AMERICAN MARATHONING suddenly has a new — and unlikely — contender. In only his second time running the distance, unheralded Matt Richtman pulled off a shocking performance on March 16 to become the first American man to win the Los Angeles Marathon since Paul Pilkington in 1994. The Montana State grad broke away from the field in the 16th mile and went on to win in an eye-opening 2:07:57. Though the point-to-point LA course is not considered record-eligible due to elevation loss, the time still puts Richtman at equal-No. 6 on the U.S. all-time, all-conditions list.
“I wasn’t really surprised that I ran that time,” the 25-year-old Richtman says. “I wasn’t necessarily expecting it, but definitely knew I was capable of it.”
Not bad for a guy who had never qualified for an NCAA track championship, and whose best NCAA Cross finish was 26th. His 10,000 PR of 28:21.79 was only 33rd best among Americans in 2024.
After graduating last spring, he tried a couple of local half-marathons in Montana (running 65:45 and 62:34) and was encouraged enough to enter the Twin Cities Marathon in October. “It was something I never really planned out or really even had dreams about,” he says of making the leap to the distance. “It was just trying it out. I was in shape coming off college training and my own training block, so I really just wanted to give it a go and see how it went.”
It went pretty well. His 2:10:47 for 4th place in Minnesota was the 10th-fastest by an American last year, and drew the attention of Asics, which soon signed him to his first professional contract. He started off the new year with a pair of high-profile half-marathons, clocking 61:20 at Houston in January, then improving slightly to 61:14 to finish 6th at the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Atlanta two weeks before the LA Marathon.
“Coming into the race I didn’t really have a time expectation,” he admits of his second marathon. “The only thing I really had, timewise, was knowing that my training was a little bit better than it had been for Twin Cities. So I knew I was in at least 2:10 shape, but I was feeling confident that I could run faster than that.”
His main reasons for picking LA for his second marathon was the opportunity to compete for the win, based on the…
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