Sadly Conner's best days are behind him. The title of Best American Marathon Man now belongs to Zouhair Talbi.
Nah, it doesn’t. Talbi is still a 2:05:45 guy on a legit course with no tailwind, over a full minute behind Mantz’s record. Now, he may ultimately get to 2:03-high on a legit course.
Mantz would’ve run 2:02-high at Boston. I think he’ll make a comeback, but I also think he’ll need to be more selective about racing. Not sure 4 marathons in 14.5 months is such a great idea again.
And, yeah, he probably should stop sharing his training on Strava, though it’s been awesome. He used to post all of his training on some forum right when he got back from his Ghana mission and was in incredibly bad shape. It was fun to follow that journey and see how far along he came over the course of a year.
Sadly Conner's best days are behind him. The title of Best American Marathon Man now belongs to Zouhair Talbi.
Nah, it doesn’t. Talbi is still a 2:05:45 guy on a legit course with no tailwind, over a full minute behind Mantz’s record. Now, he may ultimately get to 2:03-high on a legit course.
Mantz would’ve run 2:02-high at Boston. I think he’ll make a comeback, but I also think he’ll need to be more selective about racing. Not sure 4 marathons in 14.5 months is such a great idea again.
And, yeah, he probably should stop sharing his training on Strava, though it’s been awesome. He used to post all of his training on some forum right when he got back from his Ghana mission and was in incredibly bad shape. It was fun to follow that journey and see how far along he came over the course of a year.
Yeah, it does. Talbi was the first American at America's Marathon while Mantz was on the shelf. Talbi is the new #1.
If Mantz was capable of running 2:02 high at Boston, he would have been there. He wasn't.
Nah, it doesn’t. Talbi is still a 2:05:45 guy on a legit course with no tailwind, over a full minute behind Mantz’s record. Now, he may ultimately get to 2:03-high on a legit course.
Mantz would’ve run 2:02-high at Boston. I think he’ll make a comeback, but I also think he’ll need to be more selective about racing. Not sure 4 marathons in 14.5 months is such a great idea again.
And, yeah, he probably should stop sharing his training on Strava, though it’s been awesome. He used to post all of his training on some forum right when he got back from his Ghana mission and was in incredibly bad shape. It was fun to follow that journey and see how far along he came over the course of a year.
Yeah, it does. Talbi was the first American at America's Marathon while Mantz was on the shelf. Talbi is the new #1.
If Mantz was capable of running 2:02 high at Boston, he would have been there. He wasn't.
Talbi is now the Best American Marathon Man.
Chicago is widely known as “America’s marathon.” Talbi was not the first American there. And Mantz would’ve run 2:02-high last year at Boston if they had the exact same weather.
But Talbi does currently have the asterisked, wind-aided American best, supplanting one Ryan Hall, you are correct.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
Yeah, it does. Talbi was the first American at America's Marathon while Mantz was on the shelf. Talbi is the new #1.
If Mantz was capable of running 2:02 high at Boston, he would have been there. He wasn't.
Talbi is now the Best American Marathon Man.
Chicago is widely known as “America’s marathon.” Talbi was not the first American there. And Mantz would’ve run 2:02-high last year at Boston if they had the exact same weather.
But Talbi does currently have the asterisked, wind-aided American best, supplanting one Ryan Hall, you are correct.
Woulda coulda shoulda. Mantz ran Boston last year and his time was 2:05:08. Talbi ran 2:03:45 on the same course.
Boston is the world's oldest annual and most historic marathon, featuring 130 years of memories, triumph, and fantastic finishes. It is held on Patriots Day. The top American at Boston is the top American in the country. That man is Zouhair Talbi.
I'm not talking about who was the Best American Marathon Man last year. I'm talking about who is the Best American Marathon Man now. That man is Zouhair Talbi.
Chicago is widely known as “America’s marathon.” Talbi was not the first American there. And Mantz would’ve run 2:02-high last year at Boston if they had the exact same weather.
But Talbi does currently have the asterisked, wind-aided American best, supplanting one Ryan Hall, you are correct.
Woulda coulda shoulda. Mantz ran Boston last year and his time was 2:05:08. Talbi ran 2:03:45 on the same course.
Boston is the world's oldest annual and most historic marathon, featuring 130 years of memories, triumph, and fantastic finishes. It is held on Patriots Day. The top American at Boston is the top American in the country. That man is Zouhair Talbi.
I'm not talking about who was the Best American Marathon Man last year. I'm talking about who is the Best American Marathon Man now. That man is Zouhair Talbi.
I’ll grant you that he’s the best of 2026, thus far, but his legitimate PR is only nine seconds faster than one Vincent Mauri who soloed it on an inferior course with vastly inferior competition. Shame he didn’t run Boston.
Don’t get too over your skis. Talbi is great though, no doubt.
What year did you run the Bolder Boulder? You’re correct, it’s worth over a minute converting to sea-level on the track. Probably more like only 50 seconds converting to a sea level road course. 31:00 at that race is like a 29:40 +/- on the track at low altitude.
Conner isn't great at listening to Eyestone. He has said this himself multiple times. He did this to himself unfortunately. I'm a big Conner fan, he will absolutely come back from this. It's crazy how quickly this board can go from "Conner is the GOAT" after his AR to 6 months later saying he's washed up.. Anyway, he also has historically hidden his strava runs for a little when dealing with an injury, so it is possible he is running and just not posting to strava. Maybe wishful thinking, but who knows.
This. When Clayton returned, he gradually eased his way into it, and even though he was hurt worse than Mantz at his lowpoint, he was able to still recover and have a decent Boston.
Conner came back running really really fast, and longer workouts, and I just don't think he ever gave his body a full chance to recover. I'm sure he's cross-training right now, waiting for the opportunity to get back. He has almost 6 months, so time is absolutely not an issue, he just needs to get healthy and ease his way back in.
And this time I think he'll be more inclined to listen to coach. I think the first time around, Clayton is used to being dropped so he didn't mind when he would get dropped. But Conner got frustrated when Casey, who was in better fitness prepping for his marathon, would drop him, and he'd try to hang on for too long at unhealthy paces. I think this time he'll probably be more patient and be ok with, maybe this workout isn't an A+ workout but that's fine.
It’s been 7 weeks since Conner has done any running.
It's been 7 weeks since he's posted on Strava, you have no idea what he's actually been doing.
And you wonder why a lot of pros don't both being public with their training.
Truthfully we know nothing. He could be running for all we know. Ed has had him train separately from the group before when coming back from injury, doing more on the treadmill and alter g than on the roads. And he’s gone dark on strava before so this isn’t exactly new. One thing I know for sure is that he is hitting the sauna with the other guys in Provo.