Conner Mantz Breaks Through with 2:05:08 PB to Finish 4th at 2025 Boston Marathon
Among Americans, only Ryan Hall (2:04:58) has run a faster marathon than Mantz did in Boston on Monday
By Jonathan Gault
BOSTON — On Monday morning, as Conner Mantz and Clayton Young were lying down in the Boston Marathon start area in Hopkinton, they were greeted by a voice wishing them good luck and letting them know that the race-day forecast — partly cloudy, temperatures in the high-40s rising to the low-50s — offered a good opportunity to run fast. The voice belonged to Ryan Hall, who knows a thing or two about the subject. His time of 2:04:58 in Boston in 2011 remains the fastest marathon ever run by an American.
“A 2:04:58 day?” Young asked Hall.
Hall and Mantz are kindred spirits, willing to ride the fine line between intensity and injury during training sessions, unafraid to hurt for a long time in races. Mantz, 28, wants to be what Hall, 42, was a generation ago, the rare American to mix it up at the front of the world’s best marathons.
They are also fierce competitors. Hall has already seen Mantz break one of his records this year when Mantz ran 59:17 in Houston in January to erase Hall’s 59:43 American half marathon mark from the books. So he couldn’t help himself from throwing in a light barb when responding to Young’s question.
“Well you have the shoes,” Hall said, referring to the bouncy carbon-plated super shoes that have taken over professional running over the past decade. “It’s not a 2:04:58 day with my shoes. But with your shoes, it is.”
It almost was. In the best marathon of his career to date, Mantz ran a huge personal best of 2:05:08 to finish 4th in Boston on Monday, a massive improvement on his previous best of 2:07:47 (2023 Chicago) and the highest finish by an American man in Boston since Shadrack Biwott was 2nd in the rain-soaked 2018 edition.
Kevin Morris photo
Mantz came very close to a couple of major milestones. He was just four seconds off his first podium finish in a major marathon, battling tooth and nail with Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu (2nd, 2:05:04) and Kenya’s Cybrian Kotut (3rd, 2:05:04) only to lose out in a sprint over the final 100m down Boylston Street.
“Little bit bittersweet that you lose four seconds in the last 340 meters or so, but what can you do?” Mantz said.
Mantz’s 2:05:08 also makes him the second-fastest American marathoner in history, just 10 seconds behind Hall — though Boston’s roughly 450-foot elevation loss, which makes the course ineligible for records, means the official American record still belongs to Khalid Khannouchi at 2:05:38.
And while it’s true that the pair of developmental Nike Alphaflys Mantz wore on Monday represent a significant upgrade on the Asics Hall sported in 2011, Hall also benefited from a once-in-a-generation tailwind while Mantz had to battle a small but not insignificant headwind that grew to around 5 miles per hour at the finish.
All things considered, Hall’s 2011 race had a lot in common with Mantz’s effort today. Both men pushed the pace in the early miles, both wound up 4th overall, and, most importantly for Mantz, both were very competitive against a top field in one of the fastest Boston Marathons ever run. In the race’s 129-year history, Mantz’s time of 2:05:08 would have been enough to win every Boston Marathon save two: 2011, when Geoffrey Mutai set the course record of 2:03:02, and today, when Kenya’s John Korir took it in 2:04:45.
For Mantz, this was the breakthrough marathon he had been waiting for.
“I felt like New York’s build (last fall, where Mantz finished 6th), I was so ready,” Mantz said. “And I missed the move and I kind of got complacent for some of the miles. This time, I wasn’t complacent at all.
“…I wasn’t going to win today, just based on how my fitness was. But I put the race together that I was trying to run. Between that and how my training has looked, it was very confidence-boosting.”
“Coasting” to a super fast opening split
Mantz’s coach Ed Eyestone always gives his marathoners a mantra to follow during each race, and on Monday for Mantz and Young (who wound wind up 7th in 2:07:04, a personal best and his highest finish in a major), it was “C4”: coast, cover any moves, cruise, and cover (again) to the finish.
The start in Boston is significantly downhill, dropping almost 300 feet over the first four miles, and Eyestone advised Mantz to “put it in neutral”: it was okay if Mantz ran a little faster than usual, but don’t hit the gas.
Then Mantz led the field through 5k in 14:20 (2:00:57 marathon pace) — even faster than Sisay Lemma‘s 14:21 from last year, when he ran his first half in 60:19.
“As I saw him run the first few miles, I was going, you’re pedaling and not totally coasting here, so I was a little concerned,” Eyestone said.
Mantz, however, was feeling good, and still among the leaders as he hit halfway in 61:53 — though he did not expect to have so much company. Sixteen men passed halfway in 61:54 or faster. Even with a significant downhill, that is aggressive running for a course on which only two men have ever broken 2:04.
“I wasn’t surprised at how fast it went out,” Mantz said. “I was surprised how many people were in that pack…I was just trying to tell myself, don’t worry, follow your plan. If you’re hurting and people are making moves, they’re probably hurting too. I wasn’t concerned about us going out that fast, because I knew how I was feeling.”
Prior to the race, Mantz had studied the last 10 editions of Boston and noticed a trend: usually, the winner split around 63:30 for second half of the race, which includes the Newton Hills and a long downhill stretch down Beacon Street in Brookline. Mantz would do better than that, going 61:53/63:15, but it was not enough on a day where Korir ran his second half in 62:51.
“I thought, it doesn’t matter what we go through in halfway, unless it’s sub-61:00,” Mantz said. “That second half needs to be 63:30. I did that, but it didn’t get me on the podium, or the top of the podium, like I thought it would.”
Mantz, like the rest of the field, was dropped by Korir’s big move heading into Heartbreak Hill, where he his 20th mile in 4:40, his 21st (including Heartbreak) in 4:41, and his 22nd in a wicked 4:24. Mantz said he wanted to go with the move, but was not in great position to respond, having been shuffled across in the pack. By the time he noticed Korir going, he had already built a gap that would have been tough to close.
“I looked back trying to make sure Clayton’s in the pack, he’s starting to get dropped, and I looked up and Korir has made his move,” Mantz said, who admitted he was not fit enough to hang with Korir today. “…I’d like to think I could have gone with it and hung on to hold second, but I don’t know. It’s woulda, coulda, shoulda. You could do that all day.”
Staying aggressive late
Unlike five months ago in New York, Mantz stayed aggressive once the gap formed. Coming off Heartbreak Hill at 21 miles, Mantz was part of a four-man pack fighting it out for the remaining podium spots alongside Simbu, Kotut, and two-time world 5,000m champion Muktar Edris, making his marathon debut. Mantz could sense Edris struggling and as they passed 22, 23, 24 miles, he kept throwing in surges, trying to drop him and hurt the others. Every time he backed off, seeking respite from the headwind, he could sense the pace slowing.
“I was like, these guys are struggling, but they’re not struggling enough that I’m dropping them,” Mantz said. “It was a little frustrating, but that’s racing.”
Mantz also had a secondary motive. After catching sight of the clock around 22 miles, he did the math and realized he was on pace to surpass Hall and run the fastest marathon ever by an American.
“I can’t control how fast the other guys are running, but that’s a goal I can control, if I can keep running 4:40s for my last few miles, I can get this,” Mantz said.
He came very close. Mantz succeeded in dropping Edris and was still on pace to break Hall’s mark at 40K (he split 1:58:23, or 2:04:52 pace), and needed a 4:42 final mile to best Hall’s mark. He ran 4:53, Simbu and Kotut slipping away in the final meters.
Already in 2025, Mantz has set an American record in the half, run even faster on a non-record-eligible course (59:15 in New York on March 16), and now run 2:05:08 on Boston. The next logical goal is a crack at Khannouchi’s 2:05:38 AR, which has stood since 2002. Mantz believes it is possible, though he noted he must stay healthy and the weather must cooperate.
“Take this weather and put it on a flat course, I think I still get it,” Mantz said. “But there are so many circumstances that can vary…It’s doable, but I don’t want to say it’s going to be easy by any means.”
Mantz has another, shorter-term goal: he’d like to race the 3k/5k at a Grand Slam Track meet. Doubling back for the next meet in Miramar, Fla., 11 days from now might be a stretch, but the final meet in Los Angeles from June 27-29 could be a possibility (are you listening, Kyle Merber?).
But before we start mapping out schedules and record attempts, it’s worth appreciating what Mantz accomplished today. He came just four seconds out from finishing second in the Boston Marathon on a day where the winner may just be the best marathoner on Earth right now. Eyestone came into the race knowing a podium finish was “very much possible” but acknowledged that today’s result was still “a big step.” If Mantz was not able to contend for the podium today, after his best buildup ever and two strong half marathons this winter, it would have been fair to wonder if he would ever be good enough to do it. Now we know he can. And at 28, he should have plenty more chances.
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Videos of our interviews with Mantz and Eyestone appear below.
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