By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
CHICAGO (10-Oct) — While much attention has been focused on Conner Mantz and his quest to break Khalid Khannouchi’s 23 year-old USA marathon record at Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon, less has been said about another athlete’s goal of running nearly the same time. Rory Linkletter, a Canadian Olympian and the fastest-ever Canadian at the Boston Marathon, hopes to break 2:05:36 in Sunday’s race, a mark which is actually two seconds faster than Khannouchi’s USA record. The mark that Linkletter is chasing is both the Canadian and North American marathon record, and both he and Mantz –who were teammates at Brigham Young University– have the unique opportunity to push each other in achieving those parallel goals.
“I heard from Conner that he was going for the American record,” Linkletter told reporters at a press conference here this morning. “The American and Canadian records are virtually the same, just Canada’s is two seconds faster. So in theory, there should be an opportunity for us to work together and to push ourselves. Hopefully, we both smash our national records and have a chance of lowering the area record by quite a bit.”
Originally, Mantz had asked Linkletter if he would pace him in Chicago. The two know each other well, and Linkletter gave Mantz’s idea serious consideration.
“Boston gave me the idea that maybe 2:05 was possible,” Linkletter, 29, told Race Results Weekly in an interview. “I did 2:07 there and a sixth place finish more importantly. I had heard from Conner directly that he would be here going for the American record. At first he was kind of recruiting me to pace him. He was like, ‘oh, you looked good in Boston. Maybe you’d want to pace me?’ I think he wanted, like, a more personal pacer experience that just like whoever the race provides. I think he was putting feelers out for that.”
But after running another successful marathon in Ottawa in May where he ran the fastest-ever time by a Canadian on Canadian soil (2:08:31), Linkletter and his coach Jon Green felt like going for the Canadian and North American record –held by Cam Levins– would be the best plan for moving Linkletter’s marathon career forward.
“We talked about it and we decided that we should go for the record ourselves,” Green told Race Results Weekly in an interview. He continued: “I think we’re ready to shoot for the record.”
To Linkletter, everything lined up to try for Levins’s record at Chicago this year. Pacing Mantz would have been both meaningful and fun, but as a professional runner Linkletter also had to take into account his income potential from his next marathon and also his value to other marathons in the future if he breaks the record.
“It kind of comes down to the professional side of marathoning where you’re making decisions based on finances, timing, what makes sense and what doesn’t,” Linkletter explained. “It became clear to me that Chicago was my best opportunity that checked all the boxes of what I was looking for in terms of a professional opportunity: a time trial course with good competition. Assuming that Conner is still on track to aim for that 2:05 range, then it’s perfect. We can work together the whole time and have a great experience.”
Of course Mantz could take a big swing and try to run even faster (his USA half-marathon record of 59:17 is equivalent to a 2:04:28 marathon according to the time-tested Riegel Formula). Linkletter is ready for that.
“With Conner Mantz you’re never sure where his heart may lie,” Linkletter said. “He may be thinking a lot faster than that.”
To get ready for Chicago, Linkletter has done all of his training at high altitude in Flagstaff, Ariz., where he lives. Green said that his athlete has been averaging about 130 miles a week and has been trying to get more out of each run. Both Linkletter and Green said that this marathon build-up has been excellent.
“I can’t really think of any spots where he faltered in the build,” Green said. He continued: “There wasn’t any weeks or workouts necessarily where I said we’re in trouble, or anything like that. I’m sure if I wanted to be nitpicky I could say, that workout wasn’t one hundred percent. Overall, we’re in such a great space.”
One of the key elements of Green’s coaching has been to increase the “density” of Linkletter’s training: getting more out of each mile.
“A word that has kind of come to mind for Rory and I in building a better build is density,” Green said. “That’s kind of the word that we use. How do we put more work in and get better in that sense?”
One workout which has been central to Linkletter’s Chicago training is the uphill tempo run. Tempo runs are fast, but not quite as fast as race pace. Doing them uphill makes them aerobically harder while putting less stress on the legs because the pace is slower than it would be had the route been flat or downhill.
“Uphill tempos have just been a staple for us,” Green said. “This cycle, every two weeks, basically. We’ve had real success with them and he’s running faster and faster times. He did that under Ryan Hall (his previous coach) a little bit as well; staying in the right zone and still running faster times.”
For Sunday, Linkletter will come to the starting line with more confidence than in any marathon he’s done (this will be his 14th). He said that without self-belief nothing is possible in athletics.
“It’s everything,” Linkletter said of confidence and self-belief. “If you don’t believe you can do something there’s almost no way it’s going to happen. There’s going to be moments in the race where you’re going to have opportunities to opt-out of whatever your goal is because it’s going to get hard. Even in my best races ever I’ve thought there is no way I can keep doing this, but you stay in the fight.”
PHOTO: Rory Linkletter at the 26-K mark of the 2025 Tartan Ottawa International Marathon (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
PHOTO: Conner Mantz (left) and Rory Linkletter at the pre-race press conference for the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
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