SISSON TO MAKE LONG-AWAITED NYC MARATHON DEBUT
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

NEW YORK (19-Aug) -- She's had to wait five years, but USA marathon record holder Emily Sisson will finally get her chance to run the TCS New York City Marathon this November.  Sisson, 33, a two-time Olympian who has won eight national titles, was supposed to run what would have been the 50th edition of the world's largest marathon in 2020, but the race was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  She had to settle for running the race "virtually" on the Silver Strand Bikeway in Coronado, Calif., accompanied by her husband, Shane Quinn, on a bicycle (for the record she ran 2:38:32).

"Enjoyed pushing myself and looking forward to the next opportunities," Sisson wrote on her Instagram at the time. "Here's to making the best out of 2020!"

Sisson is part of a strong elite field for the 2025 race, which will take place on Sunday, November 2.  The competition will also feature marathon debuts by track Olympians Joe Klecker and Hillary Bor of the USA, previous women's champions Sharon Lokedi and Hellen Obiri of Kenya, and title defenses by Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya and Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands.  But for Sisson, the race should be particularly special given that she is both America's fastest-ever marathon woman and that her kit sponsor, New Balance, has a deep and long-running relationship with both the TCS New York City Marathon and the race founders and organizers, New York Road Runners.

"I am so excited to be lining up in New York!" Sisson told Race Results Weekly in an e-mail.  "New York City really is my favorite place to race because the energy is always incredible. NYRR also does an amazing job, always, and I can't wait to be back in November." 

Sisson's road running career actually began in earnest eight years ago in New York.  On a near-freezing day in March of 2017, Sisson and then-training partner Molly Huddle ran the United Airlines NYC Half.  The pair, who had come from a warm-weather training camp in Arizona, ran together the entire way and Huddle just edged Sisson by two seconds, 1:08:19 to 1:08:21.  Sisson's time was a USA half-marathon debut record.  She began to see that the marathon would be her future.

"It's pretty special," Sisson told Race Results Weekly that day.  "I didn't even know what [the record] was coming into today, but I'm pretty happy, especially to do it here, a tough course." 

Sisson wouldn't step up to the marathon until April of 2019 when she ran the TCS London Marathon.  She was very fit coming into the race, running a 1:07:30 half-marathon in Houston in January and then a world-leading and personal best 30:49.57 for 10,000m at Stanford University at the end of March.  On paper, the London race went great (Sisson set a USA debut and national record of 2:23:08), but she had actually fallen during her warm-up and banged her knee on the pavement.  That injury would later lead her to withdraw from the 2021 edition of the TCS New York City Marathon.

"A few weeks before Tokyo (Olympics), my knee started to hurt pretty badly," Sisson said through Instagram in October, 2021.  She continued: "I took a week off after Tokyo (where she ran the 10,000m, placing tenth) hoping to heal. Not for a lack of trying, I haven't really been able to train for 2.5 months now. So after a great year of training and racing, I'm prioritizing health and giving my body the rest it needs! New York Road Runners, I will be back racing soon."

The following year, Sisson would choose Chicago for her fall marathon instead of New York.  In May, 2022 she set a national record for the half-marathon of 1:07:11 (since broken), then crushed it in Chicago with a second place finish and North American record of 2:18:29.  Sticking with the race plan coach Ray Treacy had given her, Sisson split halfway in 1:09:26 then came back in a slightly faster 1:09:03.  The three previous North American record holders --Keira D'Amato, Deena Kastor, and Joan Samuelson-- were on hand to see her finish.

"It's amazing," Sisson said in her post-race broadcast interview.  "The women standing here today, they've all accomplished so much.  To be amongst them is an incredible honor."

Although Sisson lowered her national half-marathon record to 1:06:52 in January, 2023, that did not translate into a faster time at Chicago later that year (2:22:09).  She had struggled to overcome a side stitch in the final third of the race.

"I felt actually pretty good until mile 18 in the race," said Sisson.  "I was proud to gut it out the last 8 miles."

As a practical matter, Sisson couldn't run New York in 2023 because the race was too close in the calendar to the 2024 USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon in early February of 2024 (running Chicago gave her adequate recovery time).  That turned out to be a good move as Sisson had a great day at the Trials, finishing second in 2:22:42 and securing her Paris Olympic Marathon starting spot (she would finish 22nd in 2:29:53 on a hot day).  There would be no fall marathon for her in 2024, typical for an athlete who runs a summer marathon at a major championships.

Sisson's life has changed a lot since 2020.  Her husband, who is Irish, is an Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy accredited mental health counselor and therapist, and has set up a practice in Tramore, County Waterford.  Sisson has been spending a lot of time in Ireland this year and has jumped into a few local races to help her stay sharp (she ran a road PB of 14:58 for 5-K at the Streets of Kilkenny 5-K, for instance).  She skipped the Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships this summer in Eugene, and plans to run the AJ Bell Great North Run half-marathon on September 7 in England as part of her build-up.

"I feel really motivated for this one as I have had my eyes on it for so long," Sisson said of the NYC Marathon. "Now I finally get to race it!"

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The full elite field is at this link, along with the official press release: https://www.nyrr.org/media-center/press-release/2025_0819_tcsnycmproathletefield


PHOTO: Emily Sisson finishing second at the 2024 USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon in Orlando, Florida, on February 3 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

PHOTO: Emily Sisson in Central Park in June, 2024 before the Mastercard New York Mini 10-K (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)