NYC Men’s Media Day: Conner Mantz Is As Fit As Ever and Wants the AR in the Half Marathon in ‘25, Plus a Geoffrey Kamworor Update

NEW YORK – Thursday was media day at the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon, which is shaping up as a particularly star-studded version of the fabled race on the men’s side. For the first time in 10 years, New York has attracted the reigning men’s Olympic champion – Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia – in addition to silver medalist Bashir Abdi of Belgium. There’s also former NYC champs Geoffrey Kamworor, Albert Korir, and Evans Chebet and the top two American men right now in Conner Mantz and Clayton Young.

LetsRun.com had boots on the ground on Thursday and we learned so much we wrote three separate articles. One focuses on the women’s pros in NYC like Hellen Obiri and the retiring Jenny Simpson. In another, we asked women’s pros like Obiri, Tirunesh Dibaba, and Sharon Lokedi for their thoughts on Ruth Chepngetich’s marathon world record. The third is the one you’re reading now, which includes Mantz’s thoughts on the American half marathon record and an injury update on Kamworor.

Tamirat Tola is definitely the favorite

We began today thinking that Tamirat Tola was the favorite on Sunday and after chatting to the athletes, agents, and coaches at media day, we are still confident in that prediction (granted, Olympic silver medalist Bashir Abdi and 2021 NYC champ Albert Korir were absent).

Tola was confident about his chances, saying he had “trained well” and “my body is also in good shape” and that he has confidence as a result. He said he hoped he could run better than last year, when he ran a 2:04:58 course record.

Though Tola’s coach Gemedu Dedefo acknowledged that this year’s field is better than the one Tola beat to set the course record in New York last year, Dedefo said Tola recovered well after his Olympic win and should be good to go on Saturday.

We asked Tola to compare the hilly New York city course to the super hilly Paris Olympic course. Tola said the super steep super hill in Paris was much bigger than anything in New York, “If I try to put it in numbers? Paris, I would say in one spot (with the big hill) is a ten out of ten. New York because it’s gradual, I would give it maybe a seven or eight.”

We also spoke to Evans Chebet and his coach Claudio Berardelli, who told us that Sunday will be Chebet’s 30th career marathon (not his 19th, as we wrote in our preview – Berardelli said that the Tilastopaja database is missing some marathons Chebet ran in Kenya). Chebet would not go as far as to say he was in the same shape as when he won NYC in 2022, but he said he feels healthy after an up-and-down buildup and that he is definitely in better shape when he ran 2:07:22 for 3rd in Boston in April after an injury-plagued buildup.

Chebet and Tola in the adidas purple

2017/2019 NYC champ Geoffrey Kamworor was the other international men’s athlete in attendance and he said that he finally feels healthy after injuries to his back and hip prevented him from starting his last two marathons. Kamworor, 31, said that he has found himself in an injury cycle recently where he would get in great shape only to get hurt and have to take time off. 

This time around, Kamworor decided he would back off the intensity of his workouts and do more cross training in an attempt to make it to race day healthy. He has accomplished that – he has been healthy since June – but how that translates to a race is yet to be determined. 

“This time I did very controlled training, so I don’t know how it will go,” Kamworor said. “I think my body is good. I will give it a try. I did a lot of controlled training. My main focus is to be here and try to come back strong.”

One advantage Kamworor has is that he knows the course well: he finished on the podium four times in NYC from 2015-19, including two wins. This is his first time back in five years and he is excited to give it another go.

“It means a lot to me because I have great memories from New York,” Kamworor said. “After a long time not coming back to New York, it feels great to be back again.”

Before the media availability began, we saw Kamworor and Tola talking and laughing with each other and we asked Tola what that was all about. 

“I said to him that I hadn’t seen him since Oregon 2022 – I haven’t seen him elsewhere, so I was asking him, ‘How come I haven’t seen you anywhere?’ And he says that he had been injured, so he hadn’t been racing,” Tola said. “So I asked him, ’How are you doing now and how have you prepared?’ He said now he was good. And that’s what we were laughing about.”

Conner Mantz is very excited about how his training has gone since the Olympics

You couldn’t blame Conner Mantz if he feels a bit tired by now. From October 2023 to August 2024, Mantz ran three marathons: one to earn the qualifying time for the Olympics (Chicago), one to officially earn his spot (the US Olympic Trials), and then the Olympics themselves. All three were successful, and Mantz was proud of his 2:08:12, 8th-place showing in Paris even though he did not meet his dream goal of earning a medal.

But rather than take a big break, Mantz got back into things quickly after the Olympics with the NYC Marathon in mind. Entering that race, he felt like he was the best-prepared he had ever been for a marathon. And he feels he has only built on that in the ensuing three months.

“You can’t look too much at workouts, but if I do look at my workouts, I’m definitely faster than I was running right before the Olympics,” Mantz said. “And that’s exciting, especially because I feel like I’m holding back more than I was before.”

Given the quality of the field, a podium finish would still require a big effort on Sunday and perhaps one or two of the men with faster pbs to have an off day – which is certainly known to happen in NYC.

Mantz is coming off a big win at the Twin Cities 10-Miler on October 6, where he ran 45:13, the fastest time ever by an American. Mantz said he enjoyed the opportunity to run fast in that race, so naturally we asked him about Ryan Hall’s 59:43 American record in the half marathon, which dates back to 2007. Mantz certainly looks capable of breaking that mark right now, particularly with the super shoes helping out. The only question is whether the timing will line up for a legitimate attempt.

“I’d love to go for it in Houston [in January], but we’ll see how I bounce back from this,” Mantz said. “The times I’m in the shape to do it are always when I’m heading into a marathon. And I’d much rather go run a fast or good marathon than get the American record in the half.

“…It’s been on my mind since even before I went pro. But finding the right race and peaking for one is a little difficult to do, just because the marathon is the big race.

Clayton Young has no regrets about not going all-out to win the Olympic Trials and has been hitting a lot of singles in practice

We started our talk with Mantz’s training partner Clayton Young by asking him if he had any regrets for seemingly letting Mantz win the Olympic Trials. 

“I’m very careful to say I didn’t win the Trials, but you know I did feel great on that day and he didn’t feel too hot,’ said Young.

“You know I gave myself about 15 minutes to kind of really sit with you know maybe the consequences of what happened that day. After that, [I have] no regrets whatsoever. Yes there was prize money on the table and fame and glory and but honest, what I did that day I don’t regret in the slightest — it was a true manifestation of my character in the highest,” said Young, who is here in New York without his two daughters until tomorrow as they wanted to do Halloween in Utah.

“When I look back at that moment I really go back to the interview [where] I said I knew that I would be better in Paris training with Conner every step of the way and in Paris and we saw that happen, right? I definitely was pulled and inspired and motivated by Conner in all of my training up to Paris and and I was pulling with him for him every step of the way in Paris trying to close that gap and to go 8-9 and have two guys top 10 in the world, I was really happy about that.”

As for Sunday’s race, Young says he heads into New York the healthiest he’s been all year as he’s had no niggles or injury problems, which is a surprise as this is marathon #3 of the year. Normally something small comes up in every buildup.

“I’ve hit a lot of the basics (in this buildup). Like I’ve hit all my workouts pretty dead on normal, but nothing, no grand slams, no home runs. 

“And that can be a little bit discouraging sometimes in training. Like you can feel like you’re plateauing, you’re not quite as fit, but I also can say that I’m like the healthiest that I’ve been going into a marathon over the last two years…

“So I would say this, you know, it is a big blessing to train with Conner Mantz, but it is also difficult when he’s hitting grand slams in practice. 

“And I have to kind of walk away from every workout and evaluate, ‘Okay, how can I close that gap? How can I get faster?’ And, you know, is Conner’s performance in a workout an indication that he’s getting that much better or am I not as fit as I once was? 

“And so there was a balance there that I’m having to play every day in practice, but that’s just what I’ve chosen and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Talk about the race on our world-famous messageboard. *MB: Official 2024 New York City Marathon Discussion Thread

Remember we have two more pre-race press conference articles. One focuses on the women’s pros in NYC like Hellen Obiri and the retiring Jenny Simpson. In another, we asked women’s pros like Obiri,