Mary Keitany, a 34-year-old mother of two, went out for a run on Sunday morning. She started at the foot of the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge in Staten Island and worked her way through the city.
About 10 miles into her run, in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Keitany picked up the pace, the first signal to those running with her that she was not in the mood for a group run. She soon surged again, effectively saying, “Goodbye, everyone, I’ll see you at brunch.”
It was no ordinary weekend run. Keitany, a marathon dynamo who trains at 7,500 feet in Kenya’s western highlands, put on a virtuoso solo performance that is uncommon for the streets of New York.