This Week In Track & Field: Diamond League Final Preview; ATHLOS NYC Canceled; Sabastian Sawe Injured + World Ultimates Spots On The Line In Brussels

“If I can close the gap a little bit more each time, one day I can win the race. I’m here for the long term.” My guest for today’s episode is Zouhair Talbi — and if you’ve been following American marathon running this year, you already know the name. We had him at No. 2 in CITIUS MAG’s Way Too Early 2028 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon Power Rankings. He ran 2:03:45 at the Boston Marathon in April, finishing fifth overall, breaking Ryan Hall’s 15-year American course record. He is now days out from the TCS New York City Marathon, where he has unfinished business. The 2023 New York was Zouhair’s second marathon. He went out with Tamirat Tola’s record-setting group, covered the surge, and by 34 kilometers his body had completely shut down — from 4:40 pace to 6:30, unable to go faster, pulling off the road. He describes it as one of the biggest experiences of his career. He was back in the hotel within the hour, already thinking about what he’d do differently. What he did differently was build, patiently and systematically, over the three years since. This block was his longest since turning to the marathon — five months from Boston to New York, with seven weeks at or above 130 miles, two of his fastest 40K long runs in training, and a Great North Run win in 59:47 that gave him the fitness signal he needed heading into the final phase. In this conversation, we go through the full build — what changed from the Boston block, how he is thinking about New York’s decisive moves or where in the race he is visualizing it. We also get into the dynamic of racing Conner Mantz, the Andreas Almgren wildcard, and a broader look at Olympic qualifying. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS SUUNTO: The Suunto Run 2 is their new flagship watch built specifically for road running and the marathon. You get around 10 days of battery with daily use and 24 hours in performance mode with dual frequency GPS. The watch also tracks your sleep, HRV, and training balance, so you know when to push and when to back off in your workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you're in the market for a new watch, check out the Suunto Run 2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. KAIZEN: kaizen is a training app that starts with your running history to set the baseline and then updates around the training you do. kaizen looks at the bigger picture of your training to know your current fitness. The app translates your last few months of training into an accurate view of how your current fitness, taking a big picture view that quiets the noise of individual workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download today in the App Store or Google Play and get two weeks free with code CITIUS within the app.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate your goal marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, and no breaking your flow.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.

“I don’t live to run. I run to live. And the decision was: let’s just both stay home.” My guest for today’s episode is Conner Mantz — the American record holder in the marathon and for the first time on this podcast, a dad. He is days out from the TCS New York City Marathon, where he will race for the first time since breaking the record in Chicago last October. The twelve months in between have been the hardest of his career. Here is what happened. He ran 2:04:43 in Chicago, felt great, went for a flush jog the next day, and then spent the following eight months navigating two sacral stress fractures. It knocked out his entire spring. US Cross Country, World Cross, Boston — all watched from home. He returned to action this summer and most recently raced World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen in September. He ran a bit over his head and blew up badly and finished twelfth. He is now in the best shape he has been in since the record. Not carrying fitness from a long peak — coming into it. His biggest workouts actually have come 10 to 15 days out. In this conversation we go through the injury timeline, what he should have done differently, watching Boston from home and what he thought he’d run. He’s open about the complicated emotions of watching Clayton Young chase his record in Chicago, what he saw up close in Andreas Almgren’s training that floored him and what will make for a good day in New York. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS SUUNTO: The Suunto Run 2 is their new flagship watch built specifically for road running and the marathon. You get around 10 days of battery with daily use and 24 hours in performance mode with dual frequency GPS. The watch also tracks your sleep, HRV, and training balance, so you know when to push and when to back off in your workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you're in the market for a new watch, check out the Suunto Run 2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. KAIZEN: kaizen is a training app that starts with your running history to set the baseline and then updates around the training you do. kaizen looks at the bigger picture of your training to know your current fitness. The app translates your last few months of training into an accurate view of how your current fitness, taking a big picture view that quiets the noise of individual workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download today in the App Store or Google Play and get two weeks free with code CITIUS within the app.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate your goal marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, and no breaking your flow.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.

“Going into my first one, we played it pretty safe. We really wanted to work on strength and didn’t touch much work faster than 5:00/mile pace. Then going into Boston, we pushed the envelope a little bit — like, okay, we’ve got one on the board, let’s go for a big one.” We’re kicking off our pre-NYC Marathon interviews and my guest for today’s episode is Joe Klecker — an Olympian, 2026 Boston Marathon top-ten finisher, and in eleven days, a returning TCS New York City Marathon competitor. He ran 2:05:56 at Boston in the spring, which puts him in the conversation with everyone we’ve been talking about this fall, and he goes into New York off what he described to me as his best training block yet. There were seven weeks above 130 miles and a peak at 135. This is a training-heavy discussion for the freaks. I think the part I enjoyed the most was thinking through with Joe on his theory of what a former 5K and mile specialist has to do to actually become a marathoner from the inside out? That was him. He’s spent the last two marathon builds trying to rewire his physiology for an event that is fundamentally different from everything he trained for across the first fifteen years of his running life. He ran 60:02 at the NYC Half in the spring. He shares basically all of it on Strava and through his Suunto posts on Instagram. So for the training obsessives, we talk mileage, the fueling evolution from New York to Boston to now, what he wants to fix from last year’s race, how he thinks about the OAC internal competition with Patrick Kiprop and Ryan Ford, who are all set to race alongside him. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS SUUNTO: The Suunto Run 2 is their new flagship watch built specifically for road running and the marathon. You get around 10 days of battery with daily use and 24 hours in performance mode with dual frequency GPS. The watch also tracks your sleep, HRV, and training balance, so you know when to push and when to back off in your workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you're in the market for a new watch, check out the Suunto Run 2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. KAIZEN: kaizen is a training app that starts with your running history to set the baseline and then updates around the training you do. kaizen looks at the bigger picture of your training to know your current fitness. The app translates your last few months of training into an accurate view of how your current fitness, taking a big picture view that quiets the noise of individual workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download today in the App Store or Google Play and get two weeks free with code CITIUS within the app.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate your goal marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, and no breaking your flow.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.

LA28 OLYMPIC MARATHON QUALIFICATION DETAILS ARE HERE. World Athletics has outlined how athletes can qualify for the 2028 Olympic marathon: - Qualification window: Nov. 1, 2026 – April 30, 2028 - 70 quota places per gender (down from 80 in Paris) - Entry standards to be finalized in December - Top 5 at a Platinum Label marathon counts toward the entry standard - World Rankings will help fill the remaining places - March 19, 2028: Top 55 on the filtered quota list are locked in That last date is especially important for Team USA. It’s six days before the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in St. Louis, meaning the Americans could have all three men’s and three women’s Olympic quota places secured before race day. We broke down the rules, the Boston Marathon wrinkle, potential qualifying standards and why we feel better about the U.S. avoiding a repeat of the 2024 qualification headache. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS SUUNTO: The Suunto Run 2 is their new flagship watch built specifically for road running and the marathon. You get around 10 days of battery with daily use and 24 hours in performance mode with dual frequency GPS. The watch also tracks your sleep, HRV, and training balance, so you know when to push and when to back off in your workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you're in the market for a new watch, check out the Suunto Run 2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. KAIZEN: kaizen is a training app that starts with your running history to set the baseline and then updates around the training you do. kaizen looks at the bigger picture of your training to know your current fitness. The app translates your last few months of training into an accurate view of how your current fitness, taking a big picture view that quiets the noise of individual workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download today in the App Store or Google Play and get two weeks free with code CITIUS within the app.⁠⁠⁠⁠ WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate your goal marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, and no breaking your flow.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.

“I’ve watched too many Chicago Marathons. I’ve been in too many Chicago Marathons. My experience in this race is unparalleled right now — and it felt good when it mattered on Sunday.” Clayton Young is the top American at the 2026 Chicago Marathon, now officially the second-fastest American in history on a record-eligible course with a 2:05:23. He did it on a hamstring with a 12-centimeter tear that his doctor had recommended four weeks of rest for. The race itself was one of the more dramatic in recent American marathon history. Vinny Mauri went to the front at 15K, dropped the pacers, and made a genuine bid for something bigger — at 30K he had 38 seconds on the rest of the Americans and was on 2:04 pace. Then it was his hamstring that started talking. He stopped several times to stretch in the final miles, the chase pack caught him. Charles Hicks surged hard trying to catch Mauri after the pacers stepped off, and Clayton simply followed before making his big move with a 4:38 mile. Clayton was chasing Connor Mantz’s American record of 2:04:43 the whole time since he he called that shot publicly weeks ago — and it didn’t happen. But he ran his fastest time ever, finished seventh overall in a field that included the likes of Amos Kipruto and Jacob Kiplimo… again, he did it all while managing a torn hamstring he’d been babying for a month. He called it one of the best marathon performances of his career. I agree. We discuss: – The night-before meeting with Coach Eyestone – The chaos of those Mauri miles – The moment he decided to throw down – The faith that carried him through four weeks nobody could have scripted – What comes next for the hamstring, the spring, and 2027 + More ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS SUUNTO: The Suunto Run 2 is their new flagship watch built specifically for road running and the marathon. You get around 10 days of battery with daily use and 24 hours in performance mode with dual frequency GPS. The watch also tracks your sleep, HRV, and training balance, so you know when to push and when to back off in your workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you're in the market for a new watch, check out the Suunto Run 2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. KAIZEN: kaizen is a training app that starts with your running history to set the baseline and then updates around the training you do. kaizen looks at the bigger picture of your training to know your current fitness. The app translates your last few months of training into an accurate view of how your current fitness, taking a big picture view that quiets the noise of individual workouts. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download today in the App Store or Google Play and get two weeks free with code CITIUS within the app.⁠⁠⁠ WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate your goal marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, and no breaking your flow.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.