C Mantz Running

World Junior Cross Country Championships

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Location:

Provo,UT,USA

Member Since:

May 18, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

NCAA Champ

Running Accomplishments:

Pre-high school: I ran a lot of local 5ks and a few half marathons. I didn't do a ton of training, but I just had fun, and I got more serious about it as high school got closer.

High school: I enjoyed running a lot, especially cross country. I originally did track to keep my in shape for cross country. I ran at Footlocker Nationals, the Adidas Dream mile, Brooks PR Invitational, world xc junior championships, and a few local 5ks.

PRs: 800: 1:56.80-State Track 2014

1600: 4:10-State Track 2014/Mile: Sea Level-Adidas Grand Prix-4:07

3200:Alititude(~4500ft): 8:57.99-State Track 2014-2 Mile:8:53 at Brooks PR Invitational

5K: New Balance Indoor Nationals(2014) - 14:24

10K:USA Junior Track Championships (2014)-31:01

15K: Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run (aided) 48:10(2013).

Half Marathon:
Utah Valley Half - 1:11:24(aided)(2012)

Post-mission:

1,500m-3:45

3k-7:50

5k-13:29

10k-28:18

NCAA finishes:

Cross Country: 10th(2018);

Indoor: 3k-7th(2019) 5k-10th(2019);

Outdoor: 10k-22nd(2018), 4th(2019), 5k-7th(2019)

Long-Term Running Goals:

Make sure I have fun, not get burned out, and get faster.

School records in the 5km and 10km.

Personal:

Served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from July 2015-July 2017. I gained 30 lbs. during the service and came back out of shape; however I knew that if the Lord wanted me to once again run competitively, he would bless me to return to fitness.

I graduated from Sky View High School in Smithfield, Utah. I currently run for Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Sat, Mar 28, 2015

Race: World Junior Cross Country Championships (4.971 Miles) 00:25:28, Place overall: 29, Place in age division: 29

Total Distance

11.50

Not my greatest race. I'll write more when I have time. Time for track. Caution-long report below.

Did a shakeout in morning. I didn't get much sleep, but it was more than the night before. I just never adjusted to the time. People would tell me to stay up late so I would sleep in, but I would stay up late and wake up at 2-4 AM. That's not good. Anyway, the course should've played into my strengths(hills and it was 8 kilometers instead of 5) but I wasn't as mentally ready today. We got to the course and I warmed up with Eric Hamer. My goal was top-10(possible a bit un-realistic) and if that wasn't happening, sub 25 minutes or top-20. We did our strides and the team was focused. I was a bit over-confident and not ready to work hard.

The gun went off and everyone else did too. It was a quick start, but unlike any race I've ever run, it didn't slow down after 200m. It actually sped up. I got spiked by a Qatar runner, and was stuck in the back. I slowly moved up, but had to run on the outside of the all the turns on the windy course. I got stuck behind a South African barefoot runner because I wanted to be super cautious around him with spikes. I ran a sprint around him at the top of the hill and after the first loop I could start to see the other US guys; Eric, Cerake, and John. I was struggling. I just told myself to hang on until the last loop, then explode and pass a lot of people. I was about 6:07 at 2k and in about 54th place. I moved up on this loop but slowed signficantly. I was about 12:30 at 4k and in 46th place. I had thoughts of dropping out here, but couldn't because that would be betraying my teamates.

The next loop I really had more in me, but emotionally and mentally wasn't there. I know I could've given it more, but I wasn't ready to hurt. I was at 19:00 at the 6k mark. Way too slow. I'd have to kick hard to get my time goal. My place was 35th. There was a big pack ahead of me with John Dressel falling off. I caught up to him and then he saw me and threw in a surge and got back in the pack. I fell off the pack and just passed anyone else who fell off harder than I did. With 600m left I tried to pick it up, but it was hard and mentally I had given up on the second loop, so I wasn't able to really dig deep. I passed two guys with 250m left, but they were mentally ruined too.

After the race I just felt awful. I felt as if I let myself, my family, and teamates down. I haven't given up like this in a race before. I've had days where I'd had trouble pushing it and taken it a step easier, but not like this. I had a lot more left after. My last 4 kilometers were pitiful and while I passed plenty of people, they weren't where they could've been.

Overall, this was a great experience and it motivates me to want to be better. I need to work harder. The Africans destroyed me, and this shows I have a long way to go to be where I want. I'm going to work a lot harder this track season than I ever have.

Comments

From Dave Olson on Wed, Apr 01, 2015 at 17:26:22 from 63.248.174.168

29th in the World is pretty awesome. Cherish running for Team USA! I still have great memories of doing the same in high school and its been almost 14 years since I had my one chance.

From jtshad on Thu, Apr 02, 2015 at 09:01:29 from 141.221.191.225

Great experience for you, still a good performance!

From Glory in the long run on Tue, Apr 07, 2015 at 22:08:03 from 65.130.131.140

This race may well have been a better experience for you than if you would have been top ten. Very great that you're realistic about yourself mentally and physically. You could have been top ten but still not have done your best, but if you think you had then it wouldn't bode well for the future. I'm very encouraged by your honest assessment. I do think that sleep can't ever be underrated, so that should be factored in. Be well.

From Sasha Pachev on Tue, Nov 28, 2017 at 12:14:34 from 192.168.1.1

Conner - about 2 years late commenting on this, but I have some thoughts that I hope you and others may find helpful.

I have had many races where I wondered how I managed to be such a slacker and not quite have given my all. As I got older, I began to see a pattern. First, with age such races started happening more often and now it is practically impossible for me to leave as much muscular effort and be as spent as I was compared to 15-20 years ago. This has been happening in spite of coming to the races with more experience and more mental grit gained by the years of living and dealing with various life's challenges.

What I get from this is that it takes more than grit and determination to be able to push your muscles. The ability to push yourself to the limit to a great extent is physical in nature. For example, if your adrenal glands are underperforming that day, it would require a heroic mental effort to produce even a rather mediocre amount of adrenaline by your healthy self standards. So you will finish the race with the muscles not very tired and feeling "guilty fresh" otherwise. Yet it is important to remember - even though the limiting factor of performance was not where it normally is, it was still a hard limiting factor. You still gave your best effort even though it did not feel like it.

The fix to this is going to be quite contrary to the knee-jerk reaction "I just need to push harder in workouts and races". Rather, you nourish your body with good sleep, healthy diet, and balanced training which involves rather moderate effort. Different people respond to different things, but I believe one thing will be universal - the workouts need to be structured in a way where you are looking forward to them before, and are coming back with a positive afterwards. I personally have found that I race better when at least some of my workouts consist of pacing somebody who is 10-20 seconds per mile slower than me for 80% of the volume, and then hitting the remaining 20% at a more challenging pace. This way, at least 80% of my workout will always be good because I helped somebody, and usually the remaining 20% ends up being good also because I am not overworked. On race days, things go better as well.

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