Boston Marathon 2025: Things You May Have Missed

The 2025 Boston Marathon was run on 21 April, with over 28,000 runners heading from Hopkinton to downtown Boston. The men’s race was won by Kenya’s John Korir and in the women’s race, Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi broke the course record to win. 

Read our race report here, and below are the other stories you may have missed from the 2025 Boston Marathon including a fast octogenarian, a former world record holder winning their age group, the fastest shoes and the average finish times in the race.

NEW WOMEN’S COURSE RECORD (AND NEW PERSONAL BESTS)

The women’s course record at the Boston Marathon had stood since Ethiopia’s Buzunesh Deba ran 2:19:59 in 2004. Sharon Lokedi’s winning time of 2:17:22 was 2:37 inside of the previous record, marking a huge leap forward for the course record. The top three women were all inside the previous course record, so their times become the fastest three ever run at Boston. 

Lokedi’s time was a massive 6:01 faster than her personal best which she ran in her marathon debut in 2022 when she won the New York City Marathon in 2:23:23. 

Hellen Obiri, who finished second (and was the race champion in the past two years), also ran a massive personal best, lowering her time from 2:21:38 to 2:17:41.

IS JOHN KORIR THE BEST MALE MARATHON RUNNER RIGHT NOW?

Here’s some facts about the men’s champion, John Korir. 

Korir fell early in the race and ripped off his bib, which he then tucked into his half tights for the rest of the race.

He shattered the field through the Newton Hills running 4:41 for mile 20, then 4:40 in mile 21 up Heartbreak Hill, then a 4:24 on the way down the hill.

Korir’s brother Wesley won the 2012 Boston Marathon. They become the first siblings to both win the Boston Marathon. Wesley’s time was 2:12:40, so John bettered his brother by almost eight minutes. 

Korir won the 2024 Chicago Marathon, running a dominant 2:02:44, which put him eighth on the all-time list of male marathon runners. The last person to win Chicago and then the following Boston Marathon was Robert Cheruiyot in 2006-2007. 

He pledged 10% of his winnings ($150,000) to Transcend Talent Academy, a non-profit school in Kenya which was founded by Wesley Korir. 

Korir might be the best male marathon runner in the world right now (though there will be a few men lining up in this week’s London Marathon who will try to challenge that), and he’s announced that he wants to attempt to break the marathon world record.

CONNER MANTZ’S GETS CLOSER TO THE PODIUM – AND THE WIN

USA’s Conner Mantz was just 23-seconds short of the winning time at this year’s Boston Marathon, and only missed a podium place by being out-kicked in a sprint finish. 

His time of 2:05:08 was the second fastest by an American at Boston, and the second fastest all time American marathon on all-condition courses (Boston isn’t a record eligible marathon). He is just 10-seconds behind Ryan Hall’s 2:04:58 from the 2011 Boston Marathon.

Mantz has had a remarkable run of form. In 2024 he won the US Olympic Trials, placed eighth in the Olympic final, then sixth in the New York City Marathon. Earlier in 2025 he lowered the men’s American half marathon record to 59:17, then ran two-seconds faster at the NYC Half (a course that’s not record eligible). 

THREE AMERICAN MEN IN THE TOP 10

Alongside Mantz, Clayton Young (2:07:04) and Ryan Ford (2:08:00) made it three men finishing the Boston Marathon in 2:08 or faster – it was the first time three American men had run under 2:08 in the same race. 

All three are now in the top 10 all time (all condition) marathons by American men.

PAULA RADCLIFFE WINS HER AGE CATEGORY & COLLECTS HER SIX STAR MEDAL 

Former marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe finished the 2025 Boston Marathon in 2:53:44. Having run the Tokyo Marathon in March of this year, she is now an Abbott World Marathon Major Six Star finisher.

Running in bib 215 in reference to her world record (2:15:25), Radcliffe’s time was good enough to place her as the 117th woman overall, and first in the 50-54 age category out of 1,304 finishers. 

WHAT WERE THE WINNING SHOES AT THE BOSTON MARATHON?

In the men’s race, the top three shoes were: 

🥇 ASICS Development Shoe (Metaspeed Tokyo)

🥈 adidas Adios Pro Evo 2

🥉 adidas Adios Pro Evo 2

In the women’s race, the top three shoes were: 

🥇 Under Armour Developmen Shoe (Velociti Elite 3)

🥈 ON Cloudboom Strike LS

🥉 Nike Alphafly 3

A FAST YEAR FOR ELITES

This was the fastest ever year for elites at the Boston Marathon. The average time of the top 15 men was 2:07:25 and for the women it was 2:22:34.

A FAST YEAR FOR EVERYONE ELSE

With good weather conditions on Patriots’ Day, runners in the 2025 Boston Marathon averaged 10 minutes faster than those running in 2024. 

BOSTON MARATHON PARTICIPANTS

There were 28,384 finishers at the 2025 Boston Marathon, with 16,103 men, 12,210 women and 71 non-binary runners. A total of 98.4% of runners completed the race. 

The youngest finisher was 18 years old (28 18-year-olds completed the race) and the oldest finisher was 84-years-old. A total of 10 octagenarians finished this year’s Boston Marathon, with five of them running under five hours, and one of them finishing in 3:58:17! In total, 3,115 people aged 60 and over completed the Boston Marathon.

There were runners from all 56 US states, federal district and territories, and there were runners from 125 different countries. The top five countries represented after the US were: Canada, UK, Mexico, China and Brazil.

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