Ethan Shuley is 27. He lives in Tokyo. He went to film school. He has no sponsor, no agent, and — until LetsRun.com broke the story on Sunday — no real profile in American distance running.
On Sunday at the Osaka Marathon, he ran 2:07:14 and finished 14th in one of the deepest fields of the year.
He is now the sixth-fastest American marathoner ever on a record-eligible course. Ahead of him on that list? Galen Rupp. Ryan Hall. Khalid Khannouchi. People with, you know, sponsorships.
The Company He Just Joined
Let’s sit with this for a second. America’s all-time marathon list now looks like this:
| Rank | Time | Athlete | Race | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2:04:43 | Conner Mantz | Chicago | Oct 2025 |
| 2 | 2:05:38 | Khalid Khannouchi | London | Apr 2002 |
| 3 | 2:06:07 | Galen Rupp | Prague | May 2018 |
| 4 | 2:06:17 | Ryan Hall | London | Apr 2008 |
| 5 | 2:06:53 | Abbabiya Simbassa | Valencia | Dec 2024 |
| 6 | 2:07:14 | Ethan Shuley | Osaka | Feb 2026 |
That’s a list that includes a world record holder, an Olympian, and one of the most iconic performances in American marathon history. Shuley now sits among them. Without a team kit.
A Running Career That Barely Existed
Here’s the thing about Shuley’s background: it doesn’t scream future elite marathoner.
He was a good high school runner in Kentucky — two state cross country titles, a 4:13 mile and 9:07 two-mile. Promising, sure. But after high school, he went on a Mormon mission to eastern Ukraine. When he came back and enrolled at BYU, injuries wrecked nearly everything. He raced exactly once as a Cougar: an 8:45 3000m in 2020. Then COVID hit, and he was done. As in, done done. Six miles three times a week, lift a little, call it good.
No coach. No goals. No career trajectory to speak of.
After graduating, he moved to Japan for a job in 2023. His early YouTube videos tell you everything you need to know about his headspace at the time — Tokyo life, navigating dating apps, adjusting to a new country. Running shows up occasionally in the background, the way it does for someone who just likes to jog.
His first genuinely running-focused video didn’t appear until October 2025. Less than five months before he became the sixth-fastest American marathoner of all time.
The Trail Phase (Yes, Really)
His first real goal back in competitive running wasn’t a fast marathon. It was a 100-mile trail race. He figured the lower intensity might keep his injury-prone body in one piece long enough to actually train. He entered a 100-miler with roughly 20,000 feet of elevation gain.
He dropped out at mile 60.
He kept training for another trail race anyway. And somewhere in those months of just building mileage — no workouts, no structure — he noticed he was getting faster. So he added workouts. In April 2024, he broke 15:00 for 5K for the first time in his life.
Road racing suddenly made more sense than trails. He set his sights on the marathon. But even then, as LetsRun.com reported, he wasn’t exactly overflowing with confidence heading into his debut. Before the 2024 Nara Marathon, a hilly course, he was blunt on the Life in Stride podcast:
“If this does not go well, I don’t think I’m going to give running a serious shot anymore.”
Nara went well. He ran 2:20.
Eighteen Months of Relentless Progress
From that 2:20 debut, Shuley’s trajectory has been almost comically steep. LetsRun.com tracked the full progression:
- April 2025 — 2:18:13 at the Nagano Marathon
- October 2025 — 63:06 half marathon
- December 2025 — 2:11:30 at the Kobe Marathon (notable: he didn’t even start near the front)
- January 2026 — 1:01:02 at the Osaka Half Marathon, nearly winning the whole thing
- February 22, 2026 — 2:07:14 in Osaka, 6th-fastest American all-time
That’s a drop of more than thirteen minutes in under eighteen months. To give that some scale: going from 2:20 to 2:07 is the kind of improvement most runners would consider the project of an entire career. Shuley did it while living abroad, attending film school, and training without a team.
He’s now coached remotely by Isaac Wood, head coach at the University of the Pacific. As for the training itself, Shuley described his Osaka build on YouTube with characteristic no-frills clarity: “For the past two months, I’ve stacked weeks over 115 miles, averaged three tough sessions weekly, and dialed in my diet.”
115 miles a week. Three quality sessions. Clean eating. Turns out that works.
USA’s Ethan Shuley 2:07:13 unoff at Osaka Marathon pic.twitter.com/FBj3Tnmka6
— Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) February 22, 2026
What Actually Happened on Sunday
The Osaka Marathon was no soft field. Ibrahim Hassan of Djibouti won in 2:05:20 — a national record and course record — in a race where every single finisher in the top thirteen broke 2:08. It was a genuinely fast day.
Shuley crossed in 14th, just two seconds behind Japan’s Taisei Kato. He was the only American in the top 30.
One footnote worth knowing: Zouhair Talbi ran 2:05:45 as an American citizen this past January, which would technically sit higher on the all-time list. But Talbi competed for Morocco at the 2024 Paris Olympics and isn’t yet eligible to represent the U.S., so his time doesn’t count toward American rankings. Shuley’s 2:07:14 stands as the real sixth-best.
What Happens Now
A week ago, Shuley was unsponsored and training largely solo in Tokyo, telling people he “hopefully” wanted to go pro someday. That word — hopefully — is doing a lot of work in a sentence that now seems almost quaint.
At 27, with a 2:07 and a trajectory that shows no signs of flattening, he’s a legitimate candidate for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. The LA Olympics aren’t an unreasonable thing to say out loud anymore.
For anyone reading this who has ever taken a few years off, battled injuries, moved abroad, tried something weird like trail ultras before pivoting back to the roads — Shuley’s story is worth paying attention to. Not because it’s a fairytale, but because the mechanics are real: consistent mileage, quality sessions, good nutrition, a coach who believed in him, and enough stubborn patience to see it through.
The sixth-fastest American marathon ever. No sponsor. Film school in Tokyo. What a sport.
