MANCHESTER – Edwin Kurgat heard about the Manchester Road Race from five-time winner Amy Rudolph, one of the coaches at Iowa State, when he went to school there.
“She kept telling me, ‘Oh, this race, you got to do this race,’” he said. “I kept thinking about it.”
Last year, he came and finished third. Thursday, the Kenyan Olympian returned and broke the course record, winning the Thanksgiving Day 4.737-mile race in 20 minutes, 54 seconds and became the first to run under 21 minutes at the 89th annual race.
There was another connection to Rudolph, who won the women’s title five times between 1995-2002, on Thursday. It was Weini Kelati, who tied Rudolph’s record with her fifth consecutive victory at Manchester, winning in 23:18.
“It’s amazing,” said Kelati, 28, of Flagstaff, Ariz., who holds the women’s course record from her first run (22:55, 2021). “I’m thinking I’m not going to make it five (times) when I ran my first race here.
“It wasn’t a fast time but I’m happy with the win.”
The day dawned sunny, not too cold but there was wind that would hamper some of the runners on the course. Over 12,000 people had signed up to run and walk, one of the biggest Manchester crowds in recent years.
The first year Kelati ran, she didn’t know anything about the race except that course was hilly and it would be cold.
“I was kind of nervous but so excited to run the mixed (men’s and women’s) race – that helped me in the first year,” said Kelati, who broke the course record by over a minute in 2021. “Also not knowing the course helped a lot. I did not think about it, I just ran.
“Coming back every year, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a hilly course. I have to save something at the beginning so I can push myself at the end.’ But it works every year just to take off at the beginning.”
Kurgat, who finished seventh in the 5,000 meters at the 2024 Paris Olympics and seventh in the 10,000 meters at the World Championships in September, broke the course record set by Conner Mantz (21:04) in 2021. Mantz, an Olympic marathoner who set the American marathon record in Chicago in October, finished second to Morgan Beadlescomb in 2023.
Kurgat, David Mullarkey of England who finished second (20:58) and Beadlescomb, who finished third Thursday in 20:59, all ran under the course record.
“It’s such a historic race and some of the best athletes in the world have raced here,” said Mullarkey, 25, a recent graduate of Northern Arizona University who grew up on the Isle of Man. “It’s great to be running the same times as them. I pushed the pace for a while so I like to think I contributed to that a little bit.”
The lead pack took the first mile out in 4:17 and ran a 4:35 mile to get up the Highland Street hill. Amon Kemboi won the King of Hill award at Mile 2, edging out Kurgat. Mullarkey was there, too, but Beadlescomb was lurking behind, waiting for the big downhill on Porter. That’s where he caught up to the lead pack.
“I was in no rush to close that gap,” Beadlescomb said. “You got to be patient and let them do their thing. They started going up the hill, I kept the gap the same. I just maintained effort.
“I started the surge on the uphill and carried it over the top and started to chip away. The hardest part was slowing down because I didn’t want to take the lead at that time.”
Mullarkey kept things honest and then Kurgat surged. He had pushed too hard last year and went early and had nothing left when the eventual winner Andrew Colley passed him.
This year, he did.
“This time I wanted to be methodical and plan my race,” said Kergat, 29. “I waited until the end when I knew I had it. That’s when I started pushing so hard.
“I knew there were some really good milers, 3:51, 3:52 milers, I wanted to make sure I ran so hard the last mile, that nobody would come and kick the race at the end.”
He didn’t know he broke the record until after the race when he was being interviewed.
“I saved a lot – until I had one mile to go and I said, ‘This is my time to go,’” he said. “I didn’t want to be third again like last year.
“I’m really excited. I wanted to run this race four years ago but I couldn’t come. Then I couldn’t come because I wasn’t ready, then I came last year. I’m really happy to be part of history and I’ll keep coming to Manchester. This is a really good race, it’s good for me to come here and open up my season.”
That’s how Kelati felt about her streak.
“I don’t want to miss this race,” she said. “Running in this crowd and people cheering for me makes me really happy. I wanted to start my season happy.”
