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[Update: Conner Mantz broke the 23-year-old American record in the marathon (2:05:38) on October 12 at the Chicago Marathon, finishing fourth in 2:04:43.]
Utah’s Conner Mantz has been a rising American running star since he wrapped up his collegiate career as an All-American track and cross country runner at Brigham Young University in 2021. But it’s only since he began running marathons that he has started to realize his full potential.
He ran his first one in 2022 in Chicago, finishing seventh and clocking the second-fastest debut time (2:08:16) by an American, and has continued to progress over the 26.2-mile distance. He lowered his PR to 2:07:47 in 2023, won the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in early 2024 (2:09:05), and then finished eighth in the Paris Olympics (2:08:12).
But this year has been the best one yet for the 28-year-old Nike runner. He ran his way to a new American record in the half marathon in January in Houston (59:17), finished fourth in the Boston Marathon (2:05:08) in his fastest and most competitive effort yet, then won the competitive Beach to Beacon 10K (in a course record 27:26) on August 2 in Maine, and the U.S. 20K championships (in an American record 56:16) on Sept 1 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Now he has his eyes set on breaking Khalid Khannouchi’s 23-year-old American record (2:05:38) on October 12 at the Chicago Marathon, if the weather cooperates. (Mantz’s Boston time was faster than the U.S. record, but the Boston Marathon is not considered a record-eligible course because of its net drop in elevation. Also, Ryan Hall has the fastest time on the Boston Marathon course by an American, with his 2:04:58 in 2011 being the only time faster than Mantz’s 2:05:08 for a U.S. runner.)
We caught up with Mantz to talk about his training, continued progression in the marathon, and his constant pursuit to level up to be among the best marathoners in the world.
Conner Mantz: “I’m going for it. Back in January in Houston I was kind of injured for the half marathon and wasn’t really sure what was gonna happen. So I just made my goal to go out and just shoot for it, kind of like, ‘Let’s see how long it can hold onto that pace.’ I’m healthy and fit now, but this is going to be similar. I’m going to go out at American record pace [4:48 per mile] and then will hold on and hopefully speed up at the end. That’s pretty much my plan.”
CM: “I think in the marathon you try to add something a little bit extra or a little bit different from the previous build every time. This training build is a little different than my last two builds because I moved from Provo up to Park City three months heading into Chicago, so I’ve been living at 7,000 feet, even though I’m still doing my hard workouts and long runs in Provo, which is about 4,500 feet.
“I trained up in Park City before the Olympics last year and prior to the New York City Marathon last fall and that felt good, and I think it contributed to the jump I made in Boston. Another difference is that I’ve added just a slightly bit more mileage from what I was doing when I was training for Boston. Those are small changes, but I am fitter than ever right now.”
CM: “Chicago is a fast course. That’s where the world record on the men’s side has been set. That’s where people have been have run fast in the past, and they’ve assembled a great field with John Korir, the Boston Marathon champion and last year’s Chicago champion, plus the third-place finisher from Boston, Kenya’s Cybrian Kotut, who I ran just over 26 miles with, will be there, too.
“But when you’re out there in the race, you don’t want to rely on too many people. You want to control what you can control. You can have pacers and you can have other competitors, but you’re the only one that really determines what the outcome will be or if you can complain after the race if things didn’t go the way they were supposed to. If I get the record or not, it’s going to come down to ‘Did I execute properly? Did I do everything in my power to run that time?’”
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CM: “I don’t know if I’ll ever say I’m a different runner than I was before, but I’ve improved every year of my career pretty much since I started running. Sometimes it’s just basic, tiny amounts, but I have improved by small steps every year. That’s why I like this sport so much. It’s so easy to measure when you make progress. Every year you can keep just chipping away at your times for any event that you’re focused on, and maybe you can drop just a little bit more time. And this year in Boston, I really showed that I was someone who could compete up front at a marathon.”
CM: “Honestly, the U.S. 20K champion race was probably the best indicator. I wasn’t expecting to run that fast. But I also ran a 3 x 3-mile session in Provo in mid-September, and I think I went 13:39 for the first 3 miles, 13:42 for the second, and then 13:40 for the third—so I was averaging about 4:33 per mile.
“Then there was a solid 12-mile workout but I did a workout with Clayton Young back in August in which we started at about 4:43 pace for the first three miles and then about 4:39 to 4:40 for the last 8 miles, and it felt like I was just jogging. I was supposed to be at my goal marathon pace, but 4:40 is a little quicker than my goal marathon pace is right now. That workout gave me a lot of confidence. I began to wonder if I was pushing too hard in the workout, but I felt like I could have run that pace forever that day.”
CM: “When these high-mileage weeks are stacking up, I’m fatigued and my emotions are a little run down a bit. But I’m pretty excited about it because going after the American record has been a goal of mine for a long time. So I’ve imagined myself making one of the final turns of the course with about 2.5 miles to go and just keep imagining myself running so fast and catching people. I faded there a bit when I ran Chicago previously, but I know I’m fitter and more experienced, and I just know how to finish now. So that’s what I’ve been focused on.”
CM: “When I’m alone on easy runs, I wear Shokz headphones because they’re open-ear headphones that allow you to listen to your music and pay attention to what’s going on around you. You can hear traffic and hear other people around you, and that’s great for safety and the spatial awareness of what’s going on around you and keeping all of your senses on alert.
“Just recently I was wearing my Shokz and running alone and suddenly there was a moose out in front of me, but it wasn’t an issue because I was alert. If you have noise canceling headphones, you might not hear that moose rusting in the bushes and then you’re in a dangerous spot. I wear them a lot on my solo runs, and I also wear them on treadmill runs, too, because it helps break up the monotony. I would probably wear them on group runs, too, because you can still talk to others while running. But I would probably get my training partners looking at me funny.”
Senior editor Brian Metzler grew up in the Chicago area and has run the Chicago Marathon four times. He has wear-tested more than 2,000 running shoes and is the author of “Kicksology: The Hype, Science, Culture and Cool of Running Shoes” (2019) and “Trail Running Illustrated” (2021). He has raced just about every distance from 100 meters to 100 miles, but he’s most eager to share stories about his experiences pack burro racing in Colorado.
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