Every now and then, Conner Mantz allows his mind to drift back to the same stretch of last November’s New York City Marathon.
Around 16 miles in, coming off the Queensborough Bridge into Manhattan, the lead pack accelerated. Mantz, starting to feel uncomfortable, let the other runners go.
But grinding through to the end, he finished strong – with the fastest final mile in the top 10 – and crossed the line with enough in the tank to leave that dangerous question, as old as time itself. What if?
“Had I gone with that move, maybe I would have blown up,” Mantz told the Guardian in an interview. “But maybe I would have been there fighting for the win at the end.
“I would rather be there, risking it a little bit more, so that at the end I can try and win, than getting a safe [result]: always ending up in the top eight, but never being in the top three.”
Last year was an extraordinary one for the 28-year-old, who won the US Olympic marathon trials in February; finished eighth, as top American, at the Olympic marathon in August; and finished sixth in New York in November.
He is seen, understandably, as a serious contender for Monday’s Boston Marathon.
“The competitor that he is, I feel like he has a great chance of podium, for sure,” said Meb Keflezighi, who won Boston in 2014 – the first American man to do so in three decades – and New York in 2009. “Don’t count him out.”
Mantz, by his own admission, gives himself a hard time. “You sound like you ran terrible,” a former college teammate commented after the trials last February. “But you won.”
He had struggled through the final stages of the race, in lockstep with his training partner Clayton Young, who ultimately allowed him to take the win. “I may have beaten Clayton. But in my mind, he demolished me,” said Mantz.
And while Paris last summer and New York in the fall solidified his position as one of the brightest hopes in US distance running, he left both feeling disappointed.
“I’d had a lot of self-belief heading into New York and the Olympics,” said Mantz. “And when both of those …” He paused, catching himself. “Not that they went poorly, but I think just kind of missed this …” He trailed off. “I expected to do a little bit better.”
New York stung. After Paris, Mantz believed he had taken a big leap in training: his workouts stronger, his mileage higher, and his recoveries quicker. “I thought that would come together … and I’d do something really big that day,” he said. “And I don’t think I did.”
Mantz was only beaten in New York by four former champions and an Olympic silver medalist, who won. But accomplished goals – like making the Olympics, and being top American in four consecutive marathons – are overshadowed, at least in his mind, by ones that remain out of reach.
“Until he’s at the level of Eliud Kipchoge in his prime, winning everything and running faster at everything, I think there is going to be that sense of wanting more,” said Ed Eyestone, the two-time Olympian and Brigham Young University (BYU) coach who trains Mantz and Young. “That’s what makes him so competitive.”
This year has been “pretty seamless for Conner thus far,” added Eyestone. Mantz shattered the US men’s half marathon record in Houston in January, narrowly missing out on victory. He ran a few seconds faster in March at the New York City Half Marathon, organized by New York Road Runners, coming second.
Back on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan in the New York City Half, Mantz felt in control. He focused on execution – making and meeting moves that defined the race – and leaving no room to wonder what might have been. “That might have been the best race I’ve ever run,” he said.
Both performances helped boost his confidence that he may well pull off something really big, soon. A fast, flat, record-eligible marathon – Chicago, Berlin, or even Valencia – may well come later in the year. “Breaking the record in the half gave me a lot more confidence that I could do it in the full.”
For now, though, all eyes are on Boston: a notoriously punishing course, where no American man has won since Keflezighi, in 2014. Des Linden became the first American woman to win the race in three decades in 2018.
“I think I could be an American winner,” said Mantz, who stressed his primary aim is to podium. Sixth is his best finish at a World Major marathon to date. “Fifth is kind of next step,” he added. “But I think I’m strong enough that I think I can be top three.”
The world’s oldest annual marathon attracts a stacked elite field. Other men on the start line this year include reigning champion Sisay Lemma; two-time champion Evans Chebet; and a host of strong US athletes, including Young and CJ Albertson.
When Mantz last ran Boston, in 2023, he finished 11th. “He’s a different person now,” observed Keflezighi. “He has closed that gap.”
“Regardless of what happens, Conner Mantz will be in that lead pack for as long as he can,” said Eyestone. “As long as he can put one foot in front of the other, at the pace that’s being dictated, he will be there.”
Mantz, who studied mechanical engineering at BYU, served as a missionary in Ghana for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before college. He credits the experience, and his faith, with giving him perspective.
“It taught me athletics and sports, it can’t be something that defines you. Because, to be quite honest, most people don’t care,” he said, with a brief laugh. “I love this sport. I have so much fun doing it. But there’s so much more important things in this life.”
There is a “healthy level” of obsession, added Mantz, who concedes he spent his fair share of time on the wrong side of this line. But nowadays, even as he dedicates more time than ever to running, thinking about running, and talking about running, “I don’t think I’m as obsessed”.
Mantz has worked with a sports psychologist on expectations – and the pain and possibility presented by each marathon. “You should expect there’s going to be times in the race, whether it’s going to be 5K or 10K, that are going to be very difficult,” he said. “They’re going to hurt.”
But you should try to turn up with a bit of curiosity, excitement, “and less expectations on yourself”, he continued. “What could happen if I make this move, or I push the pace here?”
Forget what might have happened if everything fell into place last time around. What’s going to happen now?
His objective for Boston – and every race, he insists – is the podium, rather than victory. This goal “usually negates a little bit of what other people are doing,” he said. He can run his own race, and worry “just a tiny bit” less about the rest of the pack.
“Winning every race? I just, I don’t know who’s more talented, I don’t know who’s training better, I don’t know – I hope noone’s cheating, but, you know, we know how our sport is, and a lot of people dope,” said Mantz. “But top three is a nicer goal for me.”
“I did have my best race of my life and finished second” at the New York City Half last month, he noted. “And if I’m disappointed because I didn’t win, when maybe the guy ahead of me is just more talented and harder working than me, or just as hard working and just as talented, but he just had a better day, I can’t really do anything about that.”
Next week in Boston, his sights are set on what he can control. Whatever happens, Mantz is determined not to finish wondering what might have been.