Charles Hicks 2:04:35 under previous American Record held by Connor Mantz in his second marathon.

Conner Mantz didn't set the American record in his second marathon

He ran in the United States in high school, college, and now as a pro.... His running success is primary due to what he's done in the United States.

Mondo was born in the US, went to HS in the US, and competed for LSU in college and never lived in Sweden until he was a pro. ...Hicks is more legitimately American than Mondo is Swedish.

So now we're just going to blindly accept that dudes with frat boy lacrosse player bodies run 2:04 now? I love how in denial the current runners are about the shoes. What a JOKE this sport is.

2.04 is very far from 2.00.3. Clown

For those who don't know, Hicks was born in England while his father was working in London and the family moved back to Florida when he was a young teen. He chose the UK as his original World Athletics allegiance (before he was Charles "MF" Hicks) because he was offered a spot on the UK Junior Cross team.

He was just trying to color match with his bus boy shoes.

Don't disagree with you there, but not sure what Mondo has to do with Hicks representing the US.

If Mantz was healthy, he probably gone sub 2:03 or low 2:03s. The tailwind was worth about 2 minutes at this level.

so neither are American born, so disappointing

I wholeheartedly agree. Boston is normally a very fair course, maybe even more difficult because of the late hills, but it always runs unrealistically fast with a very favorable tailwind. Korir ran 2:04:45 last year after a 2:02:44 at Chicago in 2024 sux months prior. This year he runs 2:01:52 at Boston. Are we supposed to believe he’s really a 1:59:52 guy at Chicago?

It was at least two minutes fast.

Both Mantz and Hicks are proving that it pays off to go to the marathon early, when your prime years are still in front of you. Decades of Western runners are garbage at the marathon when really, they only ever saw it as a way of extending their career once they were irrelevant on the track. Hicks and Mantz will be attacking marathons while in their mid-to-late twenties and on the upswing rather than in their thirties and managing failing bodies. More athletes need to make this move instead of flogging themselves to run 27:10 for five years and wasting their careers.

I agree with this as well. Surely most runners will know if they have the chops to be competitive from the 1500 all the way up to the 10,000 by age 23. And marathon training, while different, can still result in PRs at shorter distances.

I know you're trying to make a snarky joke about a letsrun meme, but "America born" means "born a US citizen" (as opposed to naturalized) and not "born in the US". Since both of Hicks' parents are American, Hicks is in fact American born as he was a US citizen at birth and not a naturalized citizen.