Men’s elite about to start. Mantz is in self proclaimed best shape of his life. Looking forward to this one!
Gotta love Rory Linkletter constantly moving to the front. He did that early in the Olympics before fading early and he’s clearly trying to to push the pace and make sure the race stays honest. The pace right now is pretty ideal for Conner to turn the last 10k into his specialty.
I do have to say those aid station tables need some work in the marathon. There’s way too much potential for interference. Why not have tables on both sides of the course? The surges and tactics around the tables really messes with some people’s race.
Mantz and Young 6th and 7th. It’s like they’re attached at the hip.
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I am sure that running together is the best race strategy for them. They are team mates and I am guessing that sticking together makes them mentally stronger. There are some marathons that I have run that I would have been better off sticking with my training partners than going out on my own.
I’m curious at how they feel. They both thought they could better than 2:08 on that course and Mantz likely thought he could do 2:06.
The pack was clearly slowing things down a bit. I wonder if the two of them just set out at 2:06 pace and settled in to 2:08 pace half way through if they could have given themselves enough of a gap or if it would have just invited the faster runners to our run them.
As it is now, I think they are sticking with the pack ready to race a 2:07 marathon but the pack runs a bit slow and then throws some 4:30 miles in there to break things up and Mantz at some point let’s them go?