Sharon Lokedi defended her Boston Marathon title in brilliant style on Monday – and all without the usual info she would have access to on her running watch.
The Kenyan set a new Boston record when she won the race last year, but while she was unable to match that, she was still in masterful form, as she waited patiently for the moment to attack before executing the perfect race.
She stopped the clock in 2:18:51, around a minute and a half outside her 2025 time, with compatriots Loice Chemnung finishing in second (2:19:35) and Mary Ngugi-Cooper third (2:20:07).
‘I didn’t know how fast I was going’
And afterwards Lokedi explained why she didn’t have her normal Garmin Forerunner 970 on her wrist – as it was back in her hotel room.
She said: “I knew I was going fast. I just didn’t know how fast I was going as this morning, I forgot my watch.
“Halfway to the race, I think we were like, 20 minutes in the bus and I told my coach, ‘oh, I don’t have my watch, I forgot my watch.’
“So we ended up asking someone, and we got a watch. I could just see the paces in kilometres, but I didn’t know how fast I was going, so I just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible.”
Learning experience
Asked where the substitute watch came from, she explained: “Yes, we know who we got it from. And yeah, we’ve given it back. And yeah, we took a picture!
“So I am very grateful to him for helping us.”
It was a great lesson for all runners to not let something unexpected derail a race and Lokedi added: “I feel like every time I go to a race, I learn something about myself, and it’s just the experience that you get from these races gives you so much confidence to want to be better.
“And I think, it’s just knowing that anything is possible, and just believing that I can achieve whatever if I just keep working hard, staying humble and just, you know, appreciating the things that I have and using them to get me ready for the next time.”
And as someone pointed out on the Garmin post above, the owner of the watch Lokedi borrowed now has a historic run on his ‘stats’: “SOMEONE’S VO2 Max just got an “upgrade”!
So a happy outcome for all concerned and there was further cause for celebration as fellow Kenyan John Korir also successfully repeated his win from 12 months previously.
Lokedi said: “I saw him, and I was like, ‘You defended?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, with a course record and a PB.’
“Now both of our PBs are from Boston and we both have course records.”
