Even as Boston Marathon records fall, two-time champ Lokedi insists: ‘Honestly, it’s hard’

BOSTON (AP) - Maybe the Boston Marathon isn't that hard after all.

After a second straight year of blistering times, a course record on the men's side, and a pair of repeat winners, back-to-back champion Sharon Lokedi said it won't be the last time that runners ignore the hype and the hills and attack the historic Boston course.

"Honestly, it is hard," she insisted Tuesday, a day after running the second-fastest time ever in the women's race to win for the second year in a row. "But I think it's also people are starting to realize that if (you get good conditions), it just makes for a really good day. And even, you know, a fast one."

Defending men's champion John Korir took advantage of cool weather and a tailwind on Monday to outrun the strongest field in race history and win in a course record 2 hours, 1 minute, 52 seconds. That was 70 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai's then-world best in 2011, and the fifth-fastest marathon of all time.

Korir, who ran alone for the last 5 miles, said Tuesday that he could have gone even faster if another runner had been out front with him.

"I think we will run even under 2:01," he said. "Because if someone were to push me, we would have tried to run away from each other, and that is why I think it will be faster."

With its hills and unpredictable weather, Boston has always been known as a course that rewards strategy more than outright footspeed. Eliud Kipchoge, the world record holder at the time and considered the greatest marathoner ever, flopped in his only Boston attempt, in 2023; Korir's brother, Wesley, won Boston in 2012 on a hot day with a time that was 10 minutes slower than John ran on Monday.

"In Boston, I don't care that much about the time," John Korir said Tuesday. "But now I think from today I will be caring about the times when I come back."

Lokedi, who lowered the women's course record by more than 2 1/2 minutes last year, finished in 2:18:51 on Monday - the second-fastest time ever in the Boston women's race. Runner-up Loice Chemnung was 44 seconds back - a performance that would have been a course record before Lokedi's 2:17:22 last year.

The top three men all finished faster than Mutai's 2:03:02.

Runners looking for fast times will likely still prefer the flatter courses in Chicago and Berlin. (Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00:35 in Chicago in 2023 and Ruth Chepngetich set the women's mark there at 2:09:56 in '24.)

Still, the assault on the record books may encourage future Boston runners to go for it.

"You put it in your head, 'Oh, it's going to be hard, it's going to hard,' and then you come in here and you have everything that you need: You get really good competitors, you have people that want to push, and people that want to race, and you get good conditions," Lokedi said. "And it just makes it for a really good day and even, you know, a fast one."

Korir, who dedicated last year's win to the Transcend Talent Academy in his native Kenya, said the school will again get 10% or his winnings, which this year include a $50,000 bonus for the course record. Korir said he received videos of the students cheering him on.

"(It's) to help them to go to school, and study, and have a better future," he said. "And one day, one time to become a champion like me."