Top Americans Say They’re Ready to Roll at 2023 Boston Marathon

BOSTON — In its 127-year history, the Boston Marathon has never seen elite fields as strong as the ones it will roll out for the 2023 edition. World record holder Eliud Kipchoge is the star attraction, but between Evans Chebet (winner in Boston and New York last year), Benson Kipruto (2021 Boston/2022 Chicago champ), Amane Beriso (2022 Valencia champ in 2:14:58, #3 all time for women), Joyciline Jepkosgei (2019 New York/2021 London champ), and Gotytom Gebreslase (2022 world champ), there’s a ton of talent in the men’s and women’s races. Historically, Boston and London have competed against each other for the top marathon stars, and typically, London (which has a larger budget) wins that battle convincingly. In 2023, however, it’s a legitimate argument as to which race has the stronger field.

But the storylines in Boston go beyond the very front of the pack. Many of America’s best marathoners will also be in action on Monday, and while they’ll be trying to beat as many people as possible regardless of nationality, the race-within-a-race for top American honors is also compelling. The men’s US field features the two fastest Americans of 2022 in Conner Mantz (2:08:16) and Scott Fauble (2:08:52), while the women’s race includes Sara Hall, Des Linden, Emma Bates, Nell Rojas, and Aliphine Tuliamuk. In the last two editions, only one American has finished in the top six at Boston (Rojas was 5th in 2021); both sexes will be looking to put someone on the podium for the first time since Jordan Hasay‘s 3rd-place finish in 2019. (A top-5 finish would be especially nice in 2023 since it counts as the Olympic standard — which no American men currently have).

With the quality of the fields in 2023, however, a run that might have landed on the podium in previous years could only be good enough for 5th or 6th this year.

“The best I’ve ever done at a World Marathon Major is 7th, so I would like to better that,” Fauble, who ran a pb of 2:08:52 to finish 7th last year, tells LetsRun. “But one thing that [coach] Joe [Bosshard] is big on and I think is the right way to look at things is really judging success based on how I run. I think I’m certainly fit enough to run a very good marathon or the best marathon I’ve ever run, but when you tie your happiness, I guess, to the outcome of, Oh I was 7th and not 6th or whatever, you’re setting yourself up for some disappointment that isn’t necessarily fair.”

Courtesy BAA/Victah Sailer

If you’re an American marathon fan, you would do well to heed Fauble’s advice. Those hoping for an American to crack the podium on Monday will likely be disappointed — the elite fields are so deep that it would require a truly great day for that to happen. But there’s still plenty to be excited about. I interviewed four people for this story — Fauble, Bates, Ben Rosario (who spoke about NAZ Elite’s Aliphine Tuliamuk), and Ed Eyestone (coach of Conner Mantz) — and all four reported that either they or their athlete has had a very strong Boston buildup. Of course, it’s rare to hear an athlete openly discuss a bad buildup, but it definitely sounds as if a number of Americans are in position to run well on Monday. Now it’s up to them to go out and do it.

And don’t look now, but we’re less than a year away from the 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials. With so many of the top contenders running Boston, we’ll get a decent idea of where things stand right now, 10 months out from Orlando.

The American Men: Fauble vs. Mantz — or will someone else crash the party?

Top American pro men in 2023 Boston Marathon

Last year, Scott Fauble and Conner Mantz were the top two men’s marathoners in the United States. Fauble ran a pb of 2:08:52 to finish as the top American in Boston — the fastest an American has run on that course since Meb won in 2014 — and followed it up by finishing as the top American in New York in November. In between, Mantz, a two-time NCAA XC champ at BYU, made his much-anticipated debut in Chicago and finished as the top American there in 2:08:16 to move to #7 on the all-time US marathon list. A healthy Galen Rupp is superior to both men, but we haven’t seen a healthy Rupp since 2021. In April 2023, Fauble and Mantz are the best America has.

Both men enter Boston in a great place. Fauble could scarcely have had a better 2022. He was rejuvenated on the roads after ditching NAZ Elite for Team Boss, got married in May, and signed a contract with Nike in November. He also used some new techniques to keep his bothersome hip under control, allowing him to log consistent, healthy training — which showed in his two marathon results.

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“As long as the hip is good, usually everything else follows,” Fauble says.

While Fauble’s permanent home is Portland, he has been training in Boulder since the start of February and has carried the momentum of last year into 2023.

“I’m very excited,” Fauble says. “Training has gone really well. I think as prepared for a marathon as I’ve ever been.”

When Fauble is fit, he typically runs well — of his eight career marathons, he’s had one real stinker (2021 Boston), and one underwhelming result (12th at the 2020 Olympic Trials after a key chunk of his buildup was hampered by illness). Last year, Fauble found success by hanging back early in Boston and New York and picking people off over the second half, and while he’s not going to jeopardize his race by running over his head, he’d prefer to be up front where the action is.

“Last year, I was alone for the last 11 miles just passing people and getting to the next person,” Fauble says. “Pass someone and get to the next person. That’s a fun way to gain momentum through the race but it certainly feels a little bit more low-stakes…I would much rather have it play out like 2019 when we were out in 1:04-low and I was able to be up front.”

That’s where Mantz hopes to be, too. Mantz wasn’t ready to run with the leaders in Chicago last year and had to do a lot of work pushing the chase pack. His coach Ed Eyestone is hoping that, without pacemakers in Boston, the pace will be a little slower and allow Mantz to be part of the action up front.

“That’s what Conner likes,” Eyestone says. “He likes to mix it up with the best and we certainly will have the best on Monday.”

Mantz didn’t accomplish quite what he was looking for in Chicago — he wanted Leonard Korir‘s American debut record of 2:07:56 — but Mantz now knows how it feels to race 26.2 miles and Eyestone believes that experience makes him better prepared for marathon #2.

Eyestone has an equation he likes to use when it comes to training: C² = E². Expanded: consistent competence equals eventual excellence. Mantz’s last two years is proof the equation works. Just look at the dude’s Strava account. Mantz has 10 weeks of 110+ miles in this buildup (all of them in six days) and has had very few interruptions since the spring of 2020. It has translated to a string of top performances across all surfaces, most recently clocking 27:25 for 10,000 at The TEN on March 4. Clearly, Mantz is fit, and if he’s running that fast for 10,000 in the middle of a marathon build, he has a very high ceiling in Boston.

Eyestone also believes that Mantz’s cross country success — he dominated one of the hilliest NCAAs ever at Oklahoma State in 2021 — sets him up to run well in Boston as long as he doesn’t go too crazy on the early downhills in Boston.

“If we can keep that in check, then I like the thought of him pounding the hills from about 15 miles on and seeing what he can do,” Eyestone says.

Could anyone other than Fauble or Mantz finish as the top American man on Monday? Of course. It’s the Boston Marathon. Stuff happens.

37-year-old Ben True is the most intriguing name among the other American men’s entries, having finished 7th in his debut in New York in 2021. More recently, he ran 62:57 on a cold, windy day to finish as the top American (4th overall) at last month’s NYC Half. True’s former training partner Sam Chelanga, 38, also enters Boston in good form, having finished as the top American (21st overall) at World XC on February 18 before running 27:38 for 10,000 at The TEN. The marathon has never fully clicked for Chelanga (his best is 2:15:02 in three finishes), but he has the talent and is running well right now.

CJ Albertson is also a man to watch, especially in Boston, where he famously opened a two-minute lead at the halfway mark in 2021. Albertson, who calls himself the best downhill runner in the world, has finished 10th and 13th in the last two Bostons and is never afraid to throw in a surge on one of the course’s many downhills. Matt McDonald and Nico Montanez both broke 2:10 in Chicago last year and are also worth noting.

The American Women: This one is wide open

Top American pro women in 2023 Boston Marathon

Just look at the resumes above. Sara Hall and Emma Bates finished 5th and 7th at Worlds last year. Aliphine Tuliamuk is the reigning Olympic Trials champion. Des Linden is a two-time Olympian and former Boston champ. And Nell Rojas was the top American in Boston the last two years. You’re telling me one of them is going to be no better than the fifth American woman across the line on Monday? As we say in Boston, this field is wicked deep.

It’s hard to declare a favorite for “top American woman” in this race. Hall, Bates, and Tuliamuk were #3/#4/#5 in LetsRun’s 2022 US marathon rankings, and while Hall beat Bates head-to-head at Worlds by more than a minute, she has traditionally struggled in hilly marathons: she was 15th in Boston in 2019, then DNF’d 2019 New York and the 2020 Olympic Trials. Since that DNF in Atlanta, Hall has run a series of very strong marathons, including a runner-up finish in London and a 2:20:32 pb at the Marathon Project. And while she dealt with a nagging IT band injury at the end of 2022, she has posted strong results in the leadup to Boston, running 69:31 at the Lisbon Half and winning the US 10-mile title in 52:37 on April 2. Hall, who turns 40 on Saturday, is clearly fit but needs to show she can do it on a course like Boston.

Bates, meanwhile, tells LetsRun her Boston buildup was her best one yet, and she has the data to prove it. Under coach Joe Bosshard, Bates has a threshold workout on the treadmill every 10 days and they’ll measure her lactate levels between reps. Bates says her numbers have shown tangible progress — her lactate levels are lower at the same pace compared to what they were during her buildup for Worlds (where she ran a pb of 2:23:18) — and she’s running slightly faster workouts overall. While Bates had a solid 2022, she got COVID at the start of the year and didn’t feel like herself until the final months of the year. Her 2023 hasn’t been perfect — she had to back off training for 10 days in February due to a mild form of cuboid syndrome in her foot — but says she is ready to go on Monday.

“I think we did a really good job of simulating the course here in Boulder,” Bates says. “I’m really excited. I’m the most confident I’ve ever been.”

Tuliamuk is in the best spot she has been since the Olympic Trials in February 2020. In 2021, she rushed back to run the Olympics after giving birth to daughter Zoe in January and wound up dropping out with a hip injury. Last fall, she missed time with an ankle injury but still managed to run a pb of 2:26:18 to finish as the top American in New York. Her Boston buildup has not been without challenges — she has gotten sick several times, the byproduct of having a young child in daycare — but has not missed a workout.

This buildup has been the first one in which NAZ Elite coach Alan Culpepper has written Tuliamuk’s workouts as opposed to her longtime coach Ben Rosario. Rosario, who still has some input in his role as NAZ Elite executive director, said the transition has been smooth and is impressed by what he has seen from Tuliamuk. She won the US Half Champs in Fort Worth on February 26 running 69:37. And considering how well she ran in NYC last fall with an uninterrupted buildup, she should be capable of an even better performance in Boston on Monday.

“The workouts have been really good and that’s what you want,” Rosario says. “Especially with such a good racer. It’s not that complicated with Aliphine. She’s really strong mentally and a great racer, so if she’s fit, she’ll run well. And she’s very fit.”

Nell Rojas has clearly earned respect after finishing 5th and 10th in the last two Bostons, taking top American honors each time. But it’s worth noting that the American fields at Boston in 2021 and 2022 weren’t nearly as deep as this year. When Rojas raced NYC last fall, she finished 10th in 2:28:32 — 2:14 behind Tuliamuk and 1:39 behind Bates. If both Tuliamuk and Bates are fitter now, Rojas will have her hands full closing that gap. That said, Rojas’ recent race results have been solid — she was 3rd at the US Half Champs and then 2nd at the US 10-mile champs, just one second behind Hall. And unlike Tuliamuk and Bates, Rojas has the advantage of having run Boston before.

No American in the elite field has run Boston more than Des Linden, who will be making her 10th appearance on the start line in Hopkinton. In recent years, the 39-year-old Linden has started to show her age, finishing 16th and 13th in her last two go-rounds (she was also 16th in NYC last fall). But her run at the NYC Half in March — where she finished as the top American in 5th and ran 72:21, her fastest half since 2019 — was Linden’s best result since finishing 4th at the 2020 Olympic Trials.

The big difference for Linden in this buildup is her volume. After her run in New York last fall, she and coach Walt Drenth looked over her volume which, as usual, featured a number of 120-mile weeks.

“He was like, you don’t need to do that anymore,” Linden tells LetsRun. “You’ve maximized that part of what you can gain from doing that type of volume.”

For this buildup, Linden, whose book Choosing to Run just hit the New York Times bestseller list, has cut back to 95-105 mpw — her lowest levels in a marathon build for 15 years. The results in training have been great.

“The sessions are so much more intense and intentional that they’re going better,” Linden says. “It’s not surprising at all but I just have so much more energy.”

Can a runner whose identity has been built on grit and grinding find success with a new, lower-mileage approach? We’ll find out on Monday.

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MB: And the top Americans at the Boston marathon will be….. Who you got?