Conner Mantz debuted in the half starting at age 12, guess his time. He rocked one at age 14. Guess his time.

Yeah, at 44 I beat both his half marathon and 5k time when he was 12. Really, this is America’s best?

Super old school website.

I am not sure if you are aware of it or not, but running downhill is faster than running on the level....

You know Rojo before you recruited me I also ran a half marathon at the age of 14.

I'm obviously not nearly as fast and talented as Conner....but I did run a 1:13 off of only about 35-40 miles per week back then.

It was interesting because as a soph-junior in hs I had never done a "long run" over 10-miles so it was like going into "no mans land."

I think a lot of hs kids and college kids could probably run pretty fast half marathons and marathons...however it's generally not in their best interest/focus as obviously you want to keep them fresh for fast 5km-10km for xc and track. Depends on the athlete and their Running Economy and if they are "more suited for the longer distances" beyond a mile/1500m

Really? 13 miles @ 5:34 pace for a 14 yr old is impressive! The lore of Brad Hudson comes to mind.

On a side topic, Mr. Canaday, what do you think about the idea that even for runners, some forms of cross-training can actually be superior to slow jogging in order to develop the aerobic system?

I present the idea in more detail in the following thread, if you will be kind enough to contribute there (rather than derail this thread further. Thank you. )

Deer rojo. Can you find out what Bekele's races were around 1996, and what his PBs were? He was 14 then. I wonder what he would of done in a half mary.

the article has some nice contradictions in it... like, was he the fastest American debut ever in the marathon or not? 😅

We were all like 5’8 a buck 10 at that age and had no speed endurance to speak of so a kid that can run 16 min flat from 5K at 14 it doesn’t seem unreasonable that he could go out and run some decent adult half times. obviously as puberty continues we fill out and gain lots of speed.

His training as a 14-year old is so awesome. Unstructured, hammering every day whatever he felt. Doubling, working out, racing. I've been discouraging my 14-year old to run LESS!! maybe it should be go ahead! Great article. Big Mantz fan.

1:11 not serious training? My ass, obviously he has been training his entire life since a young kid no shock to become a pro if you have the discipline and talent. But saying he was not serious at 14 is a total lie.

No (male) runner trains their entire life to only run a 1:11. If you’re slower than 5:00 pace, you’re not a real “runner”.

Haha I’m with you but I was doing 32k runs to get around the city when I was that age. 1:11 is still pretty pedestrian for an athlete of that talent level. Not as any crazier as 14 year olds getting close to the 4 minute barrier.

if you’ve been training your whole life though and only run 1:11 man you’ve been slacking on your diet, training, or both.

I’m a huge Mantz fan but yeah, the Utah Valley Half Marathon he ran is straight downhill. Here’s the course map:

Are you saying you were 14 as a soph-junior?

You could argue the altitude and downhill sort of cancel out but I am guessing the 5k wasn't losing 50 ft/1k....

Wow. Tough crowd. I know a 4:02 miler who never broke 1:11 (he attempted to get an OT Marathon qualifier, so he was serious). I guess he does not count as a "real runner". This was 20 years ago, so no super shoes for either race.

Mantz is impressive. Hope he does great things. Even if he barely qualified as a "real runner" at age 14.

When I was 12-14 I was riding and racing a BMX bike everywhere, and every so often I'd run a 10K road race. Sometimes I'd run a time or two before the race.

I was two seconds from a state XC title a couple years later, and ran D1.