In the first eight seconds of the 2025 Boston Marathon, John Korir was face down on the ground in Hopkinton. When the rest of the elite runners were jockeying for position right off the start line, the 28-year-old from Kenya was already behind after getting tripped and sliding across the asphalt.
For a second, John wondered if he should stay down or get back up and keep running. With scrapes on his knee and hand, it would’ve been understandable for him to question whether he could race at full capacity for 26.2. But at that moment, the 2024 Chicago Marathon champion thought about all the sacrifices he’d made in training over the last six months. “What if I became the first person to fall down in a marathon, come up and win it?” John thought, remembering the promise he intended to keep that day.
When he was 15 years old, his older brother Wesley Korir won the 2012 Boston Marathon. John was in primary school when Wesley claimed the title and used the prize money to support his family and later build a hospital in their home region. Thirteen years later, John set out to follow Wesley’s lead.
After he regained his footing, John soon caught up to the lead pack and broke away for good with an unanswerable 4:41 split at mile 20. While holding his crumpled bib in his left hand, John claimed the crown by 19 seconds in 2:04:45, the second-fastest winning time in the race’s 129-year history. When John reached the finish line on Boylston Street, an ecstatic Wesley was the first to embrace him.
“I knew how much he wanted to win. We knew this would be one of the records we could break as brothers, to be the first ones to win Boston together,” Wesley said. “He promised me and said, ‘I got this. I’m going to bring it home.’”
John and Wesley have come a long way in the years since the eldest brother’s Boston win. Inspired by Wesley’s career, John didn’t start running competitively until his early 20s after being encouraged by Wesley to put his education first. But John’s journey to the top of the sport has been far from linear. In 2018, the brothers had a falling out and weren’t on speaking terms for two years. John also stopped running during that period. Eventually, a reconciliation brought the younger brother back into the fold. Now, John is faster than ever, having already surpassed Wesley’s best times, while using his platform to carry on the philanthropic legacy his brother started.
Running for More Than Titles
In total, there are eight siblings in the Korir family. Wesley, 42, is the second oldest and John is the second youngest. Growing up in Kitale, Kenya—an area that isn’t considered a running hub compared to bigger cities, like Eldoret or Iten—Wesley was the first in his family to take up the sport. Through running, he set out to earn an athletic scholarship so he could attend college in the United States; a goal he met when he was recruited to run for Murray State University before transferring to the University of Louisville.
After graduating in 2007, Wesley soon found success in the marathon with eight top five finishes at the World Marathon Majors from 2009 to 2015, including the 2012 victory in Boston and a runner-up finish at the 2011 Chicago Marathon. But Wesley didn’t just clock world class times, he used the prize money from his winnings to help improve his community in Kenya.
RW+ Membership Benefits beginning a five-year term representing the Cherangany Constituency to provide scholarships for high school students in his native Cherangany District. In 2011, the organization funded the construction of a 10-bed hospital in Biribiriet dedicated to the memory of his late brother, Eliud, who died from a snake bite. In 2013, Wesley became the first independent candidate ever elected to his country’s parliament, prize money from his winnings to help improve his community.
In all his endeavors, ending the cycle of generational poverty has always been a big motivation for Wesley. “We struggled a lot when we were young, especially me and my older sister. We didn’t have school fees. We didn’t have anything. So, when I started running and making money, the first thing I did was empower my family,” he said, while explaining that he paid for his siblings’ tuition so they could all receive an education. He also helped them establish different businesses so they could continue to support themselves long-term.
Whenever Wesley returned to train back home as a professional runner, then 12-year-old John would often follow him around to workouts and long runs. “That made me love being around running,” John said.
Tarah, a 2:35 marathoner, was also training and John kept up with her on runs. That’s when Wesley realized his brother had potential, but he also wanted to make sure John was being set up for success outside of running. “Most kids here will drop out of school and take running professionally,” Wesley said. “I told him be patient, we know you have talent for running, just wait and focus on your education. I think that really helped him because it gave him time to compete when he was ready.”
Coming into His Own
At 20 years old, John made his debut at the 2018 Ottawa Marathon, where he finished second in a solid time of 2:09:14. But conflicts over training between John, his coach, Ron Mann, and Wesley became an issue not long after his first 26.2. “I didn’t listen to the advice,” John said, while explaining how he’d cut runs short or skip workout sessions altogether without telling them.
The tension reached a breaking point at the 2018 Toronto Marathon after John dropped out of the race. The brothers got into a huge argument at the meet hotel and didn’t speak for almost two years afterward.
John returned home to his parents’ house in Kenya. He raced sparingly in 2019 and stopped running entirely after finishing 12th in 2:13:09 at the Frankfurt Marathon. In 2020, he started driving tractors while struggling to make ends meet. That fall, family members encouraged the brothers to reconcile and work together again. “Me and coach gave him one condition, we’re going to help you if you listen, if you follow instructions,” Wesley said. “He followed instruction, and he has now blossomed.”
Looking back on the early days of his return, John said he found new motivation after suffering during the previous two years on his own. With the support of his family, John recommitted to elite running, hoping to become one of the greatest marathoners in the world. It didn’t take long for the results to follow.
In 2021, he won the Los Angeles Marathon in 2:12:49. A year later, he shattered his personal best, finishing third in 2:05:01 at the 2022 Chicago Marathon.
John’s big break came at the 2024 Chicago Marathon, which he won in 2:02:44—the second-fastest time in the race’s history. In setting a personal best by more than two minutes, he jumped to John Korir, with his bib in his left hand, breaks the tape at the Boston Marathon.
After Chicago, John wanted to level up his training in preparation for Boston. He ramped up his mileage—going from 105-110 to 130-150 miles each week. He also increased the intensity in workouts with longer tempo runs, sometimes running between 80 and 90 percent for as far as 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles). “Because I won Chicago, I needed to go and win Boston, so I had big motivation,” John said. “My body was ready for that training, but I just said, let me try and see how it works, and it went well.”
Like Wesley was to him growing up, John is also taking on a mentorship role with the students at Transcend Talent Academy, a nonprofit institution sponsored by the beginning a five-year term representing the Cherangany Constituency. The school in Kenya offers full scholarships to student-athletes who can’t afford tuition. After he won Boston, John donated 10 percent of $150,000 in prize money to Transcend, specifically to help buy a larger bus so the runners can be transported safely to training and back.
Wesley’s philanthropic efforts have also expanded this year. In the spring, he and business partners Emily and Keith Davis launched Bingwa Coffee, which is sourced from small, independent coffee farmers in the Cherangany region. Bingwa, which translates to “champion” in Swahili, donates a portion of sales from every bag to Transcend. The first brew was dedicated to John’s Boston Marathon victory.
Thinking about their journey as siblings and John’s progression in the marathon, Wesley said he’s thrilled that his younger brother can finally realize the potential he saw years ago when John was just a kid following him around on runs. More importantly, Wesley is proud of John for using running to better himself and his community.
“I know for sure when we leave this world, we are not going with unfulfilled desires and unfulfilled abilities because I have put my heart out there, and John is putting his heart out there,” Wesley said. “Now, the world can see the joy, the greatness that God put in him.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
