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Coach’s race plan: “Jive(15k), survive(17.2k), thrive(10k).” Don’t go any faster than 4:46 in the first 15k, then run the hills chill, then hammer the last 10k. 

Short recap: I’m happy with the race. I tried to put myself in medal contention as long as I could, and believed I could medal. A gap up front formed around 28k and I decided to be patient and hope to catch back up, but never got back in contention for a medal. 
Long recap:
I ran close to coach’s race plan. The first 15k had a lot of shoving and close calls. I missed my bottle at 10k due to being shoved from behind, but Clayton shared his again. We hit the hills around 15k, and the race began to feel a lot easier with not having to move around a lot. I should’ve ran more conservative the first 15k instead of trying to catch every move/be on the inside of the turn. I saw Tola take the lead between 15 and 20k and went with him. I tried to conserve on the last part of the uphill right after 20k, but then it felt easy to catch back up. At halfway there were 2 or 3 of us, and I was pretty excited because the pace felt very easy and I wouldn’t have to take the lead from Tola. However, Tola kept looking back at the pack and slowing down, which led to me clipping him a couple times. 
Around 25k the pack was back to 13 or so, with Clayton being at the back of it. It was helpful to see him there. A Japanese runner then started pounding the pace, and we split a (net downhill) 14:30s 5k. 
At 28k the last 5k was in my legs and I felt pretty beat up, so I took the hill conservative, and just looking at the ground and trying to stay consistent, hoping that the hill would break the guys up front and I could still chase a medal. I think I was the last guy dropped from the top pack at that time. After, during the steep downhill my legs buckled and I nearly fell due to me running very reckless down the hill. I slowed to be cautious, but was heartbroken as I was hoping that would be my way to catch the front pack and try to medal. The last 10k I saw two athletes I focused on slowly catching. One in a blue kit, the other was Abdi from the Netherlands I think. After catching the athlete in the blue, I caught Abdi about 5k later. We were running the same pace until he decided to drop out and he began to run 5:45-6:30(I couldn’t really guess, but I caught him very quickly when he began to slow down). 
After that I could just see Tebello in the distance. When I could see him I would speed up, but when I couldn’t, it was tough to keep pushing, as he had about 100meters on me, I’d miss him around the curves. With 1200m to go, I saw I needed to run just under 3:30 to break 2:08. I tried for a bit, but when I saw no one close behind me and Tebello so far away, I decided to keep pace and enjoy the moment. I was surprised how well I closed today, as that is something I’ve struggled with during all but my first marathon. I did take the most fuel during this marathon than I had before, and we started relatively slow, so those may be the contributing factors. While I may not have followed coach’s plan 100%, I learned a lot and was grateful to compete in the Olympic Games. Thanks everyone who cheered me on, the crowds were amazing.

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Conner Mantz

“Jive, survive, thrive”

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Afternoon Run

Loops

Warm autumn evening

Chat

Treadmill climb

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