Emily Sisson set the American record in the marathon in Chicago on Sunday morning, running 2:18:29 and taking 43 seconds off the previous record of 2:19:12, run by Keira D’Amato in January in Houston. Sisson finished second behind Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya—who was just 14 seconds off the women’s world record.
Sisson, 30, ran a negative split. She hit her first half in 1:09:26, and her second half was 1:09:03.
Before D’Amato broke the American record in January, Deena Kastor’s mark had stood for nearly 16 years. Now, it has fallen twice in nine months.
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D’Amato had an up-close view of her record falling—she was on a motorcycle alongside the women’s leader, Chepngetich, doing commentary for the Chicago Marathon broadcast. She felt emotional as Sisson passed 40K on record pace, she said afterward—not because she might lose a distinction, but because she empathized with the journey into the unknown. “It’s scary, it gets dark, and you fight in a way that you really never fought before,” D’Amato said.
Sisson mounted a furious final kick as she turned into Grant Park to shatter the record, but she said she had no idea what place she was in nor what pace she was on throughout the race. She had been instructed to follow her male pacers—Brian Harvey and Jonathan Mellor—and not to think about time.
She didn’t know she had broken the American record until she crossed the finish line. “That’s the first thing I said to my husband, ‘What did I run?’” Sisson recounted.
“I was really surprised with the time and the place, and I was really, really happy. It’s been so long since I’ve run a marathon and I’m really happy to have a positive experience here.”
Sisson was thrown off because television cameras weren’t close to her for much of the race. “I never saw a vehicle or a camera, so I was like, ‘I must not be on American record pace because I figured they’d show it if I was,’” she said.
Whether it was because of her pacers or her innate running instincts, Sisson ran as smoothly as anyone in the field. Her fastest 5K of the day, 16:19, was from 35K to 40K (21.7 to 24.8 miles), and there was only a 14-second differential between her fastest and slowest 5K splits. She finished more than 2 minutes ahead of the third-place finisher, Vivian Kiplagat of Kenya, who had gone out in 15:56 for her first 5K.
Sisson’s coach, Ray Treacy, said the pacers were instructed to run 5:18 per mile pace, adjusting slightly depending on the wind direction if necessary. And then he told Sisson to “see what you’ve got” over the last 5K.
She didn’t look at her watch during the race. Had she run 5:18s, she would have run just about 2:19—enough to break D’Amato’s record by about 12 seconds. But Sisson indeed got faster at the end. Treacy said her final 10K split was 32:40.
Unlike D’Amato, who had broadcast her intentions to go after the American record in her recent attempts, Sisson managed expectations. Her previous PR, 2:23:08, was from her debut marathon in 2019 in London, and she said that at Chicago, she hoped to break 2:20. But if the record was within reach, she would go for it.
The weather cooperated—it was in the 40s at the start—and Sisson wore a sweatshirt until the last minute before the start and an ear-warming headband and gloves throughout the race. Wind was not much of a factor.
Sisson also set the American record in the half marathon in May, running 1:07:11.
In 2020, Sisson dropped out of the Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta after 23 miles, her second attempt at the marathon. Then the pandemic hit, postponing the Games. For 2021, Sisson was on the track, racing the 10,000 meters. On a hot day in June 2021, she set an Olympic Trials record, running 31:03, and sealing her spot in Tokyo for the Games. In Tokyo, she finished 10th.
After the Olympics, she decided to forgo track and focus solely on the roads in 2022. She had some early hiccups—a case of COVID took a lot out of her and a move to altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona, didn’t suit her, so she spent the summer training in Providence, Rhode Island, instead.
She recovered well enough to set her second American record of the year. At the Chicago finish line, Sisson was greeted by the last three American record-holders: D’Amato, Kastor, and Joan Benoit Samuelson.
“It’s just incredible because they have left such legacies in the sport,” Sisson said. “So to be amongst them is really such an honor. To see them and hear from them afterward, that meant a lot.”
D’Amato, for her part, felt like a “proud mom.” As Kastor had said when her record fell, the point was in the achievement, D’Amato said. She considers Sisson a kindred spirit in her aggressive racing style, and retains pride that they both raised the bar for U.S. distance running. "If I held [the record] for eight months, or if I held it for 18 years, it was the day in Houston that I broke it that was the day I was fighting for,” D’Amato said.
What’s next for Sisson? To be determined, but Treacy said the early report from one of Sisson’s pacers was encouraging: “She’s got a lot more in her.”
—Cindy Kuzma contributed reporting.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
