After that London Marathon debut in April 2019 — a 2:23:08 finish that made her the second-fastest debuting American woman ever — Sisson largely focused on the fall with standout performances at the Chicago Marathon in 2022 and 2023.
She set the American record in the marathon in Chicago in 2022 in 2:18:29, good enough for second place. Seventh place and a top American finish the following year (while battling a nasty side stitch) further cemented Sisson as one of the country’s top marathoners heading into the 2024 Olympic cycle.
Sisson finished second at the 2024 US Olympic marathon trials to punch her ticket to Paris, finishing 23rd on a brutal course around the French capital. Then came a lengthy layoff, a move to her husband’s native Ireland at the end of 2024, a few shorter races here and there in 2025, and finally a return to the full marathon distance with her New York City Marathon debut this past November.
So with all that in her back pocket, Sisson will finally toe the line in Hopkinton on Patriots Day alongside plenty of elite company.
Emily Sisson was draped in Old Glory after she qualified for the 2024 US Olympic marathon team.Mike Ehrmann/Getty
Both of Sisson’s Olympic teammates from 2024, Fiona O’Keeffe and Dakotah Popehn, are in the field this year, as is last year’s top American, Jess McClain.
The field also includes Sarah Hall, the fifth-fastest American woman in history; last year’s second-place American in Boston, Annie Frisbie; and Susanna Sullivan and Erika Kemp, who joined McClain on the American team for last year’s world championships in Tokyo.
Defending champion Sharon Lokedi, who shattered the course record last year in 2:17:22, will be back to protect her crown. Fellow sub-2:18 performers Irine Cheptai (Kenya) and Workenesh Edesa (Ethiopia) will likely be contenders at the front, too.
After a few years of centering her racing schedule around either fast, flat courses like Chicago and London, or chasing an Olympic spot, Sisson is taking on new challenges. The hilly conditions in places like New York and Boston aren’t exactly set up for record attempts, after all — for Sisson, that change is the exciting part.
A seventh-place finish in New York in 2:25:05 — behind both O’Keeffe and Frisbie, marking the first time another American had finished ahead of Sisson at at World Marathon Major — only added fuel to that fire.
“I didn’t have the race I wanted last fall [in New York]. I remember when I finished, I immediately was like, just want to target the next one, because I felt like there was so much more in me, and I couldn’t give it that day. I almost immediately knew I wanted to do Boston, I think, committed, like, within a week or something.”
Sisson’s been pleased with how she’s bounced back from the effort in New York, a build which included a sixth-place finish at the United Airlines NYC Half in March. She got her first look at the Boston Marathon course a couple days later with a training run on Newton’s famous hills.
Much of her preparation for those hills has come at altitude in Flagstaff, Ariz., before she returned to Ireland to spend the last few weeks ahead of race day sharpening up at sea level.
What does success at the Boston Marathon look like to the fastest American woman in history? It depends.
“I just want to go out there and get to the finish line knowing I’ve made the best decisions, and that I gave it everything I could have out of the fitness I gained throughout this build,” said Sisson. “I want to come away from Boston feeling like I got everything out of it … You’re thrown in the race and you have to make all these decisions, and I hope I have good instincts on the day.
“I’d love if it was top-three finish, but honestly, if I can cross that finish line and just feel like I know I have nothing left to give, then that’s it.”
Amin Touri can be reached at [email protected].
