BYU has a profile out on Conner Mantz as he just made his marathon debut. It starts by talkking about how he got into running.
Mantz’s dad and brother, Rob and Garrett, got into running half marathons when Conner was 9 or 10. Conner wanted to follow in the family’s footsteps but had to wait until he was 12 to register.
“This kind of stirred the pot and motivated him to run some 5Ks and other runs,” Rob Mantz said. “When he was 12, he ran two half marathons, then he ran a couple each year when he was 13 and 14.”
Those race results can be found on Conner’s personal website where for over 10 years he has recorded his runs. Mantz’s effort to track his running speaks to his dedication and meticulousness.
His most impressive result in the half marathon was the 1:11:24 time (5:26.8 pace) he ran as a 14-year-old. Some runners train their entire lives for a time like that, and Mantz was doing it as an adolescent.
“I didn’t do a ton of training, but I just had fun,” Mantz wrote on his website’s home page. “I got more serious about it as high school got closer.”
Seeing that, I went to his personal website to see how fast he was when he started out. At 12, it says he ran a a half marathon in 82:43. That's 6:19 pace. Wow. He ran his 5k sb a few months later in 18:26. That's 5:57 mile pace. How do you only have a 22 second gap? The average gap is like 30+.
Here is his personal website:
