For months Conner Mantz boldly stated that he would pursue the long-enduring American marathon record in Chicago, and on Sunday morning he did just that. Mantz, the former BYU collegiate champion from Smithfield, Utah, crushed the American record at the 47th annual Chicago Marathon, finishing fourth with a time of 2:04:43.

That broke the 23-year-old American record by 55 seconds. Mantz’s time also broke the North American record of 2:05:36 set by Canadian Cam Levins , the former Southern Utah University runner.

In 2002, Khalid Khannouchi, a Moroccan-born runner who had become a U.S. citizen two years earlier, set the world and American record of 2:05:38. Somehow that time endured even long after the arrival of the carbon fiber-plated running shoes that have revolutionized running

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