Hello! Welcome to a bumper edition of The Footprint. Happy Friday – and happy London Marathon Weekend.

This week started for me on Boylston Street, at the finish of Monday’s 129th Boston Marathon, and will wrap up somewhere along Highway 1, during Sunday’s Big Sur Marathon.

Best of luck to everyone running London, Manchester and Big Sur on Sunday, and congratulations to everyone who ran in Boston.

📬 Edition #12: Notes from Boston, featuring Ed Eyestone, Sara Hall, Calli Hauger-Thackery, John Korir, Des Linden, Sharon Lokedi, Conner Mantz, Jess McClain, Hellen Obiri, Dakotah Popehn and Clayton Young...

...and with two days until London, I spoke to Ali Young – the British ultra athlete behind one of dozens of record-breaking bids at this weekend’s race – and reflected on what makes the race so special.

• Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

BOSTON MARATHON 2025

Breakthroughs on Boylston St

Seconds into Monday’s race, Kenya’s John Korir tripped and fell to the back of the elite men’s field, losing his bib. He somehow recovered, worked his way back to the front – and broke away to claim victory in 02:04:45. “Something told me to wake up, and go, and that everything will be okay,” he said at the post-race press conference. “So I woke up, and go, and everything went away.” 

Korir follows in the footsteps of his brother, Wesley, who won in 2012. This was a first for the world’s oldest annually-run marathon: a second winner from the same family.  

🔵🟡

Sharon Lokedi and Hellen Obiri, dominant forces in Kenyan distance running, were once again battling it out in the lead pack when Lokedi turned to Obiri with a question. “Where’s Heartbreak Hill again?” she asked. 

They worked together – until the final stretch. This time it was Lokedi’s turn to take the win, as she pulled away from Obiri (at the same point the two-time champion passed her last year) to set a new course record of 2:17:22. “I really love competing with her,” said Lokedi. 

🔵🟡

“It is a little tough to take,” said top American Conner Mantz, who finished fourth – and four seconds off target – after a gutsy run for the podium. “Getting outkicked in the last 300m is a little bitter,” he added. “But it was probably the best race I’ve had, so I’m happy about that.” 

Mantz reached the top five of a World Major for the first time, and has been the top American man in five consecutive marathons. His time – 02:05:08 – was a personal best, and the second fastest time any American has ever run Boston. 

🔵🟡

The top American woman, Jess McClain, knows a thing or two about coming fourth – having done so three times (at the US Olympic Marathon trials, Olympic 10,000m trials, and USATF Half Marathon Road Championships) over the past year or so. 

“But today it felt like a win for me,” she said, after finishing seventh overall, in 02:22:43 – a breakthrough which McClain, now coached by ultramarathoner David Roche, hopes to build on to reach a podium. “It’s awesome to be in the conversation, and in the mix, again.” 

🔵🟡

“In Boston you really have to just listen to your body, and adapt,” said American Sara Hall, who was eighteenth, finishing in 02:26:32. “You can’t have too strong of a plan, because you’ve just got to think out there,” she added, after crossing the line.

A few days later, Hall listed half a dozen questions, beyond time and place, she uses to evaluate races. There are always lessons to be learned, she wrote. “But don’t let perfectionism steal the joy of a moment you worked so hard for.”

Just ahead was Dakotah Popehn, who ran Boston faster than ever, in 02:26:09, and finished sixteenth. “Women distance running right now is just so on fire, so I’ve gotta find a way out to be with that top group next time,” said the US Olympian, who did not miss a beat when asked about her recovery plans. “I am dying to drink a coke right now.”

🔵🟡

Over the past six months Britain’s Calli Hauger-Thackery has won the California International Marathon; finished third at the TEN and NYC Half in March; and now come sixth in Boston, in 02:22:38. Taking on multiple distances “helps my confidence so much,” she explained after the race. 

A setback at last summer’s Olympic marathon – where she withdrew with exhaustion, seventeen miles in – is helping drive her forward, she said. “I think what happened in Paris definitely made me hungry, made me want to do well now at the world champs and the big stages.” 

🔵🟡

Boston’s notoriously tough course was divided into quarters by Ed Eyestone, the US Olympian and BYU coach who trains Mantz and Clayton Young. They aimed to coast through the first; cover moves in the second; cruise through the hills of the third; and close in the fourth. 

Young, another veteran of the Paris 2024 marathon, finished seventh in 02:07:04, a new personal best. “What a journey,” he said, after documenting much of his training in another illuminating YouTube series. “The ups and downs of the course just matched the emotions of the race.” 

Both Young and Mantz showed momentum, according to Eyestone. “You just build,” he said after Monday’s race. “Some people are able to have amazing, huge, skyrocket breakthroughs. But for most of us mere mortals, it’s kind of a gradual incline.” 

🔵🟡

With a full-page ad in Monday’s Boston Globe, former Boston Marathon champion Des Linden announced this year’s edition would be her final professional marathon. Her 2018 victory – the first by a US woman in Boston in three decades – “wasn’t just mine, it was ours,” she wrote to the city. 

“I was all in on racing,” Linden said after the race, when asked if she approached it any differently from her other eleven Boston Marathons over the years. “If I tried to do anything different, I probably would have just been a puddle of tears.” 

Linden, who set the world record for the 50K four years ago, is not disappearing into the sunset. “This is not retirement - capital R retirement. Just the end of professional marathoning,” she told reporters. Different distances, and surfaces, await. She mostly walks and hikes trails, she said, “but I’m really good at eating snacks.” 

LONDON MARATHON 2025

London Calling

Two years ago this weekend, on a drizzly Sunday morning, I stood nervously on Blackheath and wondered what the hell I was thinking. 

I had grown up watching the London Marathon on TV. During the decade I spent living in the city, standing on the side of a road to cheer – friends, relatives and random strangers alike – became an annual ritual. 

I’m not sure I thought I’d ever get to actually run it. 

While the weather made me feel right at home, I was otherwise a fish out of water. This was my first marathon. And I was terrified. 

Only once the race was underway did doubt and disbelief give way to excitement – and the realization that one of the best days of the year in London is as glorious for those running as it is for those watching. 

The night before, I’d wondered whether a bit of drizzle might dampen the atmsophere. I should have known better. This is a city that knows what it needs to do on Marathon Day. 

I’ll never forget how it felt to pass through neighborhoods I knew so well, while taking on a challenge that seemed so unknown; or to see familiar faces in crowds of strangers, willing every runner forward; or to ultimately cross the line and complete something I didn’t know I could. 

But I also don’t want to forget how I felt that morning on the start line. Were you pleased with your time? is the standard question after a big race. But beforehand I had genuinely been focused on if, not when, I would reach the finish. 

Facing an array of uncertainties and unknowns, I did what noone should, but so many of us do: latch onto fear and negativity, rather than consider the possibility and potential of the road ahead. 

London soon saw to that. One day each year, a city not universally known for its friendliness on the other 364 turns out to lift up tens of thousands of marathoners. In 2023, I was one of them. 

So here’s to anyone on a starting line – on Blackheath this weekend, and far beyond. Here’s to everyone – from family and friends to volunteers and randomers – who helps those people reach where they’re shooting for. And here’s to the London Marathon.

There will be no fewer than 87 Guinness World Record attempts at Sunday’s race, according to organizers – from Paralympian David Wetherill’s stab at the fastest marathon on crutches to a London firefighter’s bid to run the fastest marathon in uniform and breathing apparatus. 

Ali Young has run London ten times, finishing within a whisker of the three-hour mark on three occasions. But she’s never done it dressed as a penguin. 

Fancy dress is a time-honored tradition at this marathon. Who needs streamlined half-tights and carbon plates when you can dress as Tarzan, Big Ben, or a giant emoji? 

Young, 51, will stand among some 56,000 marathoners on Blackheath this weekend, all with their sights set on Buckingham Palace. “It’s the best race in the world,” she said. “The atmosphere is electric. It’s the happiest day.” 

And from the Marathon Des Sables through the Sahara to the historic 153-mile Spartathlon from Athens to Sparta (three times), Young has run her fair share of races. She is currently training for Califorina’s brutal Badwater 135-miler – billed as the world’s toughest foot race – in July. 

Running more than 100 miles, or even a mere 26.2, is like “riding a wave,” she said. “You’re going to get ups and downs, and ups and downs, and you learn to go with it.” 

Young tries to keep everything in perspective. “You’ve entered! You’ve bloody paid for these things,” she said. “Noone cares whether you do this. You think they do. But they don’t.” 

Running for charity has also pushed her through tougher moments. “That’s really helped as well: when the chips are down, when you think about these people.” 

Young is running on Sunday, and in July, for Maggie’s – a volunteer center for people diagnosed with cancer – after her dad died last year. “We found penguins very amusing,” she said. “My dad would find it hilarious.” 

Hence the costume. Adjudicators at Guinness World Records are “really strict,” Young explained. The chest of her costume has been built out like an Emperor penguin, and her arms are inside. “Let’s hope it’s a really cold day.” 

She might not break three hours in the costume, but she is shooting for under four to record the quickest ever marathon by a woman dressed as a bird. 

“It’s a beautiful day,” said Young. “And the fact I’m dressed as a penguin, hopefully it will bring smiles to people’s faces.”

👟 Running London? Here’s what you need to know, via The Running Channel.

📣 Cheering? Here’s where to watch, via Time Out.

📺️ Following along? Here’s who to look out for, via BBC Sport.

✨ Inspired? The ballot for 2026 is now open.

AROUND AND ABOUT

⏱️ Faith’s leap. Three-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon announced a bid to become the first woman to run a mile in less than four minutes. The project, dubbed “Breaking4” and backed by Nike, will take place on June 26 at the Stade Charléty in Paris.

🤖 The robots are coming – but we’re okay, for now. Of 21 entered into a half marathon in Beijing last weekend, only six finished. Almost every robot fell down and faced overheating problems, according to WIRED.

💨 As if sports day isn’t intimidating enough. Three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce lined up against other parents for the 100m. Guess who won? “They haven’t banned me yet,” she wrote, “so I’m at the line.”

📍 San Francisco, CA: Running along Sunset Dunes by Ocean Beach, with pelicans overhead, earlier this week.

RECENT EDITIONS

• #11 Back In Boston | with Meb Keflezighi and Carrie Bradshaw

• #10 Where The World Begins | with The Speed Project soloist Jen Curtis

• #09 Running Behind Bars | with the leaders of the 1000 Mile Club

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think: just hit ‘reply,’ or email me.

Have a great weekend.

– Callum