Conner Mantz Almost Broke the American Record at Boston, and He’s Already Back to Running

Feature photo courtesy of erp3d on reddit

The 2025 Boston Marathon was an exciting race to watch. The women shattered the existing course record, and the men laid down some of the fastest times in the history of Boston.

Among those was Conner Mantz, who challenged for the podium before finishing in fourth place in 2:05:08. That’s only ten seconds behind Ryan Hall’s 2:04:58 mark from 2011 – which stands as the current American record at Boston. It was also a huge personal best for him – improving on his 2:07:47 from Chicago in 2023.

I wrote more about the race itself in Runner’s Life on Medium. Check it out for some more stats and analysis from the race. And if you’re not a Medium subscriber, go here to request a special link to read that article.

But what I wanted to write about today is what happened after the race.

I saw another post on Threads this week about the need to take time off after a marathon. The author said you shouldn’t look at what influencers are doing, because they’re not really running hard. And if you truly race a marathon, then you’ll be in no shape to run.

That last bit may or may not be true. But I know one thing is true: Conner Mantz and the other top men who ran Boston this week definitely raced their hearts out.

So did they take the rest of the week off? Or are they already back out there?

I poked through the Strava profiles of some of the top runners – and here are the results.

Who Took Time Off?

Of the top ten men who finished the 2025 Boston Marathon, six of them have public Strava profiles:

1. John Korir
2. Conner Mantz
3. Rory Linkletter
4. Clayton Young
5. Tebello Ramakongoana
6. Ryan Ford

Of those six runners, two of them have not posted an activity to Strava since the race: John Korir (#1, 2:04:45) and Tebello Ramakongoana (#9, 2:07:19). It’s possible they just haven’t posted, but let’s assume they’re taking some well earned time off.

Note: I looked for data on the women’s side, but none of the top women had public Strava profiles with public activities.

If you look through John Korir’s Strava, this seems typical for him. After he won the 2024 Chicago Marathon, he took several weeks off. It wasn’t until mid-November that he started building back up for Boston, which culminated with weeks in the 130-140mpw range.

Similarly, if you look at Tebello Ramakongoana’s Strava, he took about two weeks off after the Olympic marathon in August. He got back to training in September.

So for these two men, a significant break after a marathon seems to be the norm.

Who Didn’t Take Time Off?

The other four men all got back out there this week in one form or another. And when I took a longer look at some pro athletes’ habits a few weeks ago, this is par for the course for Conner and Clayton. The other two weren’t in the group I looked at previously.

Conner Mantz came in 4th with a time of 2:05:08. If you take a look at his Strava profile:

• Tuesday: No run
• Wednesday: 2 miles @ 7:32/mi
• Thursday: 4 miles @ 7:34/mi
• Friday: 6 miles @ 7:16/mi
• Saturday: No run

A few easy days. Nothing out of the ordinary. But definitely not a full week of rest.

Rory Linkletter came in 5th with a time of 2:07:02. Here’s his recent Strava work:

• Tuesday: No run
• Wednesday: 4 miles @ 7:33/mi
• Thursday: 6 miles @ 7:17/mi
• Friday: 8 miles @ 7:05/mi
• Saturday: 10 miles @ 7:02/mi. “We are so (almost) back.”

Rory had a busy year. He ran the Olympic Marathon in August (2:13). He had a light week of running, ramped up training, took Chicago at an “easy” pace (2:23) before racing New York (2:11). He had a light week with just a couple runs post-NYC, and then he ramped up fully for Boston.

He was a little more aggressive here with the return to running than Conner.

Clayton Young came in 7th in 2:07:04 – also a decent PR over his 2023 Chicago performance. Here’s his week on Strava:

• Tuesday: 2 miles @ 11:22/mi. “Blood flow and body evaluation.”
• Wednesday: No run
• Thursday: No run
• Friday: 5 miles @ 8:09/mi
• Saturday: 1 mile @ 8:34/mi

Clayton has been a little more conservative. Sounds like his calf is giving him problems – but rather than taking 100% time off, he’s going out for some easy, short runs to feel it out.

And finally, there’s Ryan Ford. 10th place in 2:08. His Strava:

• Monday: 4 miles @ 7:43/mi. Yes, a 4 mile shakeout the day of the race.
• Tuesday: No run
• Wednesday: No run
• Thursday: 2.5 miles @ 8:09/mi. “Checking for any strains or injury.”
• Friday: No run
• Saturday: 3.5 miles @ 7:27/mi

So a light week, but a few easy days sprinkled in. This is a similar approach to what he did after NYC in November – when he ran 2:11.

And it’s interesting that he specifically mentions in one of his captions that he’s checking out how his body feels. For me, this is the most important reason to get back out there immediately.

You can’t listen to your body when your body is laying in bed. It will always lie to you – until you make it move.

So What’s the Lesson Here?

Look, you and I are not elites. If you are, I’m honored your reading this, but I’m assuming you’re just a regular person like me.

So looking to what the elites do and copying it directly is probably not the best idea. Part of the reason why they can bounce back so easily is that they are training at a high level – typically 100+ mpw, with some (like John Korir) going even higher.

The more you run, and the more marathons you have under your belt, the quicker you’ll recover after a race. If this is your first race and you only trained at 30-40 mpw, then yeah. You’ll feel like death afterwards, and maybe you should rest up for a week or two before trying to run again.

But if you’re training consistently and you’ve raced before, you can probably get right back out there the next day. That doesn’t mean jump right into serious training. But a couple easy runs are a great way to get the body moving – and it’s an especially good way to feel for any issues or weak spots.

The other lesson here is that time off – assuming you’re not injured – is a choice. There’s no single best answer. These guys are literally the best … and you’ve got people on both sides of the question. If full rest after a marathon was absolutely the smart move in every situation – you’d best believe these guys would all be doing it.

If someone says you must take time off after a marathon – they’re full of shit. At the same time, if someone tells you that you must run the next day, they’re on the other side of crazy town.

If you recently ran a marathon – or maybe you’re running in London – here’s some general guidance on when you could or should return to running. My approach is always 30 minutes of easy running (or run-walking) post-marathon, but you might find something else is right for you.

If you ran last week – what has your approach been? Are you team full rest, team easy runs, or team no days off?