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Sharon Lokedi, the runner-up at the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon, will look to defend her United Airlines NYC Half title after she broke the event record in 1:07:04 last year.

In 2025, Lokedi also broke the Boston Marathon course record in 2:17:22, securing her second World Marathon Major title.

Lokedi has had much success in New York, placing second in her New York Road Runners racing debut at the 2022 Mastercard New York Mini 10K. She returned in the fall for her marathon debut, winning the TCS New York City Marathon in 2:23:23 to become just the eighth athlete to win the race in their true 26.2-mile debut.

She then finished third in the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon before placing second at the 2024 Boston Marathon. In her return to the 2024 Mastercard New York Mini 10K she secured second again in 31:04.

Later that summer, she narrowly missed a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing fourth in the marathon, just four seconds off the podium after stepping in as a late replacement for the Kenyan team.

Lokedi grew up in Kenya’s Kalenjin tribe as the oldest of four children, and it was a long journey to the University of Kansas in the United States. When she was 14, following the Kenyan presidential election results, her family fled their home village of Burnt Forest, which became the center of the Kenyan crisis and violence due to the population’s conflicting loyalties. For a month, her family lived in silence and fear with no shelter, possessions, or steady source of food. After the conflict ended, they returned to their home safely, and that’s when Lokedi started running four kilometers to and from school each day.

She improved her running so much over the next few years, attending camps and working with coaches, that she was recruited by the University of Kansas, where she studied nursing and competed in track and cross country from 2015 to 2019. She was a 10-time All American and won the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2018. She went on to win her first race as a pro, taking the Carlsbad 5000 title in 15:38.