CJ Albertson 2:10:06 at CIM - what’s holding him back

Nothing is holding him back except for talent. CJ is a GREAT dude and story but he's just simply not talented enough to be a 2:05 guy like I think Mantz is.

CJ was 36th out of 40 at Foot locker in HS In college, he was a 8:45 st, 13:50 guy. So basically his whole career he's been at least 10 seconds a mile slower than the top guys. He's actually closer than 10 in the marathon for the US so he's overachieving.

TLDR - he's never been at Young/Mantz's level so the fact that he is close to them now is amazing and a real testament to CJ.

CJ’s marathon PR is 26 seconds slower than Mantz’s. That’s one second per mile. So, yes, he is absolutely AT their level in the marathon

close, but I get your point:

CJ ran 2:08:17 at Chicago

Clayton ran 2:08:00

Conner Mantz ran 2:07:43

Those are all essentially the same time, and Clayton and Conner ran those times with much better training.

If CJ improves his training, he would run faster. His place at Footlocker (seriously?) doesn't matter.

Why does something have to be holding him back? He's overperformed at the marathon because of his training. He never broke 4 in the mile & his 5k PB is 13:50. The 5k is more in line with 2:12ish. He almost ran 2:07 at Chicago this past fall and missed the Olympic team by 10s.

I tend to defend American marathoners running slower times at domestic majors but if the focus here is on CJ I'd flip it & ask what everyone else is doing. If CJ can run 2:08 then why can't the sub-13/27 types step up & challenge the AR?

it's way more likely that he underperformed for 5k. You seriously think that if he was focusing on the 5k that he wouldn't have a much faster PR?

Look at Clayton Young's college PRs: 13:30 and 28:18. Fast, but nothing to suggest he'd be so close to Mantz for the marathon. And he'd absolutely be faster at 5k/10k now if he was focusing on it.

How about we stop focusing on times that CJ ran in college, 10 years ago, and instead focus on the now, especially when it's obvious that he is a much faster than those college PRs would suggest

You don't know what talent is. Times and places from high school and college aren't indicative of talent. Those results could mean any number of things. It could mean he didn't take training seriously. Or he was overtrained. Or undertrained. Any number of things that having nothing to do with talent.

Here's what is indicative of talent: having essentially the same marathon PRs as Mantz and Clayton young despite doing so on training that is half as good. That is talent, the kind of talent that is very indicative of someone who absolutely can run 2:05-2:06 if he dialed in his training and didn't race as much

Despite what you think you don't know he could run 2:06. And if does it in some of the majors he could end up in fifth place or tenth or somewhere he'd get less money than if he came second at Grandma's or Philly, etc. Then there's the business of appearance money. If he was going to run in a race outside the US he likely wouldn't get nearly as much as he would at many domestic races.

huh? So you're saying he can run 2:06

Jeez, people! Why y’all gotta mock him for not being at the level of the pure legends? He’s trying his best

No. How do you get that?

Yeah better of being a Strava King than an Olympian

Despite what I think I don’t know, he can run 2:06

Is running 2:07 at CIM a big accomplishment, if he already hit 2:08 in legal Chicago?

Running for a paycheck is ok in a dead month. He can time trial in a race that counts and gives him appearance money and a better record, like a major.

All the anonymous attacks on CJ are probably just some serial troll like jamin or a bored teenager picking a dumb fight over a topic they know will stir people up.

Who is attacking him?

I'm not making excuses for him. I'm just reporting that I read on another post either on LetsRun or Facebook and again onReddit that some runners had problems with smoke. Someone reported an Air Quality Index of 120.

Again, I have no first hand information and this is just from memory. I do know that poor air quality affects some runners more than others.

Was anyone here at CIM? Was there problems with the air quality?

Why is everyone hyping up the paychecks senpai receives for running races, considering these arent major wins with massive prizes but much lower and when you factor in taxes, cost of traveling, hotels, training and time spent off from work is senpai actually running for a living ?

No you didn't.

He had 5-6 yaers ro be great in HS/College but wasn't. - that's a sign of talent. Supreme talent will run well even with shitrry coaching.

He's pretty darn good as a pro coaching himself. Everyone but me assumes to think he'd run better if he trained conventionally and raced less. I'm not convinced of that.

I'll bet anyone that wants to bet right now $1000 that Conner Mantz dies with a marathon pb at least a minute faster than CJ.

Here are there head to head matchups:

Conner Mantz USA CJ Albertson USA
Marathon Boston MA 2023-04-17 2:10:25 (11) 2:10:33 (12)
Marathon OT Orlando FL 2024-02-03 2:09:05 (1) 2:10:07 (5)
Marathon New York NY 2024-11-03 2:09:00 (6) 2:10:57 (10)