Connor Mantz’ Magnifiscent Obsession – runblogrun

Conner Mantz’s Magnificent Obsession

Yesterday, at the 129th Boston marathon, we had a glorious day of running.

On the men’s elite side, John Korir, brother of 2012 Boston champ Wesley Korir, took first in the second fastest winning time ever at Boston.

Behind him, the second and third were divided by a nanosecond. Alphonce Felix-Sanchez of Tanzania and Cybrian Kotut of Kenya, both were timed in 2:05.04, with the Tanzanian getting the nod.

Connor Mantz of the USA came in fourth after hoping he could break off the challenge. He ran 2:05:08, five minutes better than his last performance in Boston, where he ran the last two miles at six minutes per mile after running sub-five minutes per mile for 24.3 miles. Yet Connor was less than ecstatic.

This time, in Boston, Connor was a different runner. Trained by his college coach, BYU coach Ed Eyestone, and trained with BYU’s former classmate Clayton Young, Mantz and Young are the enthusiastic leaders of an American renaissance in the men’s marathon. Mantz used the experience he had with the Boston course in 2023 and ran a strong race in 2025. It should be noted, thoughtful reader, that Connor Mantz’ 2:05:08 surpasses the current American record of Khalid Khannouchi, who ran 2:05:38 at the London marathon. The issue is that the Boston Marathon course is not world record worthy, due to the difference in distance from the start to the finish. Nonetheless, Connor Mantz has run faster than Galen Rupp on Boston, the 4 time Olympian, who has a silver medal at 10,000m (London 2012) and bronze in the marathon (Rio 2016). Connor Mantz wants to follow Rupp onto the podium. He is not worried about fast times, he wants to be at the top of the podium!

Connor Mantz may be a bit overenthusiastic, but that is not bad. Last June, this writer observed a gutsy Mantz blistering the pace for the Olympic Trials 10,000m for the first eight laps. “I did not know if I could finish, “ Connor told me at the time. Mantz pushed the pace in the Olympic Trials 10,000m, keeping it honest and painful.

Last summer, on the Paris Olympic marathon course, perhaps the most difficult Olympic course in decades, with a mile-long hill…