Vinny Mauri Signs With ASICS Before the Chicago Marathon

Vinny Mauri was working at a Second Sole running store in northeast Ohio and writing his own training plans, with no sponsor, when he won the Glass City Marathon in Toledo on April 26 in 2:05:54, the fastest marathon debut by an American. We’ve followed his road from Toledo to Chicago since, and on Thursday he announced on Instagram that he has signed with ASICS and turned professional.

Mauri wrote that he was “incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue chasing my goals in this sport,” and thanked “everyone who has supported me and helped me get to this point, and to ASICS for believing in me.” He did not say how long the contract runs, or whether he will keep coaching himself and working at the store now that running is his job. Before Glass City he was putting in about 110 miles a week, and his hardest day was a Tuesday split into a morning and an evening session that together added up to 100 minutes at threshold, CITIUS Mag reported.

He Was Already Racing in ASICS

ASICS is signing a runner who already races in its shoes: the Metaspeed Edge on his feet in Toledo was one of theirs, according to Outside, and a month after the race he told the magazine he would be “very fortunate to have a little more support and resources,” while “trying to keep a pretty level mindset and keep what worked.”

The deal lands six months after ASICS lost its Olympic marathoner. Clayton Young, who had run for the brand for seven years and finished ninth at the Paris Olympics, signed with Brooks in March and ran 2:05:41 at Boston a month later. The biggest name in the ASICS marathon group is still Kenya’s John Korir, who won his second straight Boston title in April in 2:01:52 wearing a Metaspeed Sky prototype.

Chicago Will Be Only His Second Marathon

Mauri’s first race as an ASICS athlete is the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 11. He will be one of the least experienced marathoners on the start list, in a field led by defending champion Jacob Kiplimo, who ran his 2:00:28 best for third in London in April, and Amos Kipruto, fourth in that same race in 2:01:39.

Among the Americans entered, his 2:05:54 ranks third, behind Charles Hicks (2:04:35) and Young (2:05:41). Both of those marks came at Boston, where times do not count toward records, so Mauri’s run in Toledo still stands as the fourth-fastest by an American on a record-eligible course. That puts the American runner ASICS lost and the one it has just signed on the same start line, and Young has said his target is the American record, the 2:04:43 Conner Mantz ran in Chicago in 2025.

Chris Neal, who coached him at Notre Dame, told LetsRun after Glass City that Mauri’s body “really can’t handle running in circles,” and called him “just a pure roads guy.” Chicago, his first road race as a professional, comes just 17 days after he announced the contract.