Sharon Lokedi: Bouncing back for another big marathon surprise?
The 2022 New York Marathon champion returns to the course of her marathon debut, eyeing a podium finish after just missing a medal in fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The New York Marathon is scheduled for Sunday 3 November 2024.
Sharon Lokedi is known to throw up surprises.
The 30-year-old has been turning heads over the last two years on the marathon course, making her one of the newcomers to keep an eye on.
In her marathon debut, she won the 2022 New York Marathon and missed a medal at her first Olympics at Paris 2024 by only four seconds.
Still bearing the mental scars from that 11 August Olympic race, she’s opted to return to the course that turned into a springboard for marathon success.
After a brief break the Flagstaff, Arizona,-based runner resumed training in Buffalo Park, just eight weeks before the New York Marathon scheduled for Sunday 3 November.
“A few weeks of this left before the big day,” she posted as she tapered down her training for her third New York race.
“Body is tired, excitement is increased…counting down the weeks left before I am back to the streets of [New York].”
The 2022 winner came in third in New York last year before finishing as the runner-up at the 2024 Boston Marathon, a result that earned her a reserve slot in Kenya’s Olympic team. Her 'dream came true' when she was confirmed to replace Olympic silver medallist Brigid Kosgei, who withdrew due to injury concerns.
Sharon Lokedi: From running for her life to running for her best life
Lokedi spent most of last season plotting for her biggest test yet - running the Olympic marathon course.
It was an honour representing Kenya at the Games after nearly a decade away in the U.S. where she relocated for studies in 2015.
The oldest of four children grew up in a village in Burnt Forest in athletics rich county of Uasin Gishu County. But at 14, she was amongst thousands of internally displaced persons (IDP) forced to flee their home in the Rift Valley area, a region that had suffered recurrent election violence.
Returning home, after life as an IDP, was the impetus for her running career. She would run to-and-from school daily, for about four kilometres.
Her running peaked in high school, but she never considered pursuing it further.
“After high school I didn’t really know what life would be like. I had stopped running, and my mum said, ‘You know, you can start running again. There are scholarships being offered and stuff.’
“Just the thought of that made me think, ‘Maybe if I do that, it would change my life, it would change the life of our family’,” she said in an interview with her sponsor.
The Kenyan went on to study nursing and business at the University of Kansas. She competed in track and cross country from 2015 to 2019. She was a 10-time All-American at Kansas and won the 10,000m NCAA title in 2018.
“I am glad I made that decision. Where we are right now, I never thought I would be here. It was a different environment,” she added.
“I had to learn everything, from speaking American English to using a computer, among other things.”
Sharon Lokedi looking to bank on Olympic experience in her third New York Marathon race
Since 2021, Lokedi has been a pro runner on the rise.
Her first race as a pro was back in 2019, taking the Carlsbad 5K title in California in 15:38. She focussed fully on the roads after her failed attempt to make the 10,000m team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
A year later unheralded Lokedi outclassed a stellar women’s field which included Olympic medallist Hellen Obiri and world champion Gotytom Gebreslase to win the 2022 New York race in her marathon debut.
“It was very life-changing,” she said of her career highlight.
The naturally gifted runner returned to the Big Apple last year for her title defence, where she lined up alongside her husband Edward Cheserek, a17-time NCAA champion who had also picked the New York course for his marathon debut.
Her third-place finish left her yearning for another significant run. Lokedi, who trains in Flagstaff with coaches Stephen Haas and Pat Casey, chose Boston, fully aware that it could be her pathway to Paris 2024.
She was disappointed when the Kenyan selectors only named her a reserve on the women's team. But when injury locked out Kosgei just weeks to the Games start, her “dream came true”.
The 2024 Boston Marathon runner-up finished fourth in a personal best of 2:23:14 in Paris in August, in what was also just her fourth marathon.
“I am very proud of it,” she said of her race, staged on what has been described as one of the toughest Olympic marathon terrains.
“Honestly, I saw myself being in the top three all the way through. I knew the last few kilometres were going to be tough. I just wanted to fight as much as I could and be in the top group all the way close to the end. Towards the end, it’s unfortunate there were still four of us.”
“I will cherish this moment and use this hard-earned Olympian title I acquired to the fullest.”
Lokedi still has plenty more she hopes to achieve.
After recovering from an injury that hampered her last year, she plans to use her "energy and new confidence" to keep going.
The 2024 New York City Marathon will be the next step on her journey.