On October 28, 1984, thousands of runners swarmed the streets of New York to participate in the 15th edition of the New York Marathon. Eight days later and thousands of kilometres from New York, Eliud Kipchoge was born on November 5, 1984, in Nandi County.
This year, the New York City Marathon has attracted 50,000 runners from around the globe, battling for a share of the total prize fund of Sh117 million ($900,000). The men’s race will start at 4:05pm (Kenyan time), while the women’s competition will begin at 3:35pm.
Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge smiles after crossing the finish line to win the men's race of the Berlin Marathon on September 24, 2023 in Berlin, Germany.
Photo credit: Tobias Schwarz | AFP
The New York Marathon is the last of this season’s seven Abbott World Marathon Majors series made up seven of the biggest and most prestigious marathon races in the world. The other races in the series are Tokyo Marathon (run on March2), Boston Marathon (April 21), London Marathon (April 27), Sydney Marathon (August 31), Berlin Marathon (September 21) and Chicago Marathon (October 12).
In 1986, the New York City marathon was held in November for the first time after the event’s organisers changed the race’s traditional date from the last Sunday of October to the first Sunday of November. That scheduling change brought the race’s date even closer to Kipchoge’s birthday with its earliest date in a year being November 1 and its latest slating being November 7. In some years – like in 1989, 2000, 2006, 2017, and in 2023, the New York City Marathon coincided with Kipchoge’s birthday.
Eliud Kipchoge completes the Sydney Marathon in Australia on August 31, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
The proximity between the two dates would have just been a mundane occurrence had time passed without Kipchoge becoming undoubtedly the greatest marathoner the world had ever seen, a status that allowed him to forge an even closer relationship with New York City.
As his star rose with him breaking the world marathon record twice, running a marathon in under two hours at the INEOS 1:59 challenge, and winning the Berlin Marathon (five times) and London Marathon (four times) a record number of occasions, he visited New York on several occasions but always left unfinished business.
Until this year, Kipchoge has almost always been in New York City in early November but constantly for something that did not involve him running a marathon.
He first visited the Big Apple in 2017, when his 33rd birthday coincided with the 47th edition of the New York Marathon. He was there for a Nike promotional event and a day before that year’s race; he had a shakeout run with members of a New York running club. After the run, he had a Q & A with them, at the end of which they surprised him with a birthday cake.
More such events took place in the years that followed and out of them came some moments that went viral.
There was that video clip of him hugging his training partner Geoffrey Kamworor at the finish line after the latter won the 2019 New York Marathon on November 3. The following day, Kipchoge broke the internet yet again after Nike released a video which featured him celebrating New York as a city of runners. “If you’re in New York, you’re a runner, even if you don’t know it yet,” Kipchoge says at the end of the video after commentating over scenes of New Yorkers running to get their coffee, rushing to catch buses, and dashing to meetings and appointments.
If anything, New York became the training ground for his post-career plans of touring the world spreading the gospel of running. It was also the place where he cooled down after a major accomplishment – running 2:00:25 at the sub-two hour marathon time trial race in Monza, Italy, in 2017, conquering the INEOS 1:59 challenge in 2019, and breaking the world marathon record in 2023.
Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge crosses the finish line to win the men's race at the London Marathon on April 28, 2019.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Finally, at the twilight of his career, Kipchoge has found time to do the only thing he had never done in New York before – run a marathon. As he hinted to Olympics.com, his debut in the New York Marathon will most likely be the last race of his career. “November, and it’s New York. It’s a place that has been on my mind for a long time. It’s time for me to go there and get a Seven Star before embarking on my new journey of running for other things – running for a purpose,” he said.
Kipchoge’s swansong in New York – the 24th race of his career – will see him run three marathons in one year for the first time, perhaps a testament that even when things end, there can still be a first time for everything.
Even if he does not end up finishing first today, there will still be something gained for Kipchoge. He will join a list of over 4,000 running enthusiasts in the world who have finished all the seven World Marathon Majors races – Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, Sydney, and Tokyo marathons.
New York City, November, and Eliud Kipchoge – there cannot be a better place and time to witness the curtains closing on the greatest marathon careers the world has ever seen.
As his star rose with him breaking the world record twice, he visited New York but always left unfinished business.
