Biya Simbassa took many American track and field fans by surprise on Sunday morning when they awoke to results from the Valencia Marathon and saw that the 31-year-old notched a personal best by nearly four minutes to run 2:06:53. The performance was good for 17th place in the race but moved him to No. 4 on the U.S. all-time list.

Only Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:38), Galen Rupp (2:06:07) and Ryan Hall (2:06:17) have run faster.

Back in 2022, we paid a visit to Flagstaff, Ariz. for a video featuring Simbassa and also recorded a podcast episode detailing his career path from being born in Ethiopia, moving to the United States in 2007 and then going through the school system. He started running in high school in Minnesota and then continued his development at Iowa Central Community College before transferring to Oklahoma. 

After graduating, he was coached by Scott Simmons in Colorado Springs before signing a pro contract with Under Armour to be part of the Dark Sky Distance Project with coach Stephen Haas. In 2023, Simbassa started working with Hall as his coach. The partnership lasted until this summer before Hall decided to step back from coaching. Simbassa worked with Ian Carter (a McKirdy Trained coach, who also was coached by Hall) for the Valencia Marathon build-up.

CITIUS MAG spoke with Simbassa on Thursday afternoon to get details on how the performance came about.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram

Guest: Biya Simbassa | @simba_runner

Time stamps:

3:19 - Reflections coming off the Valencia Marathon 

5:12 - Processing the Olympic Marathon Trials 

6:59 - Thoughts on whether he could’ve made the Olympic team

8:17 - When he knew the marathon was his event

11:15 - Feelings after not making Olympic team

13:00 - Why he races so often

17:14 - Thoughts on Ryan Hall stepping away as his coach

18:27 - Ian Carter becoming his new coach

19:42 - Why he landed on racing Valencia

20:39 - Goals and expectations heading into Valencia

23:55 - How he stayed composed after the halfway split 

27:12 - Valencia course + atmosphere

30:13 - Shoe choice for the race

32:00 - Fueling throughout the race 

33:44 - Plans for what’s next 

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