Conner Mantz Takes Down 18-Year-Old American Half Marathon Record

Posted by Admin January 19, 2025 World

In a thrilling, nail-biting finish, Olympic marathoner Conner Mantz shattered the long-standing American record in the half marathon, running 59:17 Sunday morning in Houston.

The time betters Ryan Hall’s mark of 59:43, set in this race in 2007, and nearly earned Mantz, 28, the victory. Mantz and winner Addisu Gobena of Ethiopia crossed the line side by side, with Gobena eventually declared the winner.

Freezing temperatures and 30-mile-per-hour wind gusts didn’t deter Mantz, who lined up Houston, in part, with the record in mind—knowing that with competitors like 2020 Olympian in the 10,000 meters Joe Klecker and Clayton Young, his training partner and fellow Olympic marathoner, it might not survive. Klecker, in particular, had been vocal about targeting the mark in his debut at the distance.

But this morning, Mantz was the lone American in the mix from the start. Pacer Amon Kemboi took the race off at a brisk pace, and Mantz stayed with him from the beginning, covering the first 5K in 14:01.

A lead pack of five—Kemboi, Mantz, Gobena, defending champion Jemal Yimer of Ethiopia, and Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay—hit the 10K mark in 28:01, with a nearly 30-second lead on the next pack of competitors.

Kevin Morris

After the 15K mark, Kemboi dropped out and the racers headed north into the wind; the pace slowed slightly, but the four stayed together. In the final meters, Gobena and Mantz surged ahead, finishing 1 second ahead of Geay, who took third in 59:18. Yimer was fourth in 59:20.

On the ABC13 broadcast, Mantz said he was grateful to Gobena for taking the brunt of the wind for much of the race, noting that the last 5K began to feel like “damage control.” Though he lost the lead in the end, Mantz said earning the record was particularly emotional given his history with the event. “The half marathon is how I got into running,” he said, noting that his dad encouraged him to finish a half at age 12; his previous personal best was 1:00:55, which he ran in 2021.

Mantz—a two-time NCAA Cross Country champion for Brigham Young University and the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials champion—takes home $8,000 for second place, along with a $10,000 bonus for breaking the American record.

Four other Americans placed in the top 10: Hillary Bor, an Olympian in the steeplechase in 2016, was sixth in 1:00:20; Andrew Colley placed eighth in 1:00:47; Alex Maier was ninth in 1:00:51, and Young was 10th in 1:00:52. Klecker placed 18th in 1:01:06.

Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.