John Korir hopes to build on Chicago win and join his brother as a Boston Marathon champion

Chicago Tribune

20-04-2025

BOSTON — John Korir has the resume that proves he is fast enough to win the Boston Marathon and the family connections that might just help him do it.
The reigning Chicago Marathon champion has been getting tips on the course from his brother, Wesley Korir, who won here in 2012. John Korir has finished fourth and ninth in two previous Boston attempts, and he thinks having a champion spilling his secrets could be the difference this time.
'He knows the course well. He knows where to make a move and also to relax the legs,' said the younger Korir, whose time of 2 hours, 2 minutes, 44 seconds in Chicago is the second-fastest in Monday's Boston field. 'So that's been a good help to me in training. I think it's good.'
John Korir, 28, is 14 years younger than Wesley and was still in school when his brother won one of the hottest Boston Marathons ever, fighting temperatures that hit 85 degrees at the finish. (This year's forecasts call for more comfortable marathon weather in the high 30s and low 40s at the start in Hopkinton, rising to the mid-50s as the runners make their way toward Copley Square. Winds are expected to be light.)
Wesley Korir waited out an early move from the pack at Heartbreak Hill, then passed the leaders when they tired. That kind of experience could be helpful in Boston, which favors strategy over speed: Eliud Kipchoge, the world record holder at the time and considered the greatest marathoner ever, flopped in his only Boston attempt; Wesley Korir's time of 2:12:40 in 2012 was more than nine minutes slower than Geoffrey Mutai's course record the year before, and six minutes off Korir's personal best.
But it was a win.
'It's always helpful to have somebody that has gone through it before you, so you don't have to make the mistakes that I've made,' Wesley Korir said. 'For me, my goal is always to look at the mistakes during my running career and help him to prevent that so he can be ahead, ahead in life.'
The elder Korir followed his athletic career, which also included two victories in the Los Angeles Marathon, by winning a seat in the Kenyan parliament, where he worked to provide clean water for his region. He used some of his Boston Marathon prize money to build a hospital in Kenya.
'The thing that I've been helping him to do is run for more than yourself. Have a purpose in running,' he said. 'And that's what keeps us running: When you have a purpose higher than yourself, all the pain means nothing.'
John Korir has pledged his Boston winnings to the Transcend Talent Academy, which provides an education for aspiring runners who are too poor to pay for one. Wesley Korir has also worked with the school.
'As I am getting old, he's coming to take over,' he said. 'So that makes me happy, as a person, as a big brother, to see him look at a cause that was very important to me, and taking it upon himself to say, I want to help you in this cause and continue what you started.'
'The original fastest Bostonian'
There will be a ceremony at the finish line on Monday morning, just before the runners leave Hopkinton, to remember the man Boston Mayor Michelle Wu called 'the original fastest Bostonian: Paul Revere.'
The National Lancers, a ceremonial cavalry squadron based in Framingham, will ride on Boylston Street to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Revere's ride at the start of the American Revolution.
Revere set off from Boston to warn the colonists in Lexington and Concord that the British regulars were on the march. A reenactment of the first shots fired in the War of Independence is typically held on marathon Monday as part of the state holiday of Patriots' Day; this year's took place on April 19, the actual anniversary.
The National Lancers were a unit in the Massachusetts Organized Militia formed in 1836 that served in the Civil War and World War I. Since 1920, it has served as a ceremonial unit that rides in patriotic events.
Speaking of revolutionary rides …
To honor the 50th anniversary of the official recognition of the wheelchair division, 1975 and '77 winner Bob Hall will serve as grand marshal for this year's race.
'In Boston, we love celebrating anniversaries and the milestones that got us here,' Boston Athletic Association President Jack Fleming said last week. 'What a revolutionary idea that was: wheelchair racing in the 1970s.'
Reigning champions Marcel Hug and Eden Rainbow-Cooper will defend their titles. Hug, of Switzerland, recovered from a crash to earn his seventh Boston title last year and set a course record in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 33 seconds.
It remains the only major marathon victory for Rainbow-Cooper, of Britain.
Also serving as grand marshal is Bill Rodgers, who won the men's race in 1975 for the first of his four Boston victories.
In the field
Defending women's champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya will try to become the first woman since 1999 — and the fourth woman ever — to win three times in a row.
Des Linden, the 2018 champion and the last American runner to win Boston, leads the deepest contingent of U.S. women ever, with 14 contenders heading to Hopkinton with sub-2:26 times.
Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia is looking to repeat in a men's field that includes five major marathon champions and 22 runners who have a time below 2:09. Evans Chebet, the 2022 and '23 winner, is looking for his third win.
Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa, the 2013 and '15 winner, dropped out of the field on Sunday after determining he wasn't fit to compete for a victory.
In all, there were 31,778 people entered — 18,062 men, 13,640 women and 76 nonbinary. The field includes residents of 128 countries and all 50 U.S. states.
A total of $1,214,500 in prize money is at stake across the open, wheelchair and para athletics divisions, including $50,000 bonuses for a course record.