Consider This from NPR - These team USA marathon runners are rooting for each other on and off the track

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Clayton Young and Conner Mantz are longtime training partners and friends. They're also the two fastest men's marathoners representing the U.S. at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.The pair met on a run at Brigham Young University in 2017. They've been friends, training partners and competitors ever since. With years of friendship and thousands of miles binding them together, can Young and Mantz break away from the pack and take home the gold at the Olympic games?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's easy to get sucked into the competitiveness of sports, especially when medals are up for grabs. But in a few short weeks, when six U.S. marathoners start their race here at the Paris Olympics, two runners will be rooting for each other. There's very few people that know me as well as Connor does just because we've run thousands, if not tens of thousands of miles together. And so we have lots of time to have great conversations. It's just so beneficial to just have somebody I can talk to. And so we have lots of time to have great conversations. It's just so beneficial to just have somebody I can talk to. And if I have a bad workout or a bad race, but then Clayton does well, it's very motivating. That's Clayton Young and Connor Mance. The two are longtime training

partners and friends, as well as the two fastest men's marathoners representing the U.S. at the Olympics. The two first met on a run at Brigham Young University in 2017. And as Clayton Young remembers it, it was far from a race among equals. I remember looking back on this run as we were a pack of 15 to 20 guys. He had just come back from serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he was probably, you know, 20 to 30 pounds overweight, but he was just hanging on for dear life. And I stayed up with them for about four and a half miles before I was like there is no way I can hold this pace and I think that's when I first really started to discover like how gritty Connor is. Consider this

with years of friendship and thousands of miles binding them together can Clayton Young and Connor Mance break away from the pack and take home gold in these Olympic Games? From NPR, I'm Juana Summers in Paris. It's Consider This from NPR. From their first meeting on a run at BYU to the Paris Olympics, Connor Mance and Clayton Young haven't just been good friends, but also tight competitors. The two finished the Olympic Trials Marathon in February within a second of each other, running at a blazing pace of 4 minutes 56 seconds per mile on average. And even racing at those

incredible speeds, their friendship and camaraderie during that marathon was hard to miss. In fact, there's this moment on the NBC broadcast where Connor turns around and he kind of holds out his hand and I'm thinking, what the heck do you need, Connor? Like, do you want, you know, one of my water bottles? Do you want something else? And I finally realized that he wants a high five. And so I give him this high five and it's probably the sloppiest high five you'll ever see on national television. I took the lead because I was like, okay, if I feel good enough

that I think I'm going to go to the Olympics. And so it's just Connor and I at about mile 22, only four miles to go. It was kind of this, I don't know, fun moment. It just kind of felt like a run with Clayton and that was pretty special. And that's when in Orlando, the crowds got so loud. And we were running side by side down this home stretch, this last half mile to the finish line. Clayton was just motivating me the whole way, just yelling things, cheering me on.

With about 30 meters to go, in desperation, Connor puts in this little surge. I did surge at the end, trying to beat him because it was a race. And I put my hands out and Connor crosses the line first. And you see us cross the finish line and then hug. And it was just, you know, it was just this unreal moment. Their next big moment, of course, will be in Paris on that epic tour of the city, racing past the Tuileries Garden and the Eiffel Tower. We get the grand tour. It's pretty

incredible. In fact, I actually got to take my first international flight ever out to Paris to be able to train on the course. I'd run all the way out to Versailles, up these beautiful streets through these little quaint towns all the way out to Versailles, and then run all the way back, go loop around the Eiffel Tower, and then finish at the Hotel des Invalides. But the course is going to be tough. I'm not going to lie. I trained on that course for five or six days straight and it's really hot. It's really humid in August in Paris. But more than anything, the course is really hilly and quite technical. How much of a challenge is that heat going to be? I mean, this is a scenario where it could be hotter and more humid than the trials back in February in Orlando. How much of a concern is competing in conditions like that? For me, I'm pretty concerned about it because heat and humidity can be devastating for 99% of us

runners, but Clayton won't probably have any issues because he just seems like he could run in the hottest conditions and be just fine. It doesn't affect him. When I think back to the trials and just how hot and humid that was, and, you know, there's supposed to be similar or worse conditions in Paris, and it can kind of be nerve-wracking, but honestly, the more hilly it is, the more humid it is, the more hot it is, I think the better and better Connor and I's chances are of competing. We prepared so diligently for the Olympic trials, and we kind of have a method to our madness, to be honest. And we did a lot of sauna and heat acclimatization training. And I think we've only upped our game since then. And I think,

honestly, it only plays to our strengths. I'm curious, though, why do you think that is? Why do you think a course like the one in Paris is something that plays to your advantage in such a competitive field of men's marathon runners? You know, Connor and I are ranked in the 60s. And so a lot of people will look at that and they'll say, well, you know, Connor and Clayton don't really have a shot. But when you really do some digging into how those rankings are made based off of time, and a lot of those times are set on courses that are pancake flat in perfect and ideal conditions. But to be honest, you know, that's far from what Paris will be like.

Yeah, the hills play to my advantage. But the heat and humidity will play a lot to Clayton's advantage. And I think that's why we're in such a good spot compared to a lot of our competitors. As you've mentioned, you have logged thousands, if not tens of thousands of miles running together over the years. For all of those miles that you have run together, what are the two of you talking about? And I have to ask, just thinking about the speeds that you were running at, how can one even maintain a conversation when you were moving so fast? When you're training for a marathon, maybe 20% of our miles, our weekly miles, you know, Connor and I run anywhere between 100 and 120 miles every week. And probably only 20 of those

miles are at marathon pace or faster. So you could say that we run about 100 miles that are just at an easy, slow, moderate pace that, you know, is conversational. And so we have lots of time to have great conversations. And, you know, most of the time it is about what's happening in terms of running. So it's, you know, what's the next race? What's the next workout? How are we recovering? How are we feeling? But, you know, Connor and I also share a lot of other passions in life. You know, we both went to Brigham Young University and got degrees in mechanical engineering. And so we talk a lot about engineering. We also obviously have shared faith as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And so we talk a lot about faith and trials and things that we're working through in terms of our relationships with our families and other things. I'd love to know a bit about how your faith informs the way you approach the way that you run. Having that knowledge and that faith, it definitely helps in running because then you know that, you know, running is just a sport. It's just something for fun. But, you know, running is just a sport.

It's just something for fun. But, you know, there are things that are so much more important. I think having that grounding is so necessary when you have like a bad workout or a bad race. Or for Clayton, he had surgery just over a year ago. And I think, you know, when trials and tribulations come upon us, we're able to really lean on our faith in Jesus Christ and lean on his atoning power and his grace. We've been speaking with Connor Mance and Clayton Young. Both men will represent the United States at the Paris Games. Thanks to both of you and good luck in Paris. Thanks for having us, Ju Paris. Thanks for having us, Lana. Thanks for having us. This episode was produced by Vincent Accovino and Megan Lim with audio engineering by Nisha Highness.

It was edited by Christopher and Taliana and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan. And one more thing before we go, you can now enjoy the consider this newsletter. We still help you break down a major story of the day, but you'll also get to know our producers and hosts and some moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter.

It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.