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

Episode highlights:

His race plan with coach Ed Eyestone heading into the NYC Marathon:

“Coach and I were pretty hopeful about me coming away with a top three finish and even contending for a win. We sat down and met about: ‘How can we maximize my chances?’ The goal in the race he said was: ‘Deploy.’ Get out, be in the front pack those first 16 miles. Then ‘enjoy’ the first half. Be smart… Then once you hit mile 20, that's when you’ve got to expect it to be a race. That's the ‘destroy’ part. He said during that period, still don't take the lead. Wait until 5K to go, until a mile to go. Be as patient as you can because these guys are really good. There’s athletes that can break away late in the race. Keep making moves and be patient. That was what we went over in the meeting.”

How he felt about his race:

“I feel like I did really well in a lot of things that I have done very bad at this year. As far as execution, it might have been my most successful marathon of the year. There was one big mistake. I feel like I was so close to having, not a perfect performance, but I had prepared really well and felt like my warm up went really well. I didn’t get too nervous in the warm up, I didn’t get too nervous on the start line. I felt like I was calm, ready to start out pretty quick… I'm not too bummed about it, but it's that one thing I really wish I could change.”

Looking ahead to future marathons:

“I’m going to get it right soon. I'm close, and I think that's what's exciting. After New York, I'm like, ‘Okay, I've almost figured out.’ I've figured it out if it were like a chess match; I could be like, ‘I take that back,’ or like a computer program. But I’ve almost figured out how to execute. That gets me excited.”

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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