“If I had even one race like one of my many races this year in another year, I would have been like, “This year was phenomenal because I had that one really good race.’ This year felt like every race but one went very well. Every race, I ended up like, ‘I can’t believe I just did that’ or, ‘That was awesome!’ Things maybe weren’t perfect, but a lot of my races were close to perfect and that was special to me.”

My guest for today’s episode is Conner Mantz, the new American record holder in the marathon.

On a crisp October morning in Chicago, Mantz ran 2:04:43, smashing Khalid Khannouchi’s 23-year-old mark and becoming the fastest American ever over 26.2 miles. It’s a record that survived generations of greats from Meb Keflezighi to Ryan Hall to Galen Rupp but Conner Mantz, the soft-spoken racing assassin, made it real.

If you’ve caught all of Conner’s post-marathon recap podcast episodes that we’ve done on this show, you’ll notice that he carries the same naïve faith that once made him think he could win NCAA titles and make Olympic teams. It’s the same inner voice that still says he can win a World Marathon Major some day or medal at the 2028 Olympics.

We talk about what it means to finally get the record, how the race played out into something historic and the proof of what hard work and self-belief can bring you to.

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Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram⁠

Guest: Conner Mantz | @connermantz on Instagram

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr on Instagram⁠⁠⁠

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