Shadrack Kimining, Molly Bookmyer win Twin Cities Marathon on blustery day

The Twin Cities Marathon returned on Sunday after a year away, on a chilly, blustery, overcast morning completely opposite to the excessive heat that canceled the 2023 festivities.

Shadrack Kimining of Kenya won the men’s division in 2 hours 10 minutes 17 seconds, holding off fast-closing Tesfu Tewelde of Eritrea by four seconds and ageless four-time winner Dominic Ondoro by 15 seconds in downtown St. Paul.

Molly Bookmyer took the women’s lead and never gave it up, running ahead by herself all morning on her way to shattering her personal best in her TCM debut. She finished in 2:28:32, beating the field by nearly five minutes.

Both Kimining and Bookmyer won $10,000 each, and Bookmyer, from Columbus, Ohio, collected another $4,000 for participating in the marathon’s new Best in the Midwest initiative. Up-and-coming competitive runners from eight Midwestern states were invited to help attract the best regional runners.

Sunday’s races started with temperatures in the low 50s and blustery winds that were mostly at the back of runners, creating near perfect conditions for those in the Marathon and TC 10-Mile races.

In the 10-miler, Conner Mantz, a top-10 finisher at the Paris Olympic marathon, won in 45:13, nine seconds better than Yemane Haileslassie from Flagstaff, Ariz.

Mantz, 27, from Provo, Utah. said he heard Haileslassie’s footsteps all morning. Mantz’s fellow U.S. Paris Olympian Clayton Young, also from Provo, finished third, nearly a minute behind his good friend Mantz.

Mantz finished eighth in Paris and Young ninth.

Colorado’s Natosha Rogers, now living in New Braunfels, Texas, won the women’s 10-mile race in 52:29, beating Everlyn Kemboi of El Paso, Texas, by 23 seconds and Flagstaff’s Mercy Chelangat by 38 seconds. She did so by beating a course record.

Both Mantz and Young used Sunday’s 10-mile race as preparation for next month’s New York City Marathon.