Connor Mantz, 11th, 2:10:25, 3rd American - Are you giving Mantz a pass for his Boston result today?

He flat out gave up when the going got tough. A great marathoner needs to be made of stronger stuff than that.

He got Faubled.

In an American only race (i.e., one that goes out slower), my hunch is that he beats Fauble.

no pass. What he did was straight up idiotic. Brave, but foolish

He went out too hard, however it is hard not to......to stay back and work your way through is smarter but much tougher mentally.

Even Kipchoge underestimated the second half and looked great for 16-17M but that early pace was too fast.

Chebet and Kipruto knew what was coming both ran beautiful race and so did Geay.

Don't run the first 5k in 14:17 if you expect anything other than disaster.

He went out too fast, but that's just the nature of racing, you can twin it if you let them go out 2 minutes faster than you over the first half. It's not like he ran out front like Albertson usually does, he stuck his nose in it.
I'd say its respectable

He got excited trying to catch up to Eliud. He got to within 4-5 seconds and then cratered

Where did you see he doesn’t run everyday? Never heard about this

I don’t disagree with this. It surely makes him fast for the track, but marathon training is a different beast. He probably needs less fast turnover stuff and way more long tempos.

But, going out in 14:17 is going to kill just about anyone but the very best who don’t have an off day. That is just dumb. It’s kind of like Ritz going out in 14:37 or whatever at London and then fading to a 2:10:00. If he goes out even and smart, he probably runs 2:06-2:07.

Boston is unforgiving with the hills if you get pulled out too quickly, even with the fast first several miles.

I give Conner a pass, and hopefully he will learn from this. I suspect he’s a much better runner in a flat, time-trial type marathon where he can get in a rhythm. I don’t ever see him running 2:04 (non-aided), but I can see a 2:06 still. This was only his second attempt and he obviously employed bad tactics that compromised him.

If your expectation for the top US marathoners is to go out and time trial in order to run the fastest time possible regardless of position, then Mantz failed miserably. If your expectation is for the top US marathoners to go out and compete for podium spots, then Mantz went after it but just wasn't ready to run the kind of pace that the leaders ran today (which was one of the fastest to date).

Boston is the perfect course setup to mess with your mind:

1-Years with big tailwinds that make many historical PRs look inflated.

2-Early downhills to trick you into thinking the constant rolling hills won't catch up with you.

3-Late, gradual downhill (21-26mi) that makes you think the last 5 mi will be easy, but isn't nearly downhill enough to make it easy and instead, the hills just keep rolling.

4-Some short, very steep downhills that wouldn't affect you on a normal training day, but tip your quads over the edge during a marathon.

Dude, chill. It's just one race. He ran well and had a gutsy race, even if his debut was better. Boston is tough. He should be proud of his performance. I'd rather Americans go for it like he and Emma Bates did today than be conservative and never be in contention.

What exactly are the options here? We either give him a pass or take away his pro card?

Going out in 14:17/28:52 and 62:20 through the half came back to bite him, unsurprisingly. Even though 30k he was on 2:06:18 pace. It was a foolhardy run and if he got the chance to do it over he’d surely pace himself differently. But it was his second marathon and he’s only 26, he’ll learn from it. And I strongly believe that the splits he ran today are an indication of his great potential. I don’t think it will be long before he puts it all together and runs 2:06.

They don’t run on Sunday. Ryan Hall didn’t. Jared Ward didn’t. I think it could be a very valid point that if you aren’t making yourself better 52 days of the year and your competition is, that you won’t beat the 1%. Marathon is unpredictable though. About the only consistent thing has been kipchoge winning and he didn’t do that today. Mantz gets a pass in my book for a few reasons. He was trying so hard to catch kipchoge I think that hurt him. It wasn’t ideal conditions on a pretty tough course as well. He didn’t show improvement in my eyes but he didn’t regress either. Right now he sits just outside of top 3 in the top American marathoners for me. Faubs and Macdonald are not beating him in Orlando on a fast trials course. Rupp and Korir are.

I don't know if this is the case but if he's a Mormon, and going to BYU makes that seem likely, he's not supposed to run on Sundays.

Sounds like my regimen.