Priscah Jeptoo

Jeptoo began competing at top level competitions in 2008 and made the top ten women at the Saint Silvester Road Race that year.^[1] In 2009 she began with two wins in Portugal, at the Douro-Tal Half Marathon and then the Corrida Festas Cidade do Porto 15K race.^[2] These preceded a course record-breaking run at the Porto Marathon in November, as she recorded a time of 2:30:40 hours for her debut effort.^[3] At the start of the following year she took second place at the Padua Marathon.^[4] Jeptoo showed marked improvement at the Turin Marathon in November, at which she outran Fate Tola to win the race in a new best time of 2:27:02 hours.^[5]

She returned to Kenya in 2011 and came second at the Discovery Kenya Cross Country behind Priscah Jepleting.^[6] She won the Goyang Joongang Half Marathon in March, setting a new personal best of 1:10:26 hours for the distance.^[7] Jeptoo had a significant breakthrough at the 2011 Paris Marathon: although she did not expect to win, she successfully held off challenges from Agnes Kiprop and Koren Yal to be the first woman across the line, recording a time of 2:22:55 hours. This knocked off more than four minutes from her previous best and was the second fastest run ever recorded on the course.^[8]

She won the silver medal in the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, finishing in 2:29:00 and placing second behind countrywoman Edna Kiplagat. Jeptoo was part of a Kenyan sweep of the medals, with Sharon Cherop taking the bronze, making it the first time that a country had taken all the medals in the World Championships marathon.^[9] She turned to cross country in November 2011 and came third at the Cross de Atapuerca race then won the Cross de Soria.^[10][11] She ran a new course record at the New Year's Eve Saint Silvester Road Race, beating Wude Ayalew to win the event.^[12]

At the start of 2012 she finished second to Joyce Chepkirui at the Discovery Kenya Cross Country.^[13] She ran a personal best of 2:20:14 at the 2012 London Marathon, taking third place. This performance gained her a place on the Kenyan Olympic team and she went on to take the silver medal in the Olympic marathon. Her time of 2:23:12 was faster than the previous Olympic record, but five seconds behind the winner Tiki Gelana.^[14] After the Olympics she won the Portugal Half Marathon and the end-of-year São Silvestre De Luanda races.^[15]

She moved up to third on the half marathon all-time lists with a time of 66:11 minutes at the RAK Half Marathon in February 2013, although the exceptionally fast race saw her finish second behind Lucy Kabuu.^[16] She won the 2013 London Marathon in a time of 2:20:15, beating the Olympic champion Tiki Gelana, who fell mid-race.^[17] In July she won the Bogotá Half Marathon by a margin of over two minutes.^[18] In November 2013, she won the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:25:07.^[19]

After dropping out of the 2014 London Marathon with a leg injury, Priscah Jeptoo marked her return from injury with a very fast time at the Seven Hills Run 15 km road-race in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Her time 46:59 makes her the 4th fastest all-time.^[20]

Jeptoo met Abel Kirui at a training camp and he invited her to visit the Seventh-day Adventist Church that he was a member of. Jeptoo regularly visited the church and got baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church and she also married a fellow member.^[21] Jeptoo along with fellow Seventh-day Adventists Abel Kirui and Amos Tirop Matui founded Better Living Marathon.^[22]