Women's Race: Wudu Strikes Late to Steal a Thriller

• Margin of the day: Just four seconds separated the top five women — Wudu (31:15), Mulatie (31:16), Getachew (31:17), Cheptai (31:19), Ndiwa (31:20).
• The decisive move: Wudu posted the fastest women's split on the 8K-to-finish stretch, overtaking Mulatie — who had led at 5K — to win by one second.
• Youth on the podium: All three women on the podium were 22 or younger — Wudu (19), Mulatie (22), Getachew (18) — in a women's field of 4,380 on an 87°F afternoon.
• Emily Durgin's consistency: The Flagstaff-based runner clocked 31:51 for 8th, improving on her 31:57 8th-place finish here in 2023 and her 32:37 4th-place finish in 2022.

In brutal heat — 87°F, 66% humidity, an 18 mph wind — the women's race played out as a tactical chess match that exploded in the final two kilometers. Melknat Wudu, just 19 years old, crossed in 31:15 at a 5:02/mi clip, but she had to work for it. At 5K she sat fourth among women, and at 8K she was still fourth. The race wasn't hers yet.

Bosena Mulatie, 22, from West Chester, PA, was the one who looked like the winner for much of the afternoon. She ran the fastest women's split from 5K to 8K, moving from 3rd to 1st at that checkpoint. But Wudu had other plans. On the 8K-to-finish stretch, Wudu produced the fastest closing split among the women — a surge that reeled in Mulatie and delivered the win by a single second. Senayet Getachew, just 18, ran the 2nd-fastest closing split to complete her own charge from 5th at 8K, finishing 3rd in 31:17. Irine Cheptai (31:19) and Stacy Ndiwa (31:20) rounded out a top five separated by just five seconds across 6.2 miles.

Further back, Emily Durgin delivered the most quietly impressive performance in the field. Racing in Boston for at least the third consecutive year at this event, the Flagstaff runner went 32:37 in 2022, 31:57 in 2023, and 31:51 here for 8th — a steady, year-over-year improvement in the same race. Sarah Chelangat (31:27, 6th) and Daisy Jepkemei (31:39, 7th) filled out a top seven that was separated by just 24 seconds, a testament to how fiercely competitive — and how evenly matched — this women's field was, even under a scorching Boston sky.