KELATI SAYS SHE FEELS NO PRESSURE IN MARATHON DEBUT IN NEW YORK
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
NEW YORK (29-Oct) — Chatting with reporters from behind a small table this morning in the TCS New York City Marathon’s media center, six-time national champion Weini Kelati was deliberate and composed. The 29-year-old, who will make her long-awaited marathon debut here this Sunday, has been racking up trouble-free 100-mile training weeks in Flagstaff, Ariz., the kind of training that builds not only fitness but confidence.
“I don’t have a pressure because I don’t know what it’s going to feel like,” Kelati said in response to a reporter’s question. “Of course, I’m moving up to a new distance. I’m a little nervous, but very excited.”
Kelati, the national record holder for the half-marathon (1:06:04), will join a proud lineage of American women who ran their first marathons in New York, including Deena Kastor (2001), Kara Goucher (2008), Shalane Flanagan (2010), and Molly Huddle (2016). Goucher, Flanagan and Huddle all made the podium in their debuts, and Kelati said it was “very inspiring” to follow in their footsteps.
“I’ve been watching their race, and (they) are the runners that I looked up to,” said Kelati, who was originally from Eritrea but became eligible to represent the United States in international competition in the summer of 2021. “It’s great to have my debut in New York City here, so hopefully I’ll surprise myself.”
The TCS New York City Marathon uses an all-women’s elite race without pacemakers, so Kelati will have the extra challenge of watching her competitors closely and deciding which moves to cover. Stephen Haas, Kelati’s manager who also helps coach her, said she’s ready for that and has a simple plan.
“We won’t be doing any leading,” he said flatly.
Kelati should feel very comfortable in the lead pack for the first half. In the last three editions of the race, the women’s winner has passed halfway in 1:11:01, 1:13:59, and 1:14:23, respectively. Those times are easily achievable by Kelati, who last month finished sixth at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in the half-marathon in a time of 1:06:35. With her coach, fiancé, and training partner Abrham Tesfamariam, she has upped her mileage from 60 to 100 miles per week and has been doing long runs up to 25 miles.
“It’s been amazing,” she said of how her body has responded to the increased mileage. “It’s kind of like surprising myself in every workout because I thought it was going to get harder as a middle-distance runner. Every time I add a little mileage, any change, I adapted very quick. It was good.”
Kelati and her team have high expectations and feel that New York is the best fit for her debut. She said today that although she sometimes misses the track, she’s targeting the marathon for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and hopes New York will help her get there. Under World Athletics rules, if she finishes in the top five, she will be credited with an Olympic Games qualifying mark regardless of time (that is true for all of the races in the Abbott World Marathon Majors). The qualifying window opens on Sunday.
“I think the biggest thing for me was for her first one I did not want the pressure of trying to target a time,” Haas explained. “Like if we went to Chicago, or somewhere flat that was a paced race, we would get too caught up on time. If you think about the Marathon Trials (in March, 2028), it won’t be a paced race. It’s going to be a race.”
And for the race here, Haas is optimistic that Kelati could join Flanagan, Goucher and Huddle as a top three finisher.
“The podium, maybe,” said Tesfamariam when asked about his expectations for Kelati’s performance.
“The podium would be awesome,” Hass chimed in. “She’s got the ability to get on the podium for sure.”
The only hiccup in Kelati’s training was an unspecified illness during the summer, which hampered her training. Before the World Championships half-marathon on September 27, her most recent race was on June 6th.
“Well, first I took off to get ready for the marathon build-up,” Kelati explained. “At the same time I had a little sickness going on. We got to treat this little sickness that was preventing me from pushing myself to the limit. That’s what I’ve been doing. Going to Copenhagen was such a relief to see how much better I felt during that race.”
Kelati will be facing a top-class field led by two former race champions, Hellen Obiri and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya. Obiri won in 2023, took second in 2024, and won again in 2025. Chepkirui won in 2024 (beating Obiri), and took third in 2025. Both women are cagey racers, and Kelati said she is ready for anything.
“I don’t have to worry about the pacemakers, I guess, because all these amazing women are going to push from the beginning,” Kelati said. “This course is a little bit hard and different from other courses. It’s not flat. You have to stay patient, just get through the race. My job is to stay focused and not get too excited early in the race because it’s a marathon.”
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At this year’s edition of the TCS New York City Marathon race organizers are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first five-borough edition of the race in 1976 (the first six editions were held in Central Park). New York Road Runners CEO Rob Simmelkjaer told the media today that Sunday’s race would likely have more than 60,000 finishers, making it the largest marathon in history. The race will be broadcast to nearly 500 million homes across 160+ countries and territories, including on ESPN2 nationally and ABC7/WABC-TV NY locally.
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