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Farah vs. Rupp: who will come out on top in Chicago?

Sir Mo Farah and Galen Rupp are set to battle it out a week from today at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Chicago Marathon

The players

Sir Mo Farah and Galen Rupp are set to battle it out a week from today at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. The two distance runners were both originally track athletes who are relatively new to the marathon scene. 

Their marathon history 

They have nearly identical personal bests, 2:06:07 for Rupp, and 2:06:21 for Farah. Both of these personal bests were set this spring, Rupp’s from the Prague marathon in May and Farah’s from the London marathon in April. Farah is a four-time Olympic gold medallist and six-time world champion on the track. Rupp is an Olympic marathon medallist. 

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This will be Rupp’s seventh marathon attempt, one of those being his third-place Olympic performance in 2016. Farah has less marathon experience, having run only two marathons. Despite Farah having more half-marathon experience, Rupp has the stronger half-marathon time of 59:47 to Farah’s 59:59. 

It’s undeniable how evenly matched these two runners are. Rupp is the defending Chicago champion, with slightly better personal bests over the marathon and half-marathon distance, and a little more marathon experience. However, Farah is arguably one of the greatest distance track runners ever, and has delivered amazing results on the track time after time. 

Chicago Marathon
Photo: Chicago Marathon

The rest of the field 

Does this mean Rupp or Farah will be the overall winner? Not necessarily. The elite list is stacked with several men who have run times beyond what either Rupp or Farah have done over the marathon distance. The elite field includes: 2016 Chicago winner Abel Kirui, 2017 Boston champion Geoffrey Kirui, 2018 Boston champion Yuki Kawauchi and the 2018 Tokyo champion Dickson Chumba

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Whether these elites are up to bettering their personal bests next Sunday is a different story, but among those listed above, Mosinet Geremew (who has a fresh personal best from the Dubia marathon of 2:04:00), and Birhanu Legese (the 23-year-old whose personal best is from the same race and only 15 seconds slower), Farah and Rupp are facing a talented field. 

The race gets underway 6:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday October 7th. 

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