Tamirat Tola wasn't thinking about breaking the New York City Marathon course record as he was running by himself in Central Park for the last few miles of the race.
The Ethiopian runner broke the 12-year old mark, finishing the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 4 minutes and 58 seconds on Sunday — eight seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai in 2011.
Albert Korir of Kenya, who won the 2021 NYC Marathon, finished second nearly two minutes behind Tola. This was a stellar women's field that was expected to potentially take down the course record of 2:22:31 set by Margaret Okayo in 2003. Unlike last year when the weather was unseasonably warm with temperatures in the 70s, Sunday's race was much cooler with it being in the 50s — ideal conditions for record breaking times and for the 50,000 runners.
Once the lead group came back into Manhattan for the final few miles, Obiri, Gidey, and Lokedi pushed the pace. "It's incredible. I think it takes some time to realize what happened," Hug said. "I'm so happy as well."
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