Mary Jepkosgei Keitany (born 18 January 1982) is a Kenyan former professional long distance runner. She is the world record holder in a women-only marathon, having won the 2017 London Marathon in a time of 2:17:01. As of November 2022, she placed fifth on the world all-time list at the marathon and eleventh on the respective world all-time list for the half marathon. Her former half marathon best of 1:05:50 (2011) lived three years as the women's world record. She also has held world bests at 10 miles (50:05 minutes), 20 kilometres (1:02:36), and 25 kilometres (1:19:53), all of which were set in road races. In August 2018, she was honored by the Shoe4Africa foundation who funded and built the Mary Keitany Shoe4Africa school in Torokwonin, Baringo County, Kenya. She and her husband Charles sit on the Shoe4Africa school board. Career Born in Kabarnet, Baringo County, Keitany started running while in primary school. In 2002, she joined the Hidden Talent Academy. 2006 In January, she placed 21st in her first senior race at the Shoe4Africa 5 kilometre women's race. 2007 She won a silver medal at the World Road Running Championships, finishing second to Lornah Kiplagat who broke the world record. 2009 After a year out due to pregnancy, she returned to competition at the World 10K Bangalore in May. She set a new personal best but finished one second behind winner Aselefech Mergia. In September, she won the Lille Half Marathon with a finish time of 1:07:00, which was the seventh fastest of all-time. This performance qualified her for the World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham, where she outpaced Aberu Kebede to win her first world championship, set a new personal best of 1:06:36, and broke the championship record. She won a second gold medal as part of the winning Kenyan squad in the team competition. Reflecting on the win, she noted, "It's my best ever time, so I'm so happy.... I had a baby just 1 year and 3 months ago." Her 15 kilometre interval time, 46:51 minutes, was faster than the world record of 46:55 held by Kayoko Fukushi of Japan; however, Keitany's time was not ratified as a new world record because of the lower elevation of the 15 kilometre mark compared to the race start. Her time was the second fastest ever in the half marathon (after Lornah Kiplagat). The half marathon time was a