TCS NYC MARATHON

November 2, 2025

Joel Reichow

Fiona O'Keeffe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back. We continue our professional athlete press conferences with our top Americans. Please welcome to the stage Fiona O'Keeffe, who ran an incredible 2:22:49, and Joe Reichow, who ran 2:09:56. Thank you both for joining us.

Fiona, we'll start with you. What a comeback year. You took 18 seconds off the old course record for an American, surpassing Molly Seidel, which was set in 2021. This was your first marathon back after Paris, and you ran an incredible time. How does it feel to take the top American award today?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: It's definitely exciting. I'm really grateful to be back. It was a really strong field, both internationally and the Americans, and I feel like we were all able to help each other to a good race today.

THE MODERATOR: There's 4 American women in the top 10, which is incredible. How important were the New York City crowds today in keeping you going through those tough moments?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: Definitely huge. It was super helpful momentum, like in the early going and then once things got tough. Yeah, it was nice to have something else to think about.

THE MODERATOR: Joel, there was a lot of talk around other Americans in the field coming into today's race. How does it feel to come out on top?

JOEL REICHOW: Definitely feels really good. Nice to get my image out there. I just wanted to prove that I can compete with the top Americans. I definitely did that today.

THE MODERATOR: Coming into today's TCS New York City Marathon, you won Grandma's Mountain earlier in the year. Can you share a little bit more about your marathon career today, and how much confidence does today's race give you confidence going forward?

JOEL REICHOW: Definitely a good indicator, probably like a 40-second PR-ish, a much harder course than my PR was on. Hopefully I can keep this momentum going and keep getting stronger.

Q. Congratulations to both of you. Joel, you're a guy who's been grinding and working hard for many years, a lot of it out of the spotlight on a smaller team. What has it meant to get the support that you got from Minnesota Distance Elite, Coach Chris Lundstrom, and all the people that you train with there. Thank you very much.

JOEL REICHOW: It's huge. I wouldn't be able to still keep competing if it wasn't for them. I really appreciate everything Minnesota Distance Elite does for me.

Q. Joel and Fiona, congratulations. Joel first. How did your training go before this race? Were you pretty confident coming into New York that you could run well?

JOEL REICHOW: Yeah, a lot of the same, just continually getting stronger. I had a few dings, but that's nothing out of the normal for me. Overall, it was a pretty solid build.

Q. Fiona, congratulations. It was an awesome race, and it was fun to see you up front. How did it feel running up front? Were you within yourself?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: Yeah, I felt pretty strong for a while. It was really exciting too to just be running up there with those women because I feel like I have so much to learn from them and I really respect the amazing careers they've had so far. Definitely role models and also people I hope to be mixing it up with.

Q. Fiona, can you clarify what you were doing at Prague Marathon in May? Weren't you pacing a teammate at a spring marathon?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: That was Dusseldorf Marathon. I was pacing my teammate Miriam Dattke. So I went to, I think, 35K there.

Q. At what pace?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: I think we were on for about 2:25 pace.

Q. Joel, congratulations. Great run. Could you walk me through the last two miles because you went from 12th to 5th or 6th there by the finish. Also, this was a big breakthrough for you. Why do you think you were able to reach a new level in this race? What went into it?

JOEL REICHOW: We just kind of started to see some of the top American guys coming back to us going into mile 24. Honestly, I'd just been convincing myself just to stay on the group we were at. Then I was in the situation, and I was like, okay, there's an opportunity here. Just keep the pressure on, see what we can do and just trust yourself.

What was the second question again?

Q. This was a big breakthrough marathon for you. Did you change anything? What do you think allowed you to make this big leap in your performance from your previous marathons?

JOEL REICHOW: More of the same. Just continuing to build, continuing to get stronger. I feel like it's been there for a while, and I just needed to put it together a little bit more. That's kind of it. Nothing crazy.

Q. Can you just talk about how much it means to be the top finish American woman breaking the U.S. course record in a new personal best fashion in New York City?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: Yeah, it's really exciting. Yeah, I definitely can't take too much credit for the time because that was all on the women ahead of me. Yeah, I'm grateful to be back at the marathon. I think it's where I belong, and it feels like coming home.

Q. This is for both Joel and Fiona. Joel, start with you first. You're in front of a pretty good media crowd today. What can you tell us about, both of you, about your journey to this race. A lot of high school kids will be checking you guys out too, and you inspire them. Tell them a little bit about how you got here.

JOEL REICHOW: I guess, just honestly, consistency. I've been a little bit under the radar for a while, so just kind of putting in work year after year and slowly putting it together.

THE MODERATOR: Fiona, to you, how did you get to this point just overall with your career?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: I feel like the marathon definitely rewards patience. That's been a big lesson for me because I think, as athletes, sometimes you have a tendency to get caught up in whatever's right ahead of us and go 110 percent on that. It's been a little bit about learning how to measure out the effort and take the long view.

Q. Fiona, can you just take us inside your head. After you got dropped on the bridge and you saw these women were running away, how did you gather yourself and convince yourself that you could get back up and catch them?

FIONA O'KEEFFE: Yeah, I was able to catch back up one time, the first time they dropped me, and I guess I just wanted to keep putting myself in it as long as I could. My goal was to be with them as we got into the park. That didn't happen.

Yeah, I just wanted to -- as long as there was something there, I was like, okay, why not just stay in it? It's been super helpful the last month or so, I've been training with Vivian Cheruiyot because she's also a PUMA athlete. So just having someone with that level of international experience around has been huge.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. That concludes this press conference. Congratulations to our top Americans today, Fiona O'Keeffe and Joel Reichow, at the TCS New York City Marathon. Thank you both.