Really happy for Rory to get such a good time(for a north american) on a really hard course with wind. His 2:08something time at Seville was pretty good, I just wasn't sure if the course was legit. Now I really consider him one of the best north american marathoners, even if those new puma shoes helped him a bit.
I'm sure current NORTH AMERICAN RECORD HOLDER AND CANADIAN Cam Levins was watching that strong finish with approval, eh.
From getting dropped off the back of the lead pack to hawking down Young and taking the cheeky finish, Rory was the day's big surprise.
He was barely keeping up in their joint workouts in the past year.
But in all seriousness, Mantz had the biggest balls of the day to run for the win so hard that it even cost him a podium. That chase pack had Korir dead to rights with 750 more meters. Korir gambled and it barely paid off.
Glad he beat Clayton - can't stand that guy since he made this big show of letting Mantz win the trials. Fair enough if you're going to let someone win, but to make this big ostentatious show of it to make sure everyone KNEW he was letting Mantz win is a real dick move
Agreed. I'm guessing he didn't let Mantz win today.
Hall was his coach til the olympics last year. I forget the exact week. So Green hasn’t even been coaching him a full year yet. So clearly has made a jump with the changes in training.
That's why I cited Marugame. He also coached him for New York last year, Marugame half, then Boston.
Everyone is speculating. No one truly knows. You could say New York was short notice, Marugame was a build race. But I'm still extremely skeptical that it's primarily the coaching change. All his prior performances are in line with each other, from Seville to Paris to New York, and even Marugame. This race was a statistical outlier, it indicates fitness we've never seen from him in his 11 prior marathons and didn't see from him as recently as 2 months ago. I knew he was in great shape, the best shape of his life, that's why if you go back to my race prediction post I said he'd go between 2:07:30-2:08:00. But there's still a gap between his fitness and his result.
The reality is that we may not know by the fall marathon, but we'll know by next Boston. The Nike athletes will have Alphafly 4s, the Adidas athletes will have Adios Pro 5s (both come out early 2026), unsponsored athletes will have Pumas like Ryan Ford did this race (he said he got the Pumas 2 days before the race, ran a 3+ min PB), or they'll have the Nike/Adidas equivalent. If he still beats Daniel Mateiko and gets 6th again then I'll be more persuaded it's the coach. If he finishes around 9th or 10th, I'll think the shoes had a good bit to do with it.
This post was edited 51 seconds after it was posted.
I'm sure current NORTH AMERICAN RECORD HOLDER AND CANADIAN Cam Levins was watching that strong finish with approval, eh.
From getting dropped off the back of the lead pack to hawking down Young and taking the cheeky finish, Rory was the day's big surprise.
He was barely keeping up in their joint workouts in the past year.
But in all seriousness, Mantz had the biggest balls of the day to run for the win so hard that it even cost him a podium. That chase pack had Korir dead to rights with 750 more meters. Korir gambled and it barely paid off.
Not sure how you know it would have taken exactly 750 more meters, but whatever - you make it sound like Korir was some chump who got lucky, and the 2-3-4 runners were the real stars of the show. Wrong! For one thing, the race is 42.2km, not 42.95km. Everyone knew the race distance going in. If for some strange reason it HAD been 750 meters longer than it is, Korir probably would have just waited an additional 750 meters before making his move, with the same results.
Smaller countries that have interest in sports are going to beat bigger countries in per capita performance. That is pretty much a given. When they beat the bigger countries absolutely, that is a big deal. So, when Kenya and Ethiopia crush the U.S. in distance running from the late 1980s to 2020 (and ongoing at half and marathon), that tells you something is going on. It's not news when New Zealand or Norway or Jamaica or even Canada gets higher per capita success. Come back when Canada beats the U.S. in the medal count.
Go check out his Insta pic right now, pretty hilarious
Haha we made it we're famous!!
I'd love to look back a year from now when we have more data and see where the consensus rests on the shoes, if they're just another pair or if they actually do end up being seen as a significant development in the sport.