psst Wake up, babe! The 2025 Boston Marathon field just dropped.

On first glance, this year’s race cooks up the usual recipe of returning champions, big international names, and American fan favorites that thousands of fans lining the course from Hopkinton to Back Bay will loudly cheer on this coming April. The elite field features defending champions Hellen Obiri and Sisay Lemma alongside four other former champions, with five entrants who’ve run under 2:04 on the men’s side and seven who’ve run under 2:20 on the women’s.

But beyond the starry headlines, last week’s announcement raises a lot of questions about the state of the marathon in 2025 as a new Olympic cycle gets underway. Rising stars no longer get to coast by on a signature performance; they have to cement their legacies with consistency. Longtime veterans have to decide (or let Father Time decide for them) whether continuing to compete will be a glorified victory lap or a serious endeavor. And young talents moving up in distance have to prove they belong.

There will be much more to say about this race and the other spring World Marathon Majors over the next few months, but here’s a few gut-reaction thoughts on the field as it was rolled out:

Can Hellen Obiri hang on for three in a row?

Over the last two years, Hellen Obiri has successfully transitioned from being one of the best distance runners in the world on the track, to one of the best distance runners in the world on the roads. And she’s done it faster and more smoothly than almost anyone in history. That might seem like a no-brainer of a career progression, but when you look at the mixed results that some of her contemporaries like Genzebe Dibaba or Almaz Ayana have put together in the same time period, it’s far from a given. For runners like Obiri, at a certain point, your biggest challenge isn’t the competition; it’s meeting the astronomically high standards you’ve set for yourself. As Obiri attempts to become the fifth woman ever (and first in 25 years) to win three straight Boston titles, she can really only perform as expected or underachieve. A strong field of competitors, including the last two runners-up in Amane Beriso and Sharon Lokedi, will give her a good challenge, but at this point in her career, “Hellen being Hellen” will likely end in victory.

Will Evans Chebet return to his 2022 peak?

After an injury during the fall 2023 racing season knocked Evans Chebet out of contention for the Kenyan Olympic team, he spent much of last year trying to prove that rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated. With two podium finishes in both Boston and New York, it’s clear that Chebet can still hang with the best of ‘em, but he’s not quite the unbeatable marathoning monster he was in 2022. Chebet is trending the right direction—third in Boston, second in NYC, leaving only one more place to upgrade—but he’ll need to stay healthy and keep rebuilding to get back on top.

What does 2025 hold for Emma Bates?

2024 was something of a year to forget for Emma Bates. First, the Colorado-based marathoner missed the Olympic Trials after tearing her plantar fascia the year prior, then a pair of World Marathon Major appearances led to only so-so results (at least by Bates’s high standards of frequent top-10 finishes), with a 12th place run in Boston last spring and 11th place in Chicago in the fall. But Bates’s 2:22:10 PB from Boston ‘23 still feels soft when considering her strong competitive resume, and at 32 years old, it’s very possible that her best years of marathoning are still ahead.

Will Clayton Young turn the tables on Conner Mantz?

Clayton Young and Conner Mantz are fellow U.S. Olympians, training partners, and friends—but they’re also competitors and rivals. And surely Young, ironically the elder Utahn, wants his moment in the spotlight. In five head-to-head matchups over 26.2 miles, Mantz is 5-0, but they’ve been separated by only one place each of the last four times out, with an average gap of 14 seconds between them. Does Mantz have Young’s number from now until the end of time, or will Young’s Boston debut also be his long-awaited moment of glory as top American in the field?

Is Jackie Gaughan or Jess McClain the next big thing?

Somewhere along the way in 2024, you probably learned (or re-learned) the name Jess McClain. The Brooks athlete notched two fourth-place Olympic Trials finishes a few months apart in the marathon and 10,000m, then returned to the roads in the fall to finish eighth in New York. In just two years of marathoning, the 32-year-old has progressed from 2:33 to 2:25, and it feels like this is just the beginning of an all-time great second act for the former Stanford All-American. And after CIM a few weeks ago, you likely became acquainted with the name Jackie Gaughan, the 25-year-old who popped off with a big 1:14-1:10 negative split to finish second in 2:24:40 in her third marathon of the year (fourth overall). These two may be relative newbies on the WMM scene, but they could make a big splash heading into the next Olympic cycle with a personal best and/or top American finish in Boston.