2026 New York City Marathon Elite Field: Jess McClain

Jess McClain will start the New York City Marathon on Sunday, Nov. 1, holding the fastest personal best of any American woman in the field, the 2:20:49 she ran for fifth place at the Boston Marathon in April. That run took 1:13 off Shalane Flanagan’s American course record, which had stood since 2014, and it came only four years after she won her first marathon, in Mesa, Ariz.

The 34-year-old has raced New York once, finishing eighth in 2024 as the second American. Since then she has been the top American woman at Boston twice, placed eighth at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, and helped the U.S. to team silver in the half-marathon at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen in September. Her sights are set well above the domestic race this time. “First American honors is always amazing, but I’m thinking bigger than that,” she said in August when the field was announced.

Jessica McClain at a Glance

Country: United States. Born: Feb. 15, 1992 (age 34). Hometown: Phoenix. Coach: David Roche (since 2025). Sponsor: Brooks.

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:20:49 (Boston, April 20, 2026). Boston is not a record-eligible course; her next-fastest marathon is 2:22:43, also at Boston (April 21, 2025).
• Half-marathon: 1:06:53 (Copenhagen, Sept. 20, 2026)
• 10K (road): 31:40 (Northport, N.Y., Sept. 21, 2024)
• 10,000m: 30:59.71 (San Juan Capistrano, Calif., March 29, 2025)

Records

• Fastest Boston Marathon by an American woman: 2:20:49 (April 20, 2026), still standing. It broke Shalane Flanagan’s 2:22:02 from 2014.
• Great Cow Harbor 10K course record: 31:40 (Sept. 21, 2024). Still standing after the 2026 race, which Biruktayit Degefa won in 32:17.97.
• USATF 10K Championships record: 31:40 (Sept. 21, 2024), breaking Marla Runyan’s 31:46 from 2002.

Major Marathon Top-10 Finishes

• Fifth, Boston, 2026 (2:20:49), first American
• Seventh, Boston, 2025 (2:22:43), first American
• Eighth, New York City, 2024 (2:27:19), second American

Road Wins and National Podiums

• Winner, Mesa Marathon, 2022 (2:33:34), her marathon debut
• Winner, USATF 10K Championships at Great Cow Harbor, 2024 (31:40), her first national title
• Second, Falmouth Road Race, 2026 (35:25), given the same time as winner Pamela Kosgei

Championships

• World Road Running Championships, Copenhagen, 2026: Seventh in the half-marathon (1:06:53) and team silver with the U.S.
• World Championships, Tokyo, 2025: Eighth in the marathon (2:29:20)
• U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, Orlando, 2024: Fourth (2:25:46), 15 seconds off the team
• U.S. Olympic Trials, Eugene, 2024: Fourth in the 10,000m, making her a Paris alternate in two events

From Stanford to Seattle and Back to Phoenix

McClain raced as Jessica Tonn before she married. She grew up in Arizona, won 14 state high school titles at Xavier College Preparatory in Phoenix, and went on to Stanford, where she became a seven-time All-American. She signed with Brooks in 2015 and moved to Seattle to join the Brooks Beasts. Injury interrupted her years there more than once, and by 2019 she was back in Phoenix, training away from the group.

From early 2020 she went about two years without racing. She married Connor McClain during that stretch and kept running for herself, with nothing on the calendar. Her return, in February 2022, was over 26.2 miles at the Mesa Marathon, which she won in 2:33:34 wearing shoes she had picked up the evening before the race. Looking back on that day, she told Race Results Weekly, “I did everything wrong.”

A sacral stress fracture later that year changed how she approached training. “I resolved then that I was never going to let myself get to a starting line not healthy again,” she told us before her New York debut in 2024. She still holds down a job outside running.

Four Years From Mesa to Boston

Fourth place at Grandma’s Marathon in 2023, in 2:29:25, got McClain to the Olympic Trials in Orlando the following February. She ran 2:25:46 there, nearly four minutes faster than she had ever gone, and finished fourth, just 15 seconds off the Paris team. Brooks re-signed her a month later. That summer she was fourth again in the 10,000m at the track Trials in Eugene, which made her an Olympic alternate in two events, and in September she won her first national title at the USATF 10K Championships on Long Island, in a course record.

New York that November was her first major, and she ran 2:27:19 for eighth. David Roche took over her coaching in 2025, and Boston that April was the first race of their work together: 2:22:43 for seventh, just over three minutes faster than she had run before. In June, USATF moved her onto the marathon team for the World Championships in Tokyo after Betsy Saina gave up her place. She prepared for the heat with treadmill sessions in an environmental chamber at Arizona State University and finished eighth in 2:29:20. “My ‘A’ goal was top five,” she told ASU News afterward.

Her 2026 started with one of the stranger races of the year. McClain was leading the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta on March 1, with the finish not far off, when the lead vehicle took a wrong turn and she and the two women closest to her followed it off the course. The official results stood, but the Atlanta Track Club paid McClain first-place prize money and divided the second- and third-place money between the other two, and World Athletics allowed the U.S. to send seven women to the half-marathon at the World Road Running Championships instead of the usual four, with McClain among them.

Seven weeks later she was in Boston, where a fumbled bottle around 30K cost her touch with the leaders for a stretch. She rejoined them on the climbs through Newton and went on to finish fifth in 2:20:49. “I had no idea how fast I was running, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I got to the finish,” she said afterward.

In August she was second at the Falmouth Road Race, given the same 35:25 as winner Pamela Kosgei, and on Sept. 20 in Copenhagen she ran a half-marathon best of 1:06:53 for seventh in a race Agnes Ngetich won in a women-only world record. With Emma Grace Hurley in fifth and Weini Kelati in sixth, the U.S. women took team silver behind Kenya.

What to Expect in New York

Sifan Hassan and Fiona O’Keeffe both withdrew in mid-October, taking two of the biggest names out of the women’s field. That leaves defending champion Hellen Obiri, who set the course record of 2:19:51 last year and ran 2:15:53 in London in April, and 2024 winner Sheila Chepkirui at the front. McClain’s best ranks seventh on the start list, behind Obiri, Chepkirui, Gotytom Gebreslase, Viola Cheptoo, Edna Kiplagat and Mercy Chelangat.

Third place in New York last year went to Chepkirui in 2:20:24, only 25 seconds quicker than McClain ran in Boston, which makes the podium she is talking about a realistic aim. The fastest an American woman has ever run here is O’Keeffe’s 2:22:49 from 2025, and McClain’s Boston time is a full two minutes better. Before her debut here in 2024, she told us, “I’m excited about the hills. I’ve been training for them all year.”

Annie Frisbie, fifth here last year in 2:24:12 and the owner of a 2:22:00 best, leads the Americans chasing her. Carrie Ellwood, Erika Kemp and Amanda Vestri are all inside 2:25, and Kelati, sixth in Copenhagen, makes her marathon debut. The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials are set for St. Louis on March 25, 2028, so New York is an early look at who might contend for the three places on the team.

The professional women start at 8:35 a.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 1, with national coverage on ESPN2. Our guide to how to watch the New York City Marathon has the full broadcast schedule, and the ultimate guide to the New York City Marathon covers the course and everything else.