“I’m not in charge of how fit those guys are. No matter how hard I work, they could be working harder, they could be doing something better, they could be more talented. I was trying to take that out. My main goal in this race was just to execute. Execute my race plan, make sure I ran a race that afterward I felt good about. I think I did really well for most of the race.”

My guest for today's episode is Conner Mantz, the American Marathoner who just capped off an extraordinary year by setting an American course record at the New York City Marathon. He placed 6th overall in 2:09:00. Conner was the top American as usual and he showed us his relentless competitiveness.

He pushed through a conservative start and a fierce mid-race surge led by Evans Chebet, the 2022 New York City marathon champion, that splintered the rest of the field. Conner hung tough and ultimately finished with the fastest closing mile among all of the runners in the top ten.

In his young marathoning career, Conner has already established himself as the top American in Boston, Chicago, the Olympic Trials and an 8th place finish at the Olympics. Now he's setting his sights on closing the gap between being the best in America and being among the best in the world.

In this episode, we dig into his journey, his strategic approach under coach Ed Eyestone's “deploy, enjoy and destroy” race plan, and how he handles a little bit of friendly competition with training partner Clayton Young.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram⁠

Guest: Conner Mantz | ⁠@connermantz on Instagram⁠

Time stamps:

4:03 - Why he wasn’t satisfied with his performance at the NYC Marathon

5:46 - What would’ve made it a satisfying race 

7:43 - Overall fitness heading into the race

8:17 - Best workouts leading into the race 

13:07 - Going after the half marathon American record at the Houston Half in 2025

16:09 - Pre-race chat with coach Ed Eyestone: deploy, enjoy, destroy

19:30 - Responding to moves during the race 

25:40 - Sharing bottles during the race, Evans Chebet makes his move 

34:19 - Clayton catching up to him, snapping back into the race, final few miles

42:40 - Feelings after crossing the finish line 

47:27 - Grading his marathons throughout 2024

52:50 - Looking ahead to spring marathons 

54:35 - Future training plans with Clayton 

58:53 - Thoughts on joining Grand Slam Track as a challenger

1:03:34 - Overrated/underrated: training methods

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