Marko Cheseto
Marko Cheseto keeps lowering his marathon record for amputees.
The former University of Alaska Anchorage standout ran Sunday’s New York City Marathon in 2 hours, 35 minutes and 55 seconds to place 72nd overall among almost 25,000 runners and 57th for men.
Cheseto, 38, first broke the record for bilateral (above the knee) double amputees at New York in 2018 with a time of 2:52 and lowered that to 2:42 at the 2019 Boston Marathon.
Cheseto, now a resident of Groveland, Florida, took the record to a new level on Sunday with an average pace per mile of 5 minutes, 57 seconds. Running on carbon-fiber bladed prosthetics, Cheseto’s well-paced effort including a first half of 1:17:09 and a second half that was only slightly slower.
The NYC effort came just 27 days after Cheseto ran the Boston Marathon — which was moved to October due to the pandemic — in 2:53.
Six Alaskans also ran New York on Sunday. Chugiak’s Hannah Booher, 23, led the way in 3:23:57, good for 333rd among women and 25th in the 20-24 age group.
Other Alaskans included Miker Frantes of Fairbanks in 4:00:53; Jeffrey Wright of Sitka in 5:08:50; Alison Sterley of Anchorage in 6:15:36; Kimberly Randolph of Anchorage in 6:48:58; and Matt Edman of Anchorage in 6:55:03.