Shalane Flanagan became the first American woman since Miki Gorman to win the New York City Marathon. The 36-year-old, who won the 2012 US marathon trials and was runner-up in the NYC marathon in 2010 (she was sixth at last year's Olympics), won in two hours 26 minutes 53 seconds.
Kenya's Mary Keitany, who was aiming for her fourth consecutive victory in the race, finished in second, 61 seconds behind Flanagan. The decisive move came when Flanagan pulled away from Keitany and Ethiopia's Mamitu Daska at the 23-mile mark, setting a solid pace that neither runner could react to.
Speaking after the race, it was clear how much the win and her first major title meant to Flanagan, "I’ve dreamed of a moment like this since I was a little girl," Flanagan said, through tears. "It means a lot to me, to my family - and hopefully inspires the next generation of American women to just be patient. It took me seven years to do this. It took a lot of work for just this one moment."
Another stand out performance came from 30-year-old Allie Kieffer, who smashed her best road marathon time by 26 minutes to finish as the second American, fifth overall, in 2:29:39. That's some PB.
In the men's race, the finish was a much tighter affair as Geoffrey Kamworor held off countryman Wilson Kipsang to win with a time of 2:10.53.
Over 50,000 runners took on the 26.2 mile route through all five of New York's Boroughs.
Below, James Dunne from Kinetic Revolution explains what makes Flanagan such an effect distance runner.
