2026 New York City Half Marathon, featuring Grant Fisher - OFFICIAL THREAD

Fisher needs to have his ferritin checked....In all seriousness, something must be wrong with him.

Yeah, I wondered about that too. Outside of Houston Half (too early for his timing), there's just not a great flat domestic option for the Half. After that, Lisbon is the best international option but is dropping into a Kiplimo record attempt the best? Probably not.

He did like that New York wasn't about time and he could worry about competing, but the flipside is that the race was still fast (not blazing fast) and it just had more hills and surging than a pancake-flat course.

1. Hellen Obiri (Kenya) - 1:06:33
2. Sharon Lokedi (Kenya) - 1:07:10
3. Megan Keith (Great Britain) - 1:07:13
4. Diane Van Es (Netherlands) - 1:08:21
5. Fentaye Belayneh (Ethiopia) - 1:08:22
6. Emily Sisson (United States) - 1:09:06
7. Amanda Vestri (United States) - 1:09:22
8. Annie Frisbie (United States) - 1:09:25
9. Susanna Sullivan (United States) - 1:09:38
10. Emily Venters (United States) - 1:09:38

1. Adriaan Wildschutt (South Africa) - 59:30
2. Zouhair Talbi (United States) - 59:41
3. Gulveer Singh (India) - 59:42
4. Alex Maier (United States) - 59:51
5. Peter Lynch (Ireland) - 59:52
6. Patrick Dever (Great Britain) - 59:56
7. Rory Linkletter (Canada) - 1:00:00
8. Patrick Kiprop (Kenya) - 1:00:01
9. Joe Klecker (United States) - 1:00:02
10. Shunsuke Kuwata (Japan) - 1:00:13

Grant was coming off of track training all summer through winter (capped with 2k 5:49), to quickly then build up for a half.

Habtom was almost the opposite — volume-heavy summer through winter (XC training), then sharpen up for indoor championships.

Habtom sharpened well, outkicking everyone in the 5k and 3k* this weekend, but beating NCAA guys on the track is an easier task than Grant competing with world class guys on the track.

All just to say that Habtom’s Houston half isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison to Grant’s performance today, and it isn’t necessarily an indication that Grant’s prospects on the roads are worse than Habtom’s.

People may have missed Galen Rupp's 25th place in 1:04:28 at the age of 39 and he turns 40 in less than two months on May 8, 2026 so that was a decent run by Galen. I'm assuming he was first master.

Berlin in a couple of weeks would have been a good option. However, NY probably paid him good appearance fees, whereas Berlin probably would not have paid him anything (or very little).

Check WADA’s testing. No man in that field has been tested more than Singh in the past few years. He tops Fisher. And tested by WADA, USADA, AIU, and India’s anti doping. And, give some credit, India has so many positives BECAUSE they test! Sorry, China, Russia, Kenya… what’s up with their testing? Singh trains in Colorado Springs… home of USADA. That ain’t hiding out in a third world county.

Shout out to 20yo Shunsuke Kuwata, who has PBs of only 13:39/29:01 on the track. Ran fastest 1/2 by a Japanese outside Japan

Not that we need to be impressed by the Japanese at halves & marathons, but this young guy is impressive!

This is the classic cycle/critique American runners go through. There isn't a fast domestic half. Most aren't flying to Barcelona or Lisbon to get buried. I thought the Fisher chatter was premature because NYC possesses a bunch of unknowns, but the race went out fast & he couldn't hang. Idk about his presser. Felt like a lot of vague, non-descript, words. He's too talented to finish that far back to just throw out pounding on the legs. He runs every day & has done plenty of huge threshold workouts. Maybe the specificity is valid- pace changes/hills. Can't imagine you'd sign up for NYC at that level & not do some hill work tho.

For LRC I'm wondering why the recap article has a huge write up on Fisher/Klecker, but not on the other Americans who beat them? 3 other guys ahead of Fisher/2 ahead of Klecker. Seems like a solid day to see 5 American men go under 1:01 plus 5 American women go under 70. This isn't an easy course. The results are worth something faster these days. I think Sisson's run is actually pretty strong, especially considering she might not have backed off her Boston build much. Could be ready to run low to mid 2:20s & challenge the top-5. Would be good to see.

The NYC Half has a partnership with the Ageo Half Marathon held in Japan every November, where the top 2 university finishers get a trip to NYC to compete - very cool program and great performance today from Kuwata.

I noticed a bunch of Japanese logged into the YouTube livestream to watch, I can’t imagine what they thought of today’s coverage of the race when compared to the Hakone Ekiden broadcast.

The reaction to Fisher's race seems overly harsh. The LRC recap in particular. Was it really that bad?? It's the guys first half and first serious road race. You'd think he finished behind old man Rupp... He was sub-61 on a hilly course in his first time out with limited training after a pretty serious sounding illness. I'd give it a solid B. Sounds like many are giving it a D. Certainly a great learning experience. What am I missing?

The problem is that this board views Grant as something different than reality.
Grant is one of the top 10,000 meter runners in the World.
Grant is also one of the top 5,000 meter runners in the World.
Grant is totally inexperienced on the roads.
Grant has zero chance of medaling in the 2028 Marathon.
Grant would have a very difficult time finishing top 5 in the 2028 OT Marathon.

THISE ARE FACTS.

THESE

Not just the inexperience, some have done it with less experience. There are physical factors that are not conducive to converting short to long times. It can be modified though.

My post on the other thread about it was downvoted. What would a guy with 50 years running and passionately following marathons know.

Does not count

All Fisher , Fisher , Fisher

Even the commentators were unprepared, looking up athletes names from their list. The guy even said Wildschutt was Russian (WTF?) when he saw RSA behind his name

I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but Fisher’s 10K pr is over 30 seconds faster than Mantz’s and on the track he’s competitive with guys like Yomif who have run very fast halves. And while this is his first half it’s not like Fisher is a young guy. I can see why people would expect him to be running under 59 in his first attempt, like guys with similar track prs to him have done.

The issue is that track times aren't a 1 to 1 with marathon success. There is some correlation between faster track times and faster marathon times, of course. But there's a lot of senseless discourse about "Graham Blanks and such and such other athlete should MOVE UP TO DOMINATE THE MARATHON." It's not that simple. And this race shows that.

The marathon is its own race, some pretty decent track athletes but not world class track athletes because successful marathoners, and some excellent track runners haven't been as good at the marathon.