BYU legend Conner Mantz returns to Boston to chase down old demons 

Conner Mantz, America’s best marathoner, will face his old demons when he competes in the legendary and famously arduous Boston Marathon on Monday. Two years ago his body failed him in the final mile of this race and he nearly blacked out, which was the price he paid for attacking the first 15 miles too aggressively.

“I’ve been haunted ever since by that race,” says Mantz. “It’s something I’ve had to deal with in every marathon since then. I’ve really worried about blowing up again.”

Six months later he ran the Chicago Marathon, and, despite feeling good in the latter stages of the race, he eased off the gas. “I got anxious that I might blow up,” he says.

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He had the same experience in the 2024 Olympic marathon trials and the 2024 Olympic Games and again in the 2024 New York Marathon. He was the top American finisher in each of those races and all were superb performances — sixth in Chicago (2:07:47), first in the Olympic trials (2:09:05), eighth in the Olympics (2:08:12) and sixth in New York (2:09:00) — but he wonders what he might have done if he hadn’t had Boston in his head?

“It will work as a cautionary tale for this one (in Boston),” he says. “I’m a lot more fit and more experienced. I don’t want to run another marathon where I’m worried about what if.”

‘Smart but not too cautious’

In his latest marathon — New York, in November — he backed off the pace but, realizing he wasn’t going to “blow up,” blazed the last two miles. “I missed out on my goal of finishing in the top three,” he says. “I was pretty bummed about that. I wish I had kept pushing. I made up 50 seconds on fifth place in the last 1.2 miles. I finished well at the Olympics too. I was determined not to make that mistake in New York and did. I’m trying to be smart but not too cautious. I don’t want to try to win it in the first 18, 21 miles.”

Mantz has run only six marathons since leaving BYU at the end of 2021, and the 2023 Boston race was the second one. Experience is extremely important in the marathon but, at the same time, the body can only handle them in limited doses, which necessitates a sharp learning curve. Marathon fitness also takes years to build, unlike sprint fitness.

Now 28, Mantz has been remarkably consistent and competitive in a race that is notorious for the many variables and pitfalls it presents.

In Boston, he will face a course that is difficult even by marathon standards. Ed Eyestone, the former two-time Olympic marathoner who coaches Mantz, says, “I would’ve said that Boston was the most difficult until Paris (last summer’s Olympic course). But other than the Olympics, Boston is the toughest.”

Let Eyestone explain: “For one thing, there is no rabbit — there’s no pacing. So you have to make decisions on the fly (about when to attack, when to ease off, whether to go with a breakaway, etc.). And the course is technical.

“The first six miles are downhill, most of it dramatically downhill, and you don’t want people to get away from you. It works on your quads. Then there’s a changeup and you run up the hills. There are a series of four hills from 16-21, then there are still five miles of a slight downhill.”

In January, Mantz and his training partner — fellow Olympian Clayton Young — flew to Boston to train on the course over a three-day period. Mantz did the same thing before the 2023 race.

Mantz, a Utah product who graduated from Smithfield’s Sky View High, has not lost to an American in the marathon in the two years since Boston, and he has challenged the best in the world. Many foresaw such success when he won consecutive NCAA cross-country championships in 2020 and 2021, becoming the first American to win that race since two-time Olympic medalist Galen Rupp did it in 2008.

Mantz made the second-fastest marathon debut ever by an American in the 2022 Chicago race. Two years later he became the fifth-fastest American ever — third fastest if you don’t count two African-born runners who became American citizens in their 20s and 30s.

‘He’s a grinder’

Mantz’s strength — aggression, fearlessness and a remarkable pain threshold, among other things — can also be his weakness.

As Eyestone says, “He’s a grinder. He knows only one way to run — just go out and pound it.” Eyestone has had to preach patience and restraint to a man who likes to charge out of the gate fast and hard, as if he wants to decide the outcome in the first few miles.

“He takes (rivals) into the Mantz Zone, or the Mantz Pain Chamber. He can handle running a race up front at a high intensity. He has a high tolerance for pain.”

—  BYU track coach Ed Eyestone

Eyestone once told the Deseret News, “He takes (rivals) into the Mantz Zone, or the Mantz Pain Chamber. He can handle running a race up front at a high intensity. He has a high tolerance for pain.”

In a 2021 Deseret News interview, Mantz offered an articulate and self-aware explanation of his approach to racing, saying, “I’m willing to push through the pain because of my competitive drive — that desire to hit the mark (time) and win and go through the pain rather than be more comfortable and ease it through.

“People underestimate how much pain the body can tolerate. I remember somebody telling me once — and I’ve remembered this a lot — that you get to the point where no matter how much pain you are in that moment you know it’s temporary and the chances of dying from it is none. It doesn’t matter if I’m in pain for that moment. It’s the competition. I’m more concerned about beating the guy ahead of me.”

He also added, “It’s nice to keep it fast, and not to sit back and wait. It’s the spirit of the sport. If I believe in myself, why am I giving everybody a chance (by running slower). Too many like to sit back and keep it comfortable.”

A fine line

There’s a fine line between aggressiveness and prudence, as Mantz recognizes. It’s difficult to know where that line is on a given race day.

In the 2023 Boston race, which presented windy, rainy, cold conditions, Mantz was running with the lead pack of 11 at the halfway point. He was still with the leaders at a little more than 15 miles, clipping off 4:52 miles.

“We went out pretty quick,” says Mantz. “At 15, I thought I could win. We had one of our slower miles — the first one over five minutes. I was feeling pretty good. Then Evans Chebet (the eventual winner) took off. He took off so fast I thought he was running for the port-a-potty. It all happened so fast.”

“In the last two miles, I saw stars. I looked at my watch and things started to go black. I had tunnel vision. If I slowed down, my vision would kind of come back. There were a few moments where I started to black out. I pretty much walked at one point. I thought, if I don’t finish, I don’t get anything.”

—  Conner Mantz of his 2023 Boston Marathon

In a flash, he went from thinking he might win to wondering if he could finish. He began to slip — six seconds back at 25K, 25 seconds back at 30K, 46 back at 20 miles and 2 minutes back at 23 miles, and so it went. He was still running between eighth and ninth place during that stretch, but then he unraveled. He covered the mile in 5:28 to reach the 40K (24.8 miles) mark, but the next mile was 6:11. He would finish 11th in 2:10:25.

“In the last two miles, I saw stars,” he recalls. “I looked at my watch and things started to go black. I had tunnel vision. If I slowed down, my vision would kind of come back. There were a few moments where I started to black out. I pretty much walked at one point. I thought, if I don’t finish, I don’t get anything.”

Mantz has been on top of his game since then, and now he is returning to the scene of the “crime.”

“He’s going to Boston because it’s the most relevant marathon out there,” says Eyestone. “The timing is good. He needs a spring marathon. He’s had a great build. He’s had a couple of really nice half-marathons. And Boston made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The American majors are wanting to have the top Americans, and right now he’s the top American.”

His training build to this marathon (which consists of 16 weeks) has been superb. In January, Mantz finished second in the Houston Half Marathon in a photo finish with Ethiopia’s Addisu Gobena. They were given the same time of 59:17, which meant that Mantz had broken the 18-year-old American record held by Ryan Hall by 26 seconds.

Two months later, Mantz ran even faster to finish second again (six seconds behind Kenya’s Abel Kipchumba) in the New York Half Marathon with a time of 59:15, which won’t count as an American record because it came on a point-to-point course (as opposed to a loop course).

“Getting the American record at Houston and running faster in Houston were pretty motivating,” says Mantz. “The New York course gave me confidence for Boston. It’s a hilly course and it’s busy, with a lot going on around you.”

Mantz’s workouts have also indicated a high level of fitness. Last month, he and Young completed a workout that consisted of running 4 x 3 miles at faster than race pace with a mere 3 ½-minute rest between reps. Mantz covered each mile in about 4:40 or faster, with Young finishing less than 10 seconds behind him.

He seems to be ready physically; now he has to overcome his own doubts.

“Coach Eyestone is very encouraging,” Mantz says. “I can get pretty down about what I didn’t do right. But he always says, well, let’s look at the positives after a race. Let’s celebrate what you did right.”

During the last two years — which have included four strong marathon showings, three national championships on the road and consecutive wins in the big BolderBoulder 10K — there has been much to celebrate. Next up: Boston.