CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, October 12 — Hawi Feysa made the most of her first appearance in the Windy City’s famed annual contest on its speedway course. The 26-year-old Ethiopian led from the start to her smiling 2:14:57 finish.
She had plenty to smile about as she became just the sixth woman under 2:15 — trailing only Ruth Chepngetich, Tigst Assefa, Sifan Hassan and Brigid Kosgei as she moved to No. 5 on the all-time list. By one second, she pushed her training partner Amane Beriso (2:14:58 at London in ’22) back one spot on the ATL.
“I feel very happy,” Feysa said. “The race conditions were good. The course was good, and my coach Gemedu [Dedefo] gave me a lot of good preparation heading into this race. I felt confident. I trained really hard to have this victory and I feel I can run faster in the future.”
Chicago is now home to 5 of the top 6 all-time women’s performances, and this edition yielded 5 sub-2:20s. Ethiopia’s Megertu Alemu finished 2nd in 2:17:18 with Tanzania’s Magdalena Shauri 3rd in 2:18:03. Following the lead trio were Kenyans Loice Chemnung (2:18:23) and Mary Ngugi (2:19:25).
Natosha Rogers found her third marathon effort to be the charm as the ’12 NCAA 10,000 champion finished as first American. Rogers took 6th in a PR 2:23:28. Paris Olympian Dakotah Popehn (formerly Lindwurm also notched a PR finishing 8th in 2:24:20.
Right from the gun, Feysa followed male pacer Chala Beyo to the front, targeting 16:00 splits for each 5K segment — 2:15 pace. “That was the plan,” Feysa noted, “to run even pace.”
They hit the first 5K in 16:07, then got on tempo through subsequent 5K segments of 16:02, 15:55 and 15:59 to cross halfway spot at 67:30.
Feysa was far from alone. Shauri ran next to her, and the Ethiopian duo of Alemu and Ejgayehu Taye ran 7 seconds back with their pacer.
The steady tempo continued through 16:00 and 15:55 5Ks to 30K in 1:35:54 — 2:14:53 pace. Feysa just followed Beyo apparently unconcerned with her competition as Shauri fell away in the 28th kilometer. Then Alemu surged to within 5 seconds — maybe a bit of a concern as the challenger had run a PR 2:16:34 to finish 4th in London ’24 then scored a 2:16:49 win last December in Valencia.
No, Feysa soon had a larger development interfere with her race plan as Beyo, her dedicated pacer in training and races, pulled up with blisters in the 34th K.
The petite Feysa missed Beyo’s windbreak more than the pacing as she recounted, “There was a bit of wind after 30K and that became challenging, but I had confidence in my training.”
Feysa, indeed, kept up her own pace through a 16:04 and fended off Alemu’s challenge by extending her lead to 15 seconds at 35K.
Maintaining a fluid arm carry and steady stride, Feysa cruised through the final kilometers looking like she was running 2:15 pace very much within herself. She was.
“I do a lot of training like this in practice,” she said. “I am teammates of Tigst Assefa, and Amane Beriso and we are training at times like 2:13 or 2:14. We work on this, so I was just locking in on the rhythm we have in our long, hard group runs.”
Feysa’s training pedigree carried her through another 16:00 split as she hit 40K at 2:15:00 pace, then closed in 6:58 to peel away a significant 4 seconds, closing out a 1:07:30/1:07:26 even-paced masterpiece.
The win also cemented Feysa’s rise to the top echelon of women’s marathon in just her fifth 42K race.
Primarily a trackster, Feysa finished 8th in the ’19 World Championships 5000 and has logged 8 DL races. She also mixed in cross and road races throughout her career including a runner-up finish in the World XC Junior race of ’17.
Feysa had a banner year on the track in ’22, running 8:38.48 and 14:33.66 PRs — followed by debilitating injuries that sent her to the marathon the next year.
Training full time with Gemedu’s A-group, Feysa raced to a breakout 2:17:25 course record win a year ago in Frankfurt. She hit the podium in her first WMM race this past March in Tokyo running 2:17:00 for 3rd.
Feysa is quick to credit Gemedu’s guidance: “My coach gave me training that prepared me very well. Beyond just the training, he has given me confidence. He has told me many times that I can win. He is giving me the morale to think that maybe I can do this.”
CHICAGO WOMEN’S RESULTS
1. Hawi Feysa (Eth) 2:14:57 (5, 6 W) (16:06, 16:02 [32:08], 15:52 [48:00], 15:59 [1:03:59], 16:00 [1:19:59], 15:55 [1:35:54], 16:04 [1:51:58], 16:01 [2:07:59], 6:58) (1:07:30/1:07:27);
2. Megertu Alemu (Eth) 2:17:18; 3. Magdalena Shauri (Tan) 2:18:03; 4. Loice Chemnung (Ken) 2:18:24; 5. Mary Ngugi (Ken) 2:19:26; 6. Natosha Rogers (US) 2:23:28; 7. Dakotah Popehn (formerly Lindwurm) (US) 2:24:20; 8. Florencia Borelli (Arg) 2:24:23; 9. Gabriella Rooker (US) 2:26:32; 10. Melody Julien (Fra) 2:27:08; 11. Bedatu Hirpa (Eth) 2:27:51; 12. Marta Galimany (Spa) 2:28:24; 13. Aubrey Frentheway (US) 2:28:56;
14. Makenna Myler (US) 2:29:26; 15. Maggie Montoya (US) 2:29:51; 16. Rachel McCardell (US) 2:34:31; 17. Maria Lindberg (US) 2:34:59; 18. Anna Kenig-Ziesler (US) 2:35:25; 19. Christa Cain (GB) 2:35:31; 20. Maddie Meyers (US) 2:35:37; 21. Rachel Hyland (US) 2:35:41; 22. Kristin Dailey (US) 2:36:08; 23. Alana Levy (US) 2:36:53; 24. Ashley Heidenrich (US) 2:37:04.
