Vinny Mauri Was on American Record Pace for 30K at the Chicago Marathon

Vinny Mauri went after the American marathon record in Chicago on Sunday, and for 30 kilometers he was ahead of it. Running only the second marathon of his life, the 25-year-old from Warren, Ohio, reached 30K in 1:28:15, on pace for a 2:04:07 finish and well inside the 2:04:43 that Conner Mantz ran on the same course last October. He slowed over the last 12K, pulling up to stretch along the way, and finished 10th in 2:06:45, the third American home behind Clayton Young and Charles Hicks.

We have followed Mauri since his 2:05:54 win at Glass City in April, the fastest first marathon ever run by an American, through a build done largely on a Planet Fitness treadmill and the ASICS contract he signed 17 days before the race. In Toledo he won by more than 15 minutes with nobody near him. Chicago was the first time he had raced the distance with a field around him, and he went out faster than any other American in it.

Mauri settled into seventh place, behind a lead group of six that passed halfway in 1:00:21 on its way to Amos Kipruto’s 2:01:09 win, and he held that spot all the way to 30K. His first four 5Ks were 14:53, 14:46, 14:45 and 14:39, which took him through halfway in 1:02:15, just four seconds quicker than Mantz on his record run, with Young and Hicks running together 17 seconds behind. He then ran the fastest 5K of his day, 14:28 from 20K to 25K, and by 30K the gap back to the other two Americans had grown to 40 seconds.

The 5K from 30K to 35K took him 15:27, and NBC Chicago filmed him stopping at the side of the course to stretch out what looked like cramp. Young had closed to eight seconds by 35K and was only a second behind at mile 22, and he was past before mile 23. Hicks and Japan’s Akira Akasaki also went by over the closing miles, and Mauri’s 16:08 from 35K to 40K was his slowest 5K of the morning. He covered the second half in 1:04:30, two minutes and 15 seconds slower than the first, and crossed the line 82 seconds behind Young.

Before the race he had told LetsRun that if a group went out at record pace, he would be in it. “I feel like I’d be stupid not to,” he said. That group never came together, with Young and Hicks running as a pair behind him, so at 30K Mauri was the only American on record pace. His 2:06:45 came 51 seconds slower than his debut, against a field with seven men under 2:04, and it means both of his marathons, run just 168 days apart, have come in under 2:07.

Young, racing on a torn hamstring tendon, finished 40 seconds outside Mantz’s record in 2:05:23. Mauri already has his qualifier for the 2028 Olympic Marathon Trials in St. Louis from Toledo, and the 2027 U.S. Marathon Championships will be run on this same course on Oct. 10, 2027.