The Boston Athletic Association added the category when registration opened last fall. Monday’s race will see the debut of a new division for nonbinary athletes. Amane Beriso of Ethiopia is one of three women ever to break 2:15:00, winning in Valencia, Spain, in December in 2:14:58. Kiplagat leads a women’s field that is also among Boston’s fastest. “It was not the same as when I won the other, but I appreciate the effort,” she said. Kiplagat was given the winner’s medal and gilded olive wreath she already had collected the first-prize money. The 2017 champion claimed her 2021 title in a brief ceremony in Copley Square on Thursday, inheriting the victory that was stripped from fellow Kenyan Diana Kipyokei after she tested positive for a banned substance.

No matter what, Edna Kiplagat is going home from Boston a winner. “We don’t know if it’s going to spit him out or not. It’s whether or not it spits you out,” she said. “I’ve heard it described as: We know that the Boston sports is going to chew you up. That’s a different thing that you have to experience. “But I think there’s something about feeling your quads just being wrecked when you’re coming off of Heartbreak. “He’s been out and he’s checked it out,” Linden said. Kipchoge may not have experience on the course, but Linden said he has enough experience to know it isn’t a time trial. Monday’s weather is expected to be less cooperative, with rain and a headwind that is sure to crush anyone who gets distracted by the clock on the way to Copley Square.

I get the vibe that something epic is going to happen.” You feel like something magical is going to happen. “What’s capable on this course has been totally flipped upside down,” 2018 winner Des Linden said. That year, cool temperatures and a strong tailwind helped create the perfect conditions for fast times. In all, there are nearly a dozen runners in the field with times faster than the 2:05:52 that was the Boston record until a blistering 2011 race won by Geoffrey Mutai in 2:03:02 - at the time, the fastest marathon ever run. And if they are most prepared, I will shake their hands.” “I trust the most prepared and planned person will take the day on Monday,” Kipchoge said.

Download marathon world record