DISPLAYING RUNNING FORM that has by now become familiar, Conner Mantz hit the big time in ’21 when he raced to the first of his two NCAA XC titles, conquering the roller coaster hills on the challenging Oklahoma State course. Right from the gun, the BYU junior relentlessly attacked the steep inclines, propelling his compact frame up the hills as if they were rewarding King Of The Mountain points. But there was no letup, hill after hill, lap after lap, he just kept hammering in his go-for-broke stride.
Ed Eyestone, Mantz’s longtime mentor, has gotten used to it. “Sometimes it’s a little deceiving because with his form, the tilt of his shoulders and his arm carry, it looks as if he’s going all out,” says the coach.
The no-letup aspect has persisted with Mantz since that demonstrative NCAA win as he has charged through an ever-progressing marathon career and his closely-followed 2:04:43 AR run in Chicago.
“It was a great feeling to get the American Record,” Mantz says, beaming at the thought. Then his competitive nature takes over as he adds a more critical assessment. “I made a few mistakes and those last few miles were really tough. The first mile I ran in 4:30 and it felt very quick, and I thought I could finish up a lot stronger than I did.”
What Mantz did relish was racing with HOKA NAZ Elite’s Alex Masai, a Hofstra 10K All-American in ’21 and the younger brother of Kenyan Olympians Moses and Linet Masai.
“Fortunately, I got to work with Alex for those last 10M,” Mantz says. “I wasn’t able to beat him, but I’m very happy for him. He got 3rd place and that’s his first podium finish and a big PR for him as well.
“My first marathon here 3 years ago I ran 2:08:16. Since then I have just done a lot of little things that have added up. I added some mileage, and I went to live in Park City at 7300 feet [c2225m]. That was something different in this build, but I think it’s just the accumulation of a lot of years of training.”
Mantz seems to have been destined for this record, be it via running half-marathons as a schoolboy or his prudent choice of a university.
“When I was trying to figure out where to go to college, I wanted to go to a place that would make me the best marathoner, long term. That was BYU and Coach Eyestone.
“Coach Eyestone really helped me get this record. He has coached me for the last 8 years, and that’s a long time. I’m grateful for his patience and his support and his example of how to be balanced.”
That balance was instrumental as expectations built up along with Mantz’s accomplishments throughout the year He ran an AR 59:17 half-marathon in January and then in April finished 4th in Boston.
“I think being able to run 2:05:08 in Boston on a tough course gave me the confidence,” Mantz says. “I don’t like to state my goals, but after Boston everybody thought I was going to go after the record so it didn’t seem to matter if I said it or not. My stretch goals were sub 2:04 and a podium finish.”
Whatever the goals, it all came down to performing on race day, and after his rapid start, Mantz settled into a 62:19 opening half.
“I didn’t go out too quick and I think the pace I went out was exactly what I needed,” he says.
Throughout the race he juggled racing against the clock and his competitors.
“With 10M to go I started doing the math: ‘3:00 Ks equals this time, or 5:00 miles equals this time. If I run 5:00 miles I can still get the record, but if I run 3:00 Ks I break 2:05.’
“The pace was on my mind a lot until I started racing with Alex. By 30K, Geoffrey Kamworor had broken away with a couple of other guys and Alex and I started working together.
“At 36K, I passed Alex and said, ‘Let’s catch Kamworor.’ I thought we were catching him but there was another gust of headwind and I turned to him and said, ‘Can you lead?’ And he said, ‘I’ll take the next K,’ and he was moving.”
The duo charged up Michigan Avenue moving past everyone save frontrunning Jacob Kiplimo and Amos Kipruto. Mantz then turned his sights to 3rd and racing against Masai rather than with him.
“With a mile to go, I thought I had him. We were running really fast and then he just took off and switched to another gear. I owe him a lot. I think I would’ve gotten the record without him but I wouldn’t have run as fast.”
In Eyestone’s assessment, “This has been [Mantz’s] best year ever, so for me it was not a question if he would break the record, but by how much. Overall, it was a very good day. I don’t know if it was a perfect day. They had a tailwind early on and they went out fast. He went through in 62:19 and finished in 62:24 so that’s pretty darn even. I think he did handle racing in that second pack well, and over the last 10K and he just continued to rise up the ranks.”
Khalid Khannouchi, who ran his 2:05:38 AR at London in ’02, was on hand for the occasion and assessed, “It’s about time,” then asked Mantz, “What took you so long?”
Mantz won’t have long to recover as he hopes to be back charging up hills in the upcoming World Cross in Tallahassee (January 10): “It’s going to be a hard team to make. I’ve got to take this break very seriously and then get back into shape very quickly.”
