2026 New York City Marathon Elite Field: Annie Frisbie

Annie Frisbie was 24 and running her first marathon when she took the women’s race out from the front at the 2021 New York City Marathon, pacing a pack of far more experienced runners. She faded to seventh in 2:26:18, and that time stood as her best for three and a half years. When the breakthrough came, it came all at once: almost three minutes off that best in Boston in April 2025, fifth place back in New York that November, and a 2:22:00 in Boston this spring that makes her the second-fastest American in this year’s women’s field. She lines up in New York again on Nov. 1, this time returning from a tibial stress fracture.

Annie Frisbie at a Glance

Country: United States. Born: Dec. 31, 1996 (age 29). Team: Minnesota Distance Elite, coached by Chris Lundstrom. Sponsor: Puma.

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:22:00 (Boston, April 20, 2026). Boston is not a record-eligible course; her record-eligible best is 2:24:12 (New York City, Nov. 2, 2025).
• Half-marathon: 1:07:34 (Duluth, Minn., June 22, 2024)
• 25K: 1:22:37 (Grand Rapids, Mich., May 11, 2024)
• 10 miles: 52:01 (April 7, 2024)
• 10K (road): 31:37
• 10,000m: 32:58.64

Records

• Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon course record: 1:07:34 (June 22, 2024), still standing. The 2025 and 2026 races were won in 1:09:05 and 1:10:16.
• New York City Marathon: second-fastest American woman on the course with 2:24:12 (2025), behind Fiona O’Keeffe’s 2:22:49 American course record from the same race. Still current.
• Boston Marathon: second-fastest American woman on the course with 2:22:00 (2026), two seconds inside Shalane Flanagan’s 2014 American course record. Jess McClain broke that record in the same race with 2:20:49. Still current.

Major Marathon Top-10 Finishes

• 7th, New York City 2021 (2:26:18, debut)
• 8th, Boston 2025 (2:23:21)
• 5th, New York City 2025 (2:24:12)
• 8th, Boston 2026 (2:22:00)

Road Wins and National Podiums

• 3rd, U.S. 10K Championships 2021 and 2022
• 2nd, U.S. 10 Mile Championships 2022
• 2nd, U.S. 25K Championships 2024
• 3rd, U.S. 10 Mile Championships 2024
• 1st, Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon 2024 (1:07:34) and 2025 (1:09:05)

Championships

• 10th, U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, Orlando 2024 (2:27:56)

From River Falls to Minnesota Distance Elite

Frisbie grew up in River Falls, Wis., and won the state Division 1 cross-country title as a senior in 17:59.2. At Iowa State she became an All-American with a 34th-place finish at the NCAA cross-country championships, ran 32:58 for 10,000m, and finished second in that event at the 2018 Big 12 outdoor championships while studying for a degree in graphic design. Looking back on those years in a 2021 interview with The Lap Count, she said she “may have taken it a little bit too seriously” in college.

After graduating she took an internship in Minneapolis, and in September 2019 she joined Chris Lundstrom’s Team USA Minnesota, the group now called Minnesota Distance Elite. That October she placed fifth at the U.S. 10 Mile Championships in Minneapolis, her first national-level result as a pro. “I think I run best when I have a very well-balanced life,” she told The Lap Count. She now coaches runners online alongside her own training, according to her team bio.

A Front-Running Debut in New York

Frisbie went into the 2021 New York City Marathon hoping to break 2:30. Instead she ended up at the head of the race for long stretches of the first half, with the group on 2:25 pace, and although the final miles hurt she held on for seventh in 2:26:18. Only Molly Seidel and Kellyn Taylor were faster among the Americans that day.

Between 2023 and the fall of 2024 she ran 2:28:45 in Boston, 2:27:02 in Berlin that fall, finished 10th at the 2024 Olympic Trials in Orlando in 2:27:56, and ran 2:27:52 in Chicago in October 2024. In the same period she was moving up on the U.S. road circuit, and in 2024 alone she was second at the U.S. 25K Championships, third at the 10 Mile Championships and won the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth in 1:07:34, a course record that still stands. She tore a hamstring after Chicago that fall, and that was where her build toward Boston in 2025 began.

Breaking Through in Boston and New York

None of that held her back in Boston in April 2025. Frisbie went with the leaders early, ran 2:23:21 for eighth and took almost three minutes off her best.

She defended her Duluth title in June and then went back to New York, where she finished fifth in 2:24:12 in the race Hellen Obiri won in a course record of 2:19:51. Olympic champion Sifan Hassan finished just behind her in sixth. Among American women, only Fiona O’Keeffe has ever run faster on the course, and she did it in that same race, finishing fourth in an American course record of 2:22:49. “I’ve been able to stack a few healthy seasons, and consistency is a key for me for good races,” Frisbie said afterward, as LetsRun reported.

This April in Boston, with a tailwind behind the field, Frisbie took her turn at the front from 25K and was setting the pace as the race reached Newton, with nine women still in contention at 30K. Near 20 miles she drifted a few strides off the group while taking on fuel, caught back up, and then couldn’t go with Sharon Lokedi when the eventual winner made her move a mile later. Frisbie finished eighth in 2:22:00, two seconds under Shalane Flanagan’s old American course record, on a day when Jess McClain ran 2:20:49 to break it outright. The full results are in our 2026 Boston Marathon recap.

What to Expect in New York

Frisbie did not finish the Bjorklund half in Duluth in June, a race she had won in each of the previous two years, and when the New York field was announced in August she was recovering from a tibial stress fracture, according to Citius Mag. How much of a marathon build she has managed since then is the big unknown going into the race.

Two of the women she raced closest to in New York last year won’t be there. O’Keeffe had surgery on a torn hamstring tendon earlier this month and Hassan’s training was slowed by illness, and both pulled out of the race in mid-October. That leaves Obiri, who brings the fastest best in the field at 2:15:53, 2024 champion Sheila Chepkirui and Gotytom Gebreslase (2:18:11) at the front of the women’s race.

McClain arrives as the fastest American entrant on paper at 2:20:49, and she beat Frisbie by 71 seconds in Boston. Carrie Ellwood (2:22:53) and Erika Kemp (2:22:56) are close behind on paper, and Weini Kelati, who holds the American record in the half-marathon, is running her first marathon. Frisbie has finished seventh and fifth in her two New York starts.

If her leg has held up through the fall, another top-five finish and a run at top American honors are both realistic. The professional women start at 8:35 a.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 1, and you can find every way to watch in our viewing guide, or follow along in our live coverage and the complete race guide.