New Haven Road Race winner Conner Mantz back for a shot at Manchester Road Race title
The last time Conner Mantz raced in Connecticut, on a holiday, he did pretty well.
Mantz, 25, of Mapleton, Utah, won the Faxon Law New Haven 20K road race, which is the 20K national championship, on Labor Day.
After he ran the fastest debut marathon by a natural-born American in Chicago last month (2:08:13), he wanted one more race to round out his season. And he decided he would come to Manchester.
Mantz will be at the starting line of the 86th annual Manchester Road Race Thursday at 10 a.m. on Main Street.
Others to watch in the men’s field are 2013 winner Sam Chelanga, who finished third last year; Olympians Andy Butchart of Scotland, Cameron Levins of Canada and American Hillary Bor; Wesley Kiptoo, the 2021 NCAA indoor 5,000-meter champion; Kirubel Erassa, the Manchester runner-up in 2017; and Morgan Beadlescomb, the fastest miler in the field (3:52.03).
“It’s the most wide-open race we’ve had in years,” said elite runner coordinator James Harvey.
There are 10,641 runners and walkers registered for the race.
This will be Mantz’s first time at Manchester. He grew up running up canyons in the mountains so he likes hills. He was planning on driving the 4.748-mile course Tuesday to check it out. He said he is about “80 percent” recovered from running Chicago.
“After the Chicago Marathon, I really wanted one more race before the year ended,” Mantz said Tuesday. “This was one that kind of fit. I just got married about a month ago, we wanted to find a race where my wife could come with me. She’s never seen me race all out.
“Manchester is not too long of a race, it’s a road race and I’ve kind of grown to really love road racing. I liked coming to Connecticut the last time.”
Mantz ran 59:08 to win New Haven. He wanted to run a sub-2:08 in his marathon debut; he ended up finishing in 2:08:13, which left him slightly disappointed and wanting more.
“I expected to go 2:07, maybe break 2:07 if everything went right,” he said. “I thought 2:08 was good but it was a little below what I was hoping. I think there’s some things I can work on in the future that can make some big differences.”
One problem was he tried to start working on those things a little too early after the marathon. After a short rest, he bumped up his training to 100-plus mile weeks again but realized it was too much.
“I jumped back into running too quickly after and training hard,” he said. “I got too excited, like, ‘I ran 2:08 and if I fix three things, I can run 2:07:30 right now. I think I can drop a lot of time.’
“My workouts have been off and on. I’ve had some of the best of my life and some of the worst since high school. It’s been kind of frustrating.”
One of Mantz’s early wins was at a local turkey trot in Utah, so there is precedent for him for a Thanksgiving Day victory.
“We didn’t have a junior high track program, so I didn’t start running track until I was a freshman in high school,” he said. “I would do the local 5Ks. In seventh grade, I really got into it. We had a Turkey Trot in seventh grade and I won it.”
There is no race day registration for the road race. For more information, go to 2022 — Manchester Road Race — Race Roster — Registration, Marketing, Fundraising.
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
