2026 Chicago Marathon Elite Field: Vinny Mauri

Six months ago Vinny Mauri was a former college runner selling shoes in northeast Ohio. Then he won the Glass City Marathon in Toledo in 2:05:54, the fastest debut ever run by an American, and posted nearly every mile of his build for Chicago on Strava for anyone to follow. On Oct. 11 he lines up for his second marathon, now as an ASICS athlete, against a field with seven men under 2:04 and an American record that sits just 71 seconds under his best.

Vinny Mauri at a Glance

• Age: 25
• Hometown: Warren, Ohio
• Sponsor: ASICS (signed September 2026)
• Coach: Self-coached
• Marathon personal best: 2:05:54, Glass City Marathon, Toledo, April 26, 2026
• Track personal bests: 3:59.05 mile, 7:50.33 3,000m, 13:34.03 5,000m
• Marathons run: One
• Marathon wins: Glass City Marathon (2026)
• Records: Fastest marathon debut by an American; Glass City Marathon course record
• College: Arizona State (2019 to 2023), Notre Dame (2023 to 2025)
• College highlights: 18th in the 5,000m at the 2022 NCAA outdoor championships; All-ACC in cross-country at Notre Dame
• High school: 2019 Ohio state champion at 3,200m, Howland High School
• Olympic Trials: Qualified for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials

From Warren to Arizona State and Notre Dame

Mauri grew up in Warren and won the Ohio state 3,200m title as a Howland High School senior in 2019, running 9:07.47 in a season in which nobody beat him at the distance, the Vindicator reported. He spent the next four years at Arizona State, where his twin brother, Angelo, was also a student, and finished with a degree in biomedical engineering and an 18th-place finish in the 2022 NCAA 5,000m final.

Two graduate seasons at Notre Dame followed. Under coach Chris Neal he broke four minutes in the mile with 3:59.05, ran 13:34.03 for 5,000m and earned All-ACC honors in cross-country, and he left the program with top-10 times in school history at the mile, 3,000m and 5,000m. He did all of that around two femoral neck stress fractures, one after each of his indoor seasons, Neal told LetsRun, and he also missed about four weeks of workouts after being kicked in the head in a fall at a 2023 cross-country meet. “We kind of always knew if he could ever stay healthy, he’d be real dangerous,” Neal said.

A Record Debut in Toledo

After Notre Dame, Mauri moved back home, took a part-time job at the Second Sole store in Youngstown and started writing his own training. He gave himself a year to see whether running could work, Neal recalled, and he built toward Toledo on about 110 miles a week, with a Tuesday double-threshold day as the centerpiece, without ever having raced so much as a half-marathon.

At Glass City on April 26 he ran alone from early on, in cloudy weather in the low 50s, and won by more than 15 minutes over Kevin Kirk (2:21:16). His time took more than 13 minutes off the course record and about two minutes off Leonard Korir’s 2:07:56, the previous fastest debut by an American, and it qualified him for the 2028 Olympic Trials with a little over 10 minutes to spare. “I told a couple coworkers that if I don’t go under 2:16:00, then I’m not a marathoner, but I think I went 2:06:00 today, so I think we’re a marathoner,” he said afterward, in our race report.

He went back to his shifts at the store and spent the summer unsponsored. In June he ran 26.39 miles on a Planet Fitness treadmill at 5:18 per mile, and in late September, 17 days before Chicago, he announced that he had signed with ASICS, the brand whose Metaspeed Edge he wore in Toledo.

What to Expect From Vinny Mauri in Chicago

LetsRun’s Jonathan Gault added up the 10 most recent weeks of Mauri’s Strava data for a profile published Oct. 2 and counted 1,223 miles, at an average of 5:38 per mile. When he was building for Toledo, Mauri was doing 97 miles a week at 5:54. On Sept. 8 he ran 45 miles in a day, 36 of them at 4:56 pace, and most of that work happened on gym treadmills. “I just know I’m a lot more fit than I was in Toledo,” he told the site.

His debut was a solo run on a quiet course, so Chicago will be the first marathon in which he has other men around him, in a field led by defending champion Jacob Kiplimo (2:00:28) and Amos Kipruto (2:01:39). Among the Americans entered, only Charles Hicks (2:04:35) and Clayton Young (2:05:41) have better times, and both came at Boston, a course that does not count for records.

Conner Mantz’s American record of 2:04:43, set on this course last October, works out to 4:45 per mile, close to three seconds a mile faster than Mauri averaged in Toledo with nobody to share the work. Young has said he is going after it, and if a group goes out at that pace, Mauri intends to be in it. “I feel like I’d be stupid not to,” he told LetsRun.

The professional men start in Grant Park at 7:30 a.m. CT on Oct. 11, 168 days after Glass City. You can follow the race with our complete Chicago Marathon guide.