In her marathon debut, Kylie Mantz, wife of U.S. Olympian Conner Mantz, won the Two Cities Marathon in Fresno, California, on November 2, clocking 2:43:49 on the flat, fast course that winds between Fresno and Clovis.
The race marked a homecoming for the BYU senior, who grew up in Clovis and returned to race on the same streets where she first started running.
Conner, fresh off his American marathon record in Chicago just three weeks earlier, served as Kylie’s pacer for the full 26.2 miles, helping her chase an Olympic Trials qualifying pace through the first half before she faded slightly but still held on to win by a wide margin.
“At one point I turned to Conner and said, ‘I think I’m done, it’s too hard,’” Kylie wrote in a Strava recap of the race. “He looked at me and said, ‘Stopping’s not an option. You can slow down, but you can’t stop.’”
That mantra carried her through a painful final stretch, where she admitted she ran on “fumes” after early fueling issues left her depleted. “I ended way slower than I wanted,” she said, “but finished as strong as I could, breaking the tape. My legs gave out the second I stopped moving.”
For someone who didn’t grow up competing in the sport, Mantz’s rise has been remarkably fast.
She ran briefly at Buchanan High School in Clovis before quitting, later describing that she “hated the pressure of competition” at the time. She didn’t return to running until after marrying Conner in 2022, when she began training more consistently to understand what his professional life was like.
What started as curiosity quickly turned into talent, and within a year she joined the BYU women’s track and cross-country team as a walk-on, running 34:57 for 10,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational in April.
The Olympic Trials marathon qualifying standard currently stands at 2:37:00, but as Kylie noted, this debut was more about learning than executing a perfect race.
She and Conner approached it as a test to see how long she could hold OTQ pace, around 5:58 per mile. She made it about 18 miles before fading, an effort that still resulted in victory and valuable experience.
“I walked away hitting some of my goals, but far from all of them,” she wrote. “I left Fresno humbled and grateful… but hungry for improvement.”
Mantz’s decision to run the relatively low-profile Two Cities Marathon instead of a major debut was deliberate. The race offered a chance to compete in familiar surroundings, and to focus on execution without the chaos of a major city marathon.
“It was so nice to sleep at my parents’ home and know the course,” she said. “Everything was familiar. I felt safe.”
While the win itself may not draw major headlines, it signals the beginning of something promising. Mantz is still learning how to race the marathon, but she’s already shown the kind of raw potential that could carry her well under 2:40 with more experience.
Her story is also part of a larger one playing out in American distance running: two athletes at different stages of their careers, finding ways to support each other while chasing their own goals.
For Kylie, the debut in Fresno was just the starting line. “I think if I can figure out fueling, the OTQ is pretty obtainable,” she said. “It’s a work in progress, and I’m happy with that.”
