The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show

“I had every excuse in the book. The perfect narrative to show up and have fun and chalk it all up to injury and sponsor change. But there was this constant question: how can I be true to myself and respectful of the fitness I’ve gained?”

My guest for today’s episode is Clayton Young. He’s back after the 2026 Boston Marathon, which was his tenth marathon and this his tenth appearance on this podcast. He ran 2:05:41 for 11th place in the fastest and deepest field the race has ever seen. That time makes him one of the five fastest American men in marathon history on all courses.

What makes this performance worth a full conversation is everything that went into it. Clayton came into Boston off a foot and ankle injury that kept him cross training for sixteen weeks. He switched sponsors to Brooks, he had ten weeks of actual running, and he made the decision, consciously and explicitly, to compete — not to show up and let the circumstances be the excuse, but to play to win. The result was a two-and-a-half-minute PR and a Wellesley College high-five moment that went viral.

In this conversation, we go deep on the psychology of that decision, the Coach Ed Eyestone mantra of “fresh, flow, fearless, and faith,” the intel Clayton gathered from Rory Linkletter the night before that told him exactly how the race was going to go, the power data that said he was 1-2% less powerful than the year prior, and what it felt like to relive Chicago 2023 while dueling Ryan Ford in the closing miles of Boston.

We also get into the top 10 streak that Boston broke, what Clayton thinks about his spot in the American marathon pecking order heading toward LA 2028, and the sunglasses saga involving my own pair of shades.

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Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez

Guest: Clayton Young | @_clayton_young_

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr

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SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

OLIPOP: Olipop’s Tropical Punch tastes like a vacation in a can. It has the perfect balance of pineapple, passionfruit, mandarin, and apple. Every can contains their Olismart blend, which includes ingredients designed to support digestive health and help feed your gut microbiome. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about!⁠⁠ Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.⁠⁠

XENDURANCE: When you finish a hard workout, the work isn't actually done. That's when recovery starts. Xendurance Protein is designed specifically to help your body recover, rebuild, and get stronger after training. It combines four different types of protein, so your body gets both fast absorbing protein for immediate recovery and slower release protein to support muscle repair over time. ⁠⁠Check it out at Xendurance.com and use code CITIUS for 25% off your first order.

Chris Chavez and Preet Majithia hop on the mics for a bonus edition of This Week In Track & Field to preview the London Marathon this Sunday. Chris and Preet break down all the biggest names and storylines to watch for in London and share some of their race day insights and predictions.

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Hosts: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ + Preet Majithia | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@preet_athletics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate the exact Boston or London Marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, no breaking your flow.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

OLIPOP: Olipop’s Tropical Punch tastes like a vacation in a can. It has the perfect balance of pineapple, passionfruit, mandarin, and apple. Every can contains their Olismart blend, which includes ingredients designed to support digestive health and help feed your gut microbiome. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

XENDURANCE: When you finish a hard workout, the work isn't actually done. That's when recovery starts. Xendurance Protein is designed specifically to help your body recover, rebuild, and get stronger after training. It combines four different types of protein, so your body gets both fast absorbing protein for immediate recovery and slower release protein to support muscle repair over time. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check it out at Xendurance.com and use code CITIUS for 25% off your first order.

“Dathan said: you didn’t run it perfectly, but the way you competed tells us your ceiling might be much higher than we even thought when we recruited you.”

My guest for today’s episode is Ryan Ford: a member of the On Athletics Club roads squad who just ran 2:05:46 at the 2026 Boston Marathon, finishing among the top Americans in one of the fastest and deepest fields the race has ever seen. Twelve months ago, Ryan ran 2:08:00 at Boston in 2025 in what was his breakthrough performance, the race that landed him his On sponsorship and got him training under Dathan Ritzenhein and Laura Thweatt. He came back to the same city, the same course, and went two and a half minutes faster.

What makes Ryan’s story compelling beyond the result is the trajectory. He was a 14:07 5K runner out of college at UT Martin, transferred to Iowa State, chopped 30 seconds off that in a COVID extra year, joined Zap Fitness, paced Clayton Young to a 2:08 in Chicago before he’d even debuted in the marathon himself, and has been on a straight upward line ever since.

In this conversation, we talk about the training block that built this performance — the aggressive long runs with Joe Klecker on the dirt roads of Boulder, the Scottsdale camp that reset the build, and the race plan Dathan drew up for a day everyone knew was going to be fast.

Ryan also walks us through the key tactical moments on the course and shares what Dathan told him after the race about just how high his ceiling might actually be.

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Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez

Guest: Ryan Ford | @ryanford_chevy

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr

____________

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

XENDURANCE: When you finish a hard workout, the work isn't actually done. That's when recovery starts. Xendurance Protein is designed specifically to help your body recover, rebuild, and get stronger after training. It combines four different types of protein, so your body gets both fast absorbing protein for immediate recovery and slower release protein to support muscle repair over time. ⁠⁠Check it out at Xendurance.com and use code CITIUS for 25% off your first order.

WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate the exact Boston or London Marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, no breaking your flow. ⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.

OLIPOP: Olipop’s Tropical Punch tastes like a vacation in a can. It has the perfect balance of pineapple, passionfruit, mandarin, and apple. You get that nostalgic fruit punch flavor, but way more crisp and way more refreshing. Every can contains their Olismart blend, which includes ingredients designed to support digestive health and help feed your gut microbiome. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about!⁠⁠ Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.⁠⁠

“When I crossed the line and saw 2:24, I was actually in shock that I’d still managed a PR given how bad I felt. David [Roche] looked at my GPS file and said being able to bring yourself back from those depths is a sign of a real marathoner.”

My guest for today’s episode is Amanda Vestri. We just had the Brooks pro marathoner on a few weeks ago and talked about how she is one of the most exciting young American marathoners in the sport right now. Now, in just her second marathon, she finished 15th overall at the 2026 Boston Marathon in 2:24:49. She PR’d by nearly a minute from her debut in New York last November. She is coached by David and Megan Roche and by her own admission is only just getting started.

In this conversation, Amanda is refreshingly honest about a race that was both a personal best and a disappointment. She says the downhill-specific preparation was lacking and explains exactly what she plans to do differently in her next shot. We talk about what it was like to run alongside Jess McClain and Susanna Sullivan in the early miles and the deeply emotional moment of watching Jess close on the big screen at mile 23 while Amanda herself was hurting badly.

David Roche wrote after the race that Amanda is made of different stuff and that when it happens, every young runner is going to think about running like her. This conversation goes a long way toward explaining why he believes that.

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Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez

Guest: Amanda Vestri | @a_vestri

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr

____________

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

XENDURANCE: When you finish a hard workout, the work isn't actually done. That's when recovery starts. Xendurance Protein is designed specifically to help your body recover, rebuild, and get stronger after training. It combines four different types of protein, so your body gets both fast absorbing protein for immediate recovery and slower release protein to support muscle repair over time. ⁠⁠Check it out at Xendurance.com and use code CITIUS for 25% off your first order.

WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate the exact Boston or London Marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, no breaking your flow. ⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.

OLIPOP: Olipop’s Tropical Punch tastes like a vacation in a can. It has the perfect balance of pineapple, passionfruit, mandarin, and apple. You get that nostalgic fruit punch flavor, but way more crisp and way more refreshing. Every can contains their Olismart blend, which includes ingredients designed to support digestive health and help feed your gut microbiome. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about!⁠⁠ Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.⁠⁠

“You can’t just say from nowhere that you’re going to podium. My bib number was 15, which means there were 14 faster than me on paper. What you can do is read your body during the race. In Boston this year, once it started unfolding, I just knew everything was clicking.”

My guest for today’s episode is Zouhair Talbi. This is his second time on the show this year. We had him on in January after his victory at the Houston Marathon in 2:05.

On Monday at the Boston Marathon, he finished fifth overall in 2:03:45, became the top American in the race, and broke Ryan Hall’s American course record that had stood since 2011. He did it in regular prescription glasses, after back-to-back marathon blocks with barely ten days off between each, and after a training build that included a half marathon PR at the NYC Half while still in the middle of a full training load.

Zouhair was born in Morocco and grew up there before coming to the United States, where he now trains in Colorado Springs with coach Scott Simmons. CITIUS MAG first covered him at the Trials of Miles Texas Qualifier in February 2021, and this performance at Boston was a long time in the making.

In this conversation, he takes us inside the lead pack on race day, explains what it felt like to run next to John Korir and read the field in real time, and shares his honest thinking about what it will take to go from 2:03 to being a genuine contender at the 2028 U.S. Olympic Trials and beyond. He also speaks directly and thoughtfully about what it means to represent the United States, and what he wants his son — born here, growing up here — to see when he watches his father compete.

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Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez

Guest: Zouhair Talbi | @zouhairathle

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr

____________

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

XENDURANCE: When you finish a hard workout, the work isn't actually done. That's when recovery starts. Xendurance Protein is designed specifically to help your body recover, rebuild, and get stronger after training. It combines four different types of protein, so your body gets both fast absorbing protein for immediate recovery and slower release protein to support muscle repair over time. ⁠⁠Check it out at Xendurance.com and use code CITIUS for 25% off your first order.

WAHOO: With the Wahoo KICKR RUN, you can simulate the exact Boston or London Marathon course right in your own home. You can also use the run free mode, which uses sensors to automatically match the belt speed to your stride. No buttons, no interruptions, no breaking your flow. ⁠When you use code CITIUS at checkout, you'll also get a free KICKR Headwind Smart Fan. Check it out today at wahoofitness.com.

OLIPOP: Olipop’s Tropical Punch tastes like a vacation in a can. It has the perfect balance of pineapple, passionfruit, mandarin, and apple. Every can contains their Olismart blend, which includes ingredients designed to support digestive health and help feed your gut microbiome. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about!⁠⁠ Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.⁠⁠