By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
CHICAGO (09-Oct) — Adriaan Wildschutt has spent an unusual amount of time at home in Flagstaff this summer where he trains with the HOKA Northern Arizona Elite team. The 28 year-old South African, who starred at Florida State during his NCAA career, ran his last race on June 21 when he took second at the B.A.A. 10-K in Boston. Since then he has had a singular focus: making a successful marathon debut here at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday.
“Adriaan is somebody who can train for a long period of time, show up on race day, and nail it,” his coach Jack Mullaney told Race Results Weekly in a telephone interview yesterday. “Other athletes like a tune-up race. We had talked about doing one, but he was rolling and got a good rhythm in training. He just kind of said, why get on a plane, risk getting sick, go all the way out there when I can just do a harder session here in Flagstaff? So that’s the path we chose to go.”
But Wildschutt has not been alone. He has had company on some of his runs from his older brother, Nadeel, who is also a member of the team and will also be running here in Chicago. He’s also had another teammate, Kenyan Alex Masai, accompany him by bicycle and provide valuable encouragement and advice. Masai, who finished third in Chicago last year in a personal best and team record of 2:04:37, had hoped to race here again this year but a minor injury during the summer derailed his training. Unselfishly, he changed his focus to helping Wildschutt.
“He’s the unsung hero of this build because he, of course, was scheduled to run this race this October, but picked up a little injury in July, ” Mullaney explained. He continued: “He’s been so instrumental in biking with Adriaan and Nadeel on their long runs and showing up to practice and biking with them and providing them with advice. For someone who is a podium finisher from last year I don’t think you could have a better person providing reassurance. I think Alex Masai gets a lot of credit.”
Wildschutt won the United Airlines NYC Half last March in 59:30, a race held on a hilly course and in near-freezing conditions. In that competition he had to call on all of his competitive instincts to decide how and when to move, and showed his mastery of head-to-head racing. But here in Chicago he hopes to tuck into a pack which will be going at American record pace (2:04:43) and click off one 2:57 kilometer after another. If he can do that he would shatter Elroy Gelant’s South African record of 2:05:36.
“The American group that is going for the American record, that puts me in a group of people I can run with,” Wildschutt told Race Results Weekly in an interview here today. “I don’t have to check my watch, I don’t have to worry about the mileage, I don’t have to worry about anything. All I need to focus on is grab my carb drinks and stay on pace and relax.”
Wildschutt said today that his primary focus for this Olympic cycle is to compete well in the marathon at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. To get there Mullaney has a two-year plan which begins with Sunday’s race.
“We started to look at the Olympic cycle and worked backwards from L.A.,” Mullaney said. “One of the things we didn’t want to do was go into the Olympics feeling like a rookie in the marathon. We wanted to have a couple under Adriaan’s belt and expose him to a couple of different situations.”
Mullaney saw Chicago as the ideal first marathon for Wildschutt.
“I want Adriaan to come away from this experience with an excitement and a motivation to do the second one,” Mullaney said. “One of the ways we can increase the chances of this is to have a course that’s pretty flat, and a first 25 to 30-K that’s pretty predictable.”
Interestingly, Wildschutt has already participated in a marathon as a pacemaker. At the Cape Town Marathon last May, he was tasked with running halfway at a 2:05 pace. Despite only having about six weeks of training under his belt, he felt good and decided to keep going.
“I was supposed to pace through 21-K, but between me and coach we were deciding between 25 and 30-K,” Wildschutt said. “Once I got to 25-K, I also talked to the organizer before the race and asked him if I do feel good, am I allowed to go on further? I wanted to let them know they couldn’t count on me for pacing after 21-K. I want to do what I want to do, and they were completely fine with that.”
Wildschutt cycled to the back of the pack after 25-K, but the pace quickly slowed down. Wildschutt felt strong and decided to put in a surge.
“I went all the way for the next 10 kilometers and I dropped the field by 30 seconds,” Wildschutt recounted. “I got to 35, 36-K. That’s where the field caught up to me and I decided to stop. I was very fatigued.”
“I give him a lot of grace for this,” said Mullaney. “This was totally uncharted territory for him. Without an experience in running the marathon you really don’t know what you’re getting into.” He added: “I think he got a lot of confidence from going that far into the race on a much more challenging course than Chicago.”
While breaking the South African record would be great, it’s not Wildschutt’s primary goal. As talented and as accomplished as he is –he already has the national 10,000m and half-marathon records of 26:50.64 and 59:13, respectively– he’s only at the beginning of his marathon journey. He hopes to learn as much as he can about the event so that he can be competitive for the Olympics in 2028.
“It’s a primary goal, but I don’t think about it,” he said of the South African record. “I’m focusing on the American record group, and I need to stay with them. I want the record to come as a by-product of what I did there.”
Running at a sub-2:05 pace is a tall order for any marathon debutante, but Wildschutt is confident that those three dedicated months at home in Flagstaff pounding out the miles has prepared him well.
“I know that I’m fit,” he said without hesitating. “The data indicates that I’m fit. All the workouts that I’ve done indicate that I’m in a great spot to run with the American record group. I wouldn’t have decided on that if my training wasn’t suggesting it.”
Coach Mullaney agreed.
“He’s very capable of training for a long period of time, then showing up and executing,” Mullaney said. “I think that comes from the fact that he expects a lot from himself in practice and holds himself to a really high standard.”
PHOTO: Adriaan Wildschutt in Chicago two days before the 2026 Bank of America Chicago Marathon (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
PHOTO: Adriaan Wildschutt celebrates after winning the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
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