Kiplagat rolls to women’s victory: Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Kenyan Florence Kiplagat rolled to a dominating victory on the women’s side in the 38th Bank of America Chicago Marathon Sunday morning in two hours, 23 minutes, 33 seconds.

She finished with flair. She collapsed after running through the ribbon, rolled over with a wide smile, then jumped up and down.

Kiplagat is the current world record holder in the 15k, 20k and half marathon. But her last marathon victory was in 2013 at the BMW Berlin Marathon. She was third last year in Chicago.

Mid-race, in an an interview on Channel 5, executive race director Carey Pinkowski summed up the race by saying, “Women are running, men are watching each other.’’

The elite athletes went off on a cool morning (54 degrees at the start at 7:30 a.m.) with light south winds. The weather was forecast to become more difficult for the bulk of the 45,000 registered for the race with southwest winds increasing toward 30 mph and temperatures warming into the 70s.