A dozen women stayed together until mile 18. Then it was nine. And by the time that famous left-hand turn was made onto Boylston Street, three women had equal chances of taking the victory at the 2015 Boston Marathon. Caroline Rotich of Kenya was the champion in a time of 2:24:55—her first win at a World Marathon Majors race.
Rotich, 30, said first place was far from a guarantee until the moment she crossed the line. As second-place finisher Mare Dibaba of Ethiopia tried to surge in the final meters, getting ahead momentarily by less than a stride, Rotich said, “I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to get second,’” but then realized quickly that she still had a shot. “I saw the finish and thought, ‘Oh, I can kick; I have a chance to win today.’”
After 42 kilometers of running side-by-side, Rotich and Dibaba battled down Boylston Street until Rotich prevailed by four seconds. Dibaba finished in 2:24:59.
“I was pretty confident that I was going to win,” Dibaba said, through a translator. “But I realized in the last mile that I couldn’t hang on and I had to settle for second.”
Buzunesh Deba, an Ethiopian who lives in the Bronx, New York, placed third in 2:25:09. Deba was runner up at Boston last year to Rita Jeptoo, The race came down to a sprint finish on Boylston Street.
On a day with temperatures in the mid-40s and a slight headwind, about a dozen top women stuck together until hitting the Newton Hills, where Americans Amy Cragg and Shalane Flanagan began to fade from the leaders. American Desiree Linden led much of the second half of the race and ended up fourth in 2:25:39. Flanagan, who had a shortened training build up due to an injury in January, placed ninth in 2:27:47.
Linden said prior to the race that after a long comeback from an injury sustained in 2012, she was finally ready to take chances and run a less conservative race. She placed second at the 2011 Boston Marathon by two seconds, in a similar battle with Kenya’s Caroline Kilel.
The less-than-ideal conditions this year suited the Michigan-based athlete just fine.
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“I’m not an emotional person, but today was huge for me,” Linden said. “I’m really proud of myself. You don’t get those moments too often, so I’m going to soak it in, be happy, then go back to being a competitor and try to take that next leap forward in racing down Boylston again. Today’s just as big as 2011 for me.”
Rotich came to Boston with a 2:23:22 personal best, set at the 2012 Chicago Marathon. Plan Your BQ Race So It Will Count for Two Years Rotich came to Boston with a 2:23:22 personal best, set at the 2012 champion and won the 2013 Prague Marathon. She trains in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her coach Ryan Bolton, who specializes in triathlon. Although she is Kenyan-born, she attended high school in Japan.
