Clayton Young Will Chase the American Record His Training Partner Set in Chicago

Clayton Young is going after the American marathon record at Chicago on Oct. 11, chasing the 2:04:43 his training partner Conner Mantz set on the same course last October. The announcement came on Wednesday’s episode of the Nobody Asked Us podcast, hosted by Des Linden and Kara Goucher.

Young ran 2:05:41 at Boston in April, but Boston’s point-to-point course is not eligible for records, and World Athletics marks that time on his profile as not legal. His fastest marathon on a course where an American record can be set is the 2:08:00 he ran in Chicago in 2023, which leaves 3:17 between him and Mantz.

An ankle injury kept Young from running for 18 weeks last winter. He cross-trained for four and a half months, started running again in mid-February, and packed one month at 130 miles per week into an eight-week build before Boston. He finished 11th and told the Deseret News he was “really happy to be a 2:05 guy.” He added: “I was not sure I was going to start the race. I was injured and it wasn’t until the last three to four weeks that I decided I could compete.”

Young Is Not the Fastest Seeded American in the Field

Charles Hicks, seventh at Boston in 2:04:35, is also entered at Chicago, with a time 8 seconds quicker than the record Young is chasing and one that does not count for the same reason Young’s does not. In a LetsRun interview in July, Hicks said he and his coach are working toward the 2:06:00 World Championships standard, and that “thinking about 2:06:00 is the surest way to run 2:06:01.” Galen Rupp is in the field with the 2:06:07 he ran in Prague in 2018, and Jacob Kiplimo returns to defend his title off a 2:00:28 personal best.

Young signed with Brooks ahead of this season, after seven years with Asics. The brand ran a record project of its own in July, backing Josh Kerr’s Project 222 at the London Diamond League, where Kerr ran 3:42.66 to take down a mile world record that had stood since 1999.

Mantz Ran 2:04:43 on the Same Course Last October

Chicago organizers announced Mantz’s record attempt on June 5, 2025, four months before the race, and he said then that it did not “feel like a stretch to say I can run 2:05:30 on a looped, flat course.” He ran 47 seconds faster than that.

He went through the first mile in 4:30 and the first 5K in 14:23, which is 2:01:22 pace and quicker than his own plan, then reached halfway in 62:19, 19 seconds behind the 62:00 he had targeted. His next three 5K segments went 14:57, 14:44 and 14:56. He finished fourth in 2:04:43, 55 seconds inside Khalid Khannouchi’s 2:05:38, which had stood since the 2002 London Marathon, where it was a world record.

He had help for the hardest part of it. Mantz was gapped around mile 19 by Geoffrey Kamworor and Alex Masai, worked with Masai to bring Kamworor back, and was then out-kicked by Masai for third in 2:04:37. Masai is entered at Chicago again this year. “I think I still would have gotten the record without him, but I don’t think I would have run as fast,” Mantz told LetsRun.

Mantz will not be in this year’s race. He is entered in New York on Nov. 1 and told CITIUS Mag that after “the last 10 months of on-and-off injuries, the goal right now is really just, let’s get to the start line 100 percent healthy.” He and Young both train under Ed Eyestone at BYU.