His speed over the half marathon gives the move its intrigue, but Kiplimo\u2019s marathon career feels less like a reinvention than a progression. He has arrived with track medals, cross-country titles and half-marathon records behind him, trying to stretch those qualities across a distance that still asks new questions.<\/p>\n
His first answer came in London.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the first (aim) was just to cross the finish line,\u201d Kiplimo said. \u201cI did that last year here. My second was to prove to the world that maybe I can run well, and in Chicago I proved I can run a marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Chicago victory changed the context around his return. Kiplimo is no longer a debutant testing how his speed and strength might translate, but a genuine contender who has won one of the sport\u2019s biggest races.<\/p>\n
But he also knows that experience over the marathon still has to be earned one race at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cShifting to the marathon, it\u2019s a lot of mileage,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need to prepare yourself well and build up your endurance. It\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s a tough challenge and you need to work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
That challenge will be sharpened by the field waiting for him in London. Sawe returns as defending champion after beating Kiplimo here last year, while Tamirat Tola<\/a>, the Paris 2024 Olympic<\/a> marathon champion; fellow Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei<\/a>, the Paris 2024 10,000m gold medallist; Ethiopia\u2019s 2025 world 10,000m silver medallist Yomif Kejelcha<\/a>; and former London winner Amos Kipruto<\/a> are also among those expected to test the race from the front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His speed over the half marathon gives the move its intrigue, but Kiplimo\u2019s marathon career feels less like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-408688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}