also in the race and looking to cement their position among the other Americans and position themselves as favorites going into the Olympic year will be Nick Arciniaga, Jeffrey Eggleston and Fernando Cabada in the men's race and Amy Cragg (nee Hastings) and Adriana Nelson on the women's side.
Elite Lineup:
| Male Elite Athletes |
| Athlete | Country | Bib | Personal Best | Boston |
| Mebrahtom Keflezighi (40) | USA | 1 | 2:08:37, Boston, 2014 | History |
| Patrick Makau (30) | KEN | 2 | 2:03:38, Berlin, 2011 | History |
| Lelisa Desisa (25) | ETH | 3 | 2:04:45, Dubai, 2013 | History |
| Yemane Adhane Tsegay (30) | ETH | 4 | 2:04:48, Rotterdam, 2012 | History |
| Tadese Tola (28) | ETH | 5 | 2:04:49, Dubai, 2013 | History |
| Gebregziabher Gebremariam (31) | ETH | 6 | 2:04:53, Boston, 2011 | History |
| Abel Kirui (33) | KEN | 7 | 2:05:04, Rotterdam, 2009 | History |
| Wilson Chebet (30) | KEN | 8 | 2:05:27, Rotterdam, 2011 | History |
| Frankline Chepkwony (31) | KEN | 9 | 2:06:11, Eindhoven, 2012 | History |
| Wesley Korir (33) | KEN | 10 | 2:06:13, Chicago, 2012 | History |
| Bernard Kipyego (29) | KEN | 11 | 2:06:22 - Amsterdam 2014 | History |
| Dathan Ritzenhein (33) | USA | 14 | 2:07:47, Chicago, 2012 | History |
| Lusapho April (33) | RSA | 15 | 2:08:32, Hannover, 2013 | History |
| Vitaliy Shafar (33) | UKR | 16 | 2:09:37, Boston, 2014 | History |
| Zersenay Tadese (33) | ERI | 17 | 2:10:41, London, 2012 | History |
| Dylan Wykes (32) | CAN | 18 | 2:10:47 - Rotterdam | History |
| Jeffrey Eggleston (31) | USA | 19 | 2:10:51, Gold Coast, 2014 | History |
| Nicholas Arciniaga (32) | USA | 20 | 2:11:30, Houston, 2011 | History |
| Fernando Cabada (33) | USA | 21 | 2:11:36 - Berlin | History |
| Matthew Tegenkamp (33) | USA | 22 | 2:12:28, Chicago, 2013 | History |
| Abderrahime Bouramdane () | MOR | | 2:07:33, London, 2010 | History |
| Female Elite Athletes |
| Athlete | Country | Bib | Personal Best | Boston |
| Deba Buzunesh (28) | ETH | 1 | 2:19:59, Boston, 2014 | History |
| Mare Dibaba (32) | ETH | 2 | 2:19:52, Xiamen, 2015 | History |
| Aberu Kebede (26) | ETH | 3 | 2:20:30, Berlin, 2012 | History |
| Shalane Flanagan (27) | USA | 4 | 2:21:14, Berlin, 2014 | History |
| Aleksandra Duliba (26) | BLR | 5 | 2:21:29, Boston, 2014 | History |
| Mamitu Daska (31) | ETH | 6 | 2:21:59, Frankfurt, 2011 | History |
| Sharon Cherop (31) | KEN | 8 | 2:22:28, Berlin, 2013 | History |
| Caroline Kilel (34) | KEN | 9 | 2:22:34, Frankfurt, 2013 | History |
| Desireé Linden (32) | USA | 10 | 2:22:38, Boston, 2011 | History |
| Caroline Rotich (31) | KEN | 11 | 2:23:22, Chicago, 2012 | History |
| Lisa Nemec (35) | CRO | 14 | 2:25:44, Zurich, 2013 | History |
| Amy Cragg (Hastings) (34) | USA | 15 | 2:27:03, Chicago, 2014 | History |
| Joyce Chepkirui (27) | KEN | 16 | 2:30:23, Honolulu, 2014 | History |
| Adriana Nelson (31) | USA | 18 | 2:28:52, London, 2008 | History |
| Cynthia Limo (26) | KEN | | | History |
|
