BOSTON — Boston Marathon weekend kicked off in earnest with the Boston 5K and B.A.A. Mile professional races on a warm, beautiful day in the Back Bay. Eritrea’s Dawit Seare (13:33) and Ethiopia’s Gela Hambese (14:53) claimed victories in the 5K on Saturday morning, which featured a new course with the finish line shifted from Boston Common to the marathon finish line on Boylston Street. 2:06 marathoner Abbabiya Simbassa (4th, 13:40) and US half marathon champion Taylor Roe (3rd, 14:57) earned top American honors. A few hours later, Casey Comber (4:06.18) and Kenya’s Dorcas Ewoi (4:42.57) claimed victories in the mile.
Below, three thoughts on the day’s action in Boston.
*Full 5K results *Full mile results
Boston 5K men’s top 5 1. Dawit Seare, Eritrea 13:33 2. Patrick Dever, Great Britain 13:35 3. Amon Kemboi, Kenya 13:37 4. Abbabiya Simbassa, USA 13:40
5. Max Turek, Canada 13:52
Boston 5K women’s top 5
1. Gela Hambese, Ethiopia 14:53 2. Grace Loibach, Kenya 14:55 3. Taylor Roe, USA 14:57 4. Tsigie Gebreselama, Ethiopia 15:01
5. Lemlem Hailu, Ethiopia 15:02
B.A.A. mile men’s top 5 1. Casey Comber, USA 4:06.18 2. Aaron Ahl, Canada 4:06.40 3. Mick Stanovsek, Australia 4:06.56 4. Isaac Basten, USA 4:07.58
5. Kasey Knevelbaard, USA 4:07.59
B.A.A. mile women’s top 5
1. Dorcas Ewoi, Kenya 4:42.57 2. Laurie Barton, USA 4:43.99 3. Kate Mitchell, USA 4:44.36 4. Julie-Anne Staehli, Canada 4:44.94
5. Annika Reiss, USA 4:45.59
1) Taylor Roe has reached a new level in 2025 by testing her limits in new events
Roe was outkicked for the win today on Boylston Street, but her third-place 14:57 today was still her first time breaking 15:00 on the track or roads. And she beat some impressive athletes: fourth placer Tsigie Gebreselama owns a 14:18 pb on the track while Lemlem Hailu won World Indoors in the 3,000 in 2022 and has pbs of 4:00/14:34/29:59.
Today’s race marked the end of a very strong winter/spring for the 24-year-old Oklahoma State alum. Roe debuted with a 68:48 half marathon in Houston on January 19, then won the US half marathon title in Atlanta on March 2 (67:22 pb), PR’d by more than a minute in the 10,000 at The TEN on March 29 (30:58.66), and set an American record for 10 miles at Cherry Blossom on April 6. In her first year as a pro with Puma Elite, Roe has quickly established herself as one of America’s top long distance talents.
“It’s been fun trying out all different things,” Roe said. “I’ve stretched myself in different ways. Today was, okay, let’s work on some race tactics and do some thinking.”
Roe said that she is hoping to take a bit of a break now before refocusing on a track season and the US championships in late July/early August. Roe had some great races during her college career at Oklahoma State, including two top-5 finishes at NCAA XC (she was 2nd in the championships that were held in March 2021) and a win in the 3,000 at the 2022 NCAA indoor champs. But she was often overshadowed by record-breaking rivals Katelyn Tuohy and Parker Valby. Now Roe has been generating headlines herself.
Roe felt Oklahoma State coach Dave Smith prepared her for a pro career by not asking too much of her in college, and she said that bumping her mileage from 80 miles a week last year to 90-95 now, coupled with being able to train in a professional environment, has been the key to her breakout.
“The community I had at Oklahoma State and now the Puma team, I’m just surrounded by greatness,” Roe said. “It sounds cheesy, but I have a teammate running the marathon [on Monday], Pat Tiernan, and seeing the way he operates…When you’re surrounded by so many good people, that energy rubs off on you.
“When you’re living the lifestyle of a pro, you can handle these volumes and intensity. I definitely couldn’t have handled this a year ago, because when you’re walking around to class or have all these other obligations, you can’t train as hard. I feel lucky that this is my job and I can put my full energy into it.”
MB: Taylor Roe 14:57 3rd at BAA 5K
2) Casey Comber begins a busy week with a repeat win in Boston
This was Comber’s third straight time running the B.A.A. mile and his second straight victory after a runner-up finish to Hobbs Kessler in 2023. He said experience on the course helped him get the win today.
“Every year I come down, I look at where the cones are laid out,” Comber said. “It always comes into play on that last lap…really that last corner, it’s getting to that corner first because it’s really hard to pass after that.”
Comber, who runs for Under Armour’s Mission Run Baltimore team, has a busy week ahead of him as he’ll be running the US road mile champs in Des Moines on Tuesday and then plans to run at least some of the steeple at Drake Relays on Thursday (he’s not sure if he’ll go the full distance).
Comber, who has a 3:34 1500 pb and been eliminated in the semis in that event at USAs each of the past two years, said the US’s strength in that event right now has him seriously considering the steeple moving forward. He ran 8:36 in his first attempt at the distance last year.
“It’s just more of an area of opportunity [than the 1500], not to take away from what guys in [the steeple] have accomplished,” Comber said. “It’s really inspiring to see guys like Matt Wilkinson or especially James Corrigan show up on the day and make the team. It really feels like a place where the hurdling is starting to get better [for me]. I’m a pretty good athlete, a pretty balanced athlete, and if it clicks, it’s a really good opportunity to try to make a team.”
3) Puma Elite athletes share their thoughts on the new Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 shoe
One of the hot topics in Boston this weekend is the debut of Puma’s Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 racing shoe, which the company claims is 3.5% more efficient than any other super shoe on the market. Several members of the Puma Elite team raced in the shoes today for the first time, including Roe, who was 3rd in the women’s 5k in 14:57, Patrick Dever (2nd in the men’s 5k in 13:35) and Amon Kemboi (3rd in the men’s 5k in 13:37), Mick Stanovsek (3rd in the men’s mile in 4:07), and Dorcas Ewoi (1st in the women’s mile in 4:43). I asked them for their thoughts — though obviously they’re a little biased, considering all are paid to promote Puma shoes.
Roe, who said she had only done one or two workouts in the shoes before today, said they definitely felt lighter (the shoes weigh 167 grams; the previous model was 249), but she also liked her previous shoe, the Deviate Nitro Elite.
“We haven’t been training in them for a while,” Roe said. “These are the next step, they’ve done the testing to show it’s more efficient and a faster shoe, but we’ve already had really good shoes. So I’ve just been lucky in that department.”
Dever said he’s been able to use them in training for about six weeks and said he felt the difference when he was tired toward the end of today’s race.
“I definitely felt like they were giving me a lot of help down that last straight,” Dever said, noting the foam felt softer and more responsive. “I almost felt like my legs were going to give way, but the bounce was keeping my momentum going forward.”
Kemboi felt similarly.
“You kind of feel the bounce only,” Kemboi said. “So even though you are tired, you feel just the drive it gives you when your legs are tired.”
Though the greatest gains figure to come in the marathon, even Puma’s milers used the shoe today. Stanovsek told us that previously Puma would have its pros test out both the Deviate and the Fast-R to see which one was more efficient. But for this new release, they’ve told athletes to just use the Fast-R because they believe it is that much better.
“It’s flying,” said Ewoi. “It’s super fast, super bouncy, light. It feels different from previous
.”
Of course, feeling bouncy and saving your legs at the end of races are the same boosts that basically every supershoe has been providing since the technology was introduced almost a decade ago. We’ll need a lot more data to see whether the Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 is a true game-changer.
