Clayton Young ran the second-fastest marathon ever by an American on Sunday at the Chicago Marathon.
Young placed seventh overall and as the top American finisher. His time of 2:05:23 fell just short of his goal to beat the American record of 2:04:43 set by his training partner and fellow former BYU runner Conner Mantz.
“Gutting it out all the way to the finish line, taking it a mile at a time,” Young told NBC Chicago after the race.
Mantz set the American record last year at the Chicago Marathon. In early September, Young announced on the “Nobody Asked Us” podcast that he was aiming to break Mantz’s record at the same marathon he set it at.
Young told NBC Chicago that he was “a little worried” at the start of the race based on how his body felt.
“I just got to pray and hope and have the faith that the body will hold up to the finish line and when I asked the most of it, that it would respond,” he said. “And it just kept responding with everything I threw at it and big shoutout to my competition out there.”
While he fell short of his goal, Young ran a personal best less than a month removed from tearing his hamstring.
“We missed the goal,” he said. “Conner Mantz, you’ve still got it, and big props to him, my teammate and training partner, and we’ll have another swing at it soon but it feels good to walk away as top American and to place seventh again at one of my world major marathons.”
Clayton Young’s injury
Leading up to the Chicago Marathon, Young ran the Great North Run half marathon. During that race, Young sustained a 12-centimeter split tear in his hamstring in the final 250 meters, an MRI later revealed.
He then went into “testing mode,” he said in an interview with CITIUS Mag. Not ready to take Chicago off the table, Young told his coach, Ed Eyestone, not to give up on him.
The first doctor Young spoke to recommended Young get a PRP shot and take four weeks off, ruling out his record attempt in Chicago.
Not satisfied with that response, Young got a second opinion. That doctor said he could test his hamstring on the long run before deciding. He was able to run 22 miles, according to an Instagram post.
He decided to keep Chicago on the table and take the process day by day.
Days before the Chicago Marathon in a press conference, Young said he was healthy enough to race.
“I wouldn’t be here if my hamstring didn’t feel good, and I do want to make it clear that I don’t want to be a proponent for people running through injuries on their marathons,” he said. “I definitely want to be clear that we’ve taken this very methodical approach, this very careful approach, a step at a time. In a way it’s kind of been like a marathon.”