Mantz out of NYC Half Marathon

Given your reply, I think you’d be extremely surprised how Mantz thinks.

What's "Smart"? It's common sense, and he may not be able to run due to the injury. It's NOT a bad idea that he planned to race. It's a big pay day for a race/training run. One of the benefits of making the Olympic team so early is that you can work race/training efforts into the training plan and get PAID! Remember, he didn't get hurt running the NYC Half, he got nicked up while executing his Paris training plan.

I hope it's nothing too serious. He does have some biomechanical issues that could cause injury (foot strike/lower leg-knee).

My hot take - he'll DNS Paris.

I don't want it, but between the stress reaction before trials, and now whatever this is before NYC, he seems to be in a bit of a cycle from his big training loads. Hopefully he gets in under control but this is the biggest race of his career (Paris) so I can only imagine he tries to compensate for missed training from this latest injury

Since 2004 (last 5 Olympics) medal rankings:

Men:

Kenya - 5

Ethiopia - 2

USA - 2

Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Netherlands, Morocco, Uganda - 1

Women:

Kenya - 6

USA - 2

Ethiopia - 2

Japan, China, Bahrain, Romania, Russia - 1

Do you also not find Ethiopia competitive on the world stage? Seems like we have similar results. Tired of the constant negativity.

As another poster pointed out, being competitive at the Olympics is not the same as being competitive on the world stage. If Kenya and Ethiopia both ran 10 guys at the Olympics, the US would have no medals.

Funny how you arrived at 5 as the magic number. Sixth last Olympics had gold and bronze to Ethiopia. Tired of the constant positivity.

Smart is not proceeding when he has a minor niggle, knowing there is some unclaimed cash originally tagged for him. Resetting and preparing for a training block is the right thing to do.

Even including that, USA has the third best results of any country in the world. How does that mean they are not competitive on the world stage?

You do not hear the same whining about other events in the Olympics that have the same restrictions. There have been recent years where USA could put 5 in the men's hurdles finals at the Olympics.

The Olympics Marathon are not the Valencia Marathon and that's OK. There is sometimes poor weather, hills, etc.

My suspicion is that his femur stress reaction never healed fully. It was only 2 months between injury and Oly trials - these injuries can linger -

ask Des :(

He needs to step off the pedal a bit. He is a small guy. It's like flooring Prius to drag race.

Jared Ward made similar mistakes in his career.

Jared Wards 1st competitive marathon was in 2014 his last competitive marathon was in 2020. Although he raced after that, he was no longer competitive.
HIS CAREER WAS SIX YEARS

Ed Eyestone’s 1st competitive marathon was in 1988 his last competitive marathon was in 1994. Although he raced after that he was no longer competitive.
HIS CAREER WAS SIX YEARS

Conner Mantz ran his 1st competitive marathon in 2022. Based on his coach and mentor his competitive career will be over by 2028.

So when people say the kid just loves to race. I say yes but it comes at a cost. A shorter than average career.

Yeah makes me nervous with the (relatively) quick turnaround between Chicago (mid Oct) to the Trials (ealy Feb) to Paris (Aug). that's one cycle after another without much time to dilly dally.

Plus the fact that Mantz really pushed it with the femoral stress reaction / (fracture?) at the end of 2023 and Young had knee surgery in Feb of 2023 followed by a similarly aggressive return to running. The schedule doesn't leave a lot of room for error and these guys are clearly workhorses who have to work hard to compete at the level that they are running at now... but it is such a fine line. And they are definitely riding it.

They say they want to be top 10 or even beat their mentor Jared Ward's sixth place finish at Rio. So they kinda have to be all in. But there's an inherent risk that comes with that. We're seeing it here, now.

Yes! Has been announced (answering myself)..I am quite curious about what the goat can do in the half. To be honest I don't think it will be super fast.

Sucks to see, but hopefully he will be 100% ok when it matters most in the Olympics

This is the year of Bekele, we are just hear to witness it.

This is spot on. Neither Conner or Clayton are moving forward. We are all witnessing both of these guys at their best.

Being a "small guy" has ZERO influence on getting injured. It's all relative, having a lighter frame would be less stressful. Having a larger-heavier frame would be more stressful. That being said, his genetic make-up which includes tendons, ligaments, muscle and bone are what they are. The injury issue pops up either from overloading your physiological make-up or a biomechanical issue which can alternate and unnecessarily overload and stress a particular area. I noted in a previous post that Conner has an unusual foot strike that puts a lot of stress on his left leg (knee/femur/hip). If you watch video of him running you'll see this. This of course can create over compensation on other areas. When logging a lot of miles this over compensation becomes magnified and eventually will give way to strains, stress reactions, and stress fractures.