Ruth Chepng’etich won today’s Chicago Marathon, becoming the first woman in history to run a sub-2:10 marathon, finishing in 2:09:56.

The Kenyan’s time shed nearly a full two minutes off of the prior world record, which was 2:11:53. That time had been set by Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia last year at the Berlin Marathon.

Chepng’etich, wearing Nike’s AlphaFly 3, stormed to the front of the field at the start, with a 15:00 opening 5 kilometers that gave her a two second lead over Ethiopian Sutume Kebede she would never relinquish.

Kebede was the only runner in the same zip code as Chepng’etich through the 10 kilometer mark with another 15 minute split. But over the next stretch of miles the elastic between the two stretched ever further, and by the halfway mark Chepng’etich had built a 14 second lead.

Chepng’etich’s 40 kilometer split saw her come through in 2:03:11, needing to cover the final 2.2ish kilometers in 6:49 to squeak under the nearly unfathomable 2:10 mark. She barely made it — needing 6:47 to get it done.

Her final margin of victory was seven minutes and 36 seconds.

Chepng’etich dedicated her victory to the memory of men’s marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died earlier this year in a car accident.

Image: Getty Images

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