Hellen Obiri has done just about everything in running.
Obiri, a 33-year-old Kenyan, has gone to three Olympics and won a medal in two of them. She is the only woman to have won world titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country. She has won six of her eight half-marathons and finished on the podium in the others.
There are just a few items left on her checklist.
She would like to win Olympic gold and set a world record. Doing either in the marathon seems like a legitimate possibility, even if she has run the distance in elite competition only once.
“I think for the second one, I’ll know what I’m doing,” Obiri said before announcing she would be running in Monday’s Boston Marathon, joining the fastest and most decorated lineup the race has seen.
That calm confidence is sure to stoke fear in her competitors, despite the depth of the field. Of the women who will toe the starting line in suburban Hopkinton, Mass., 14 have run the marathon faster than 2 hours 21 minutes. Five have run under 2:18.
That’s exactly why her coach, Dathan Ritzenhein, thought the race would be good for Obiri.
“She’s just a good racer,” Ritzenhein said. “She’s best at competing.”
She is doing so under a new coach and a new team: In 2022, she enlisted Ritzenhein, joined the On…
