Rosemary Wanjiru’s athletics career has never been linear but it took racing the marathon to realise that is one of her greatest strengths.
She discovered track as a primary school middle-distance runner before dominating her national high school championships in Japan, starring in the 3000m after moving there as a teenager.
Her only individual medal for Kenya came in the 5000m at the 2015 All-Africa Games, seven years before she made history at the 2022 Berlin Marathon with what was the second-fastest ever women’s marathon debut.
She returns to the German capital on Sunday 27 September as the defending champion and one of the stars to beat in a 2026 Berlin Marathon field that also includes Tigst Assefa, the women’s only marathon world record holder.
At 31, Wanjiru has lived many lives in athletics, but she now feels she’s writing one of the most compelling chapters of her book.
“The only race will be that against the clock in Berlin,” she told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview just before she embarked on one of her final blocks of marathon training in Iten, Kenya.
“I want to run my personal best, faster than the 2:16 I clocked in Tokyo.”
The time she refers to is the two hours, 16 minutes and 14 seconds she posted two years ago in her second place finish at the Tokyo Marathon, a race she had won the previous year. Outside of the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Wanjiru’s five-year marathon career has followed a familiar pattern, revolving around the streets of Tokyo and Berlin in a reflection of her preference for consistency.
“I moved to Japan when I was 16 for high school and that’s where I really developed as a runner,” said Wanjiru, who is fluent in Japanese. “So whenever I run there, it’s like running at home. And returning to Berlin this year for the third time, returning to a familiar course and going back to another home, gives me confidence in my abilities to have a really good race.”
