Emily Sisson’s fearless running on the streets of Chicago on Sunday gives her US marathon record

Good local weather conditions, coupled with a steady run, enabled 30-year-old Olympian Emily Sisson to etch her name in the record books on Sunday morning (October 9) at 2022 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. She clocked 2:18:29 to finish second in the women’s marathon race, which was better than Keira D’Amato's area record of 2:19:12 clocked in January this year in Houston.

Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich's brave front running helped her cross the finish line in 2:14:18 seconds, which was just 14 seconds slower than the world record of 2:14:04 and the second-fastest in the history of women’s marathon running. Despite marginally slowing down in the last 5km, the Kenyan's scorching pace in the opening 30km was enough to open up a big gap over the leading runners. She crossed the finish line in a personal best time of 2:14:18.

Emily Sisson also holds a US half marathon record of 1:07:11. The Flagstaff-based runner planned to break the 2:20 barrier for the marathon and was successful with the support of two pacemakers on the streets of Chicago on Sunday. Emily’s previous best of 2:23:08 was clocked in 2019 on her debut at the London Marathon.

Going by Emily’s current form, the American marathon record holder will be one to watch during the 2024 US Olympic women’s marathon team trials scheduled for 2023.

Emily began her regional record-breaking campaign with a 16:23 for the opening 5km. She remained in that zone for the next 25km having a split of 16:31, 16:23, 15:32, 16:20, 16:28, and 16:33.

Emily clocked 69:03 for 21km and at the 35km mark of the marathon race, her time was 1:55:10. The American was marginally ahead of Kenya’s Vivian Kiplagat, who finished third. But she pushed hard for the next 5km to stay on course for an area record and became the first American runner to break the 2:19 barrier for the marathon.