On February 20, 2026, French athlete Alexis Trougnou set the men’s supported para-athlete fastest known time for ascending and descending Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. At 19,341 feet (5,895 meters), Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa.

Trougnou is visually and hearing impaired, and he recorded a time of 26 hours, 41 minutes, and 22 seconds for the approximately 30-mile (48 kilometers) Rongai Route. The route, which gains over 12,000 feet in elevation, approaches the mountain from the northeast and is less used than many of the other options. Trougnou had guides for visual and auditory assistance and called the project “Le Kilimandjaro Pour Voir Plus Haut,” or “Kilimanjaro to See Higher.” The project was driven by a strong purpose to show that impairment should never be a self-imposed limitation. He is the first para-athlete to set a fastest known time (FKT) on the mountain, the first person to submit an FKT on the Rongai Route, and one among a growing community of para-athletes setting speed records on routes around the world.

Trougnou has Usher syndrome, a genetic degenerative disorder that results in a loss of vision and hearing over time, and has a field of vision of less than five degrees. As stated in his report on the Fastest Known Time website, he sees “as if through a straw.” At night, he is blind, and during the climb, he relied completely on his main guides — Vanessa Marc Mórales and Florent Marc — to relay the conditions of every step to him. “The role of a guide is extremely demanding,” says Trougnou. “They must manage their own effort, find the best path, and at the same time, continuously communicate information to me. It is a real responsibility. I am very grateful to them, and without any pun intended, I place blind trust in them.”

A Team Effort

This was Trougnou’s first project at high altitude, and he and his guides first completed the Rongai Route over six days for reconnaissance and acclimatization. For this, they were accompanied by three Tanzanian guides and 18 porters from Explore Trekking Adventure, as well as Trougnou’s partner, Charlène Boucher, who managed all the administrative work for the project and was there to support Trougnou with daily tasks so that he could focus on the attempt itself.

For the actual record attempt, the team consisted of Trougnou, his two main guides, three Tanzanian guides, and three porters. Mórales, one of his main guides, holds the women’s supported FKT for the ascent and descent of Kilimanjaro via the southern Mweka Route. Trougnou didn’t personally know her before this project, but was inspired by her. He says, “A friend with the same condition as mine told me about a Kilimanjaro project, but I wanted to go beyond a simple trek. When I saw that she was accompanied by Vanessa Marc Mórales, I thought: Why not try to go for a record as a visually impaired athlete with Vanessa as my guide?” He reached out to Mórales on Strava, and she and her husband joined the team, alternating in the guiding role. According to Trougnou, although they were initially strangers, they have since built strong bonds.

Setting an FKT and Paving the Way

For the FKT attempt, the team set off from Rongai Gate at 4 p.m. on February 19 in favorable conditions, with only a brief rain shower at the start. Approximately 16 hours and 35 minutes later, after moving through the night, they reached the Uhuru Peak summit on Kilimanjaro at 8:35 a.m., allowing them to descend the most technically challenging and visually demanding section in daylight. Throughout the entire FKT effort, Trougnou’s guides continuously relayed the trail conditions so that Trougnou could negotiate the terrain safely, and they arrived back at the trailhead at 6:41 p.m on February 20.

Trougnou has completed athletic challenges before, including crossing France from east to west on a tandem bike and running the 75k Ultra Trail des Montagnes du Jura, but says this challenge “represented a real step into the unknown.” It required 18 months of preparation, with an average of five training sessions per week, as well as altitude training. “I have always had a competitive mindset through the different sports I have practiced,” Trougnou says. “Being part of an official record, having your name recognized on a global scale, is something powerful.”

But he is also keen to assert that this was a team success, not an individual one, and it was a chance to “change perspectives and break down prejudices,” hopefully inspiring others with impairments to push their boundaries. “For me, disability is not a barrier. It should not prevent you from dreaming or having ambition,” Trougnou says. “Whether you have a disability or not, the important thing is to dare, to surround yourself with the right people, and to stay determined.”

Speed efforts for para-athletes are a quickly growing segment of the sport. The Fastest Known Time website established a para-athlete category in early 2025, and at the time of this article’s publishing, it has documented 11 efforts by eight para-athletes, including Trougnou’s on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Trougnou says he enjoyed the high-altitude experience — experiencing sensations he had never felt before — and hopes to do something similar again. For now, he will focus on more local projects that are less logistically and financially demanding, such as the Grande Traversée du Jura mountain bike route, or the GR20, a 112-mile (180k) trek across Corsica, France. “The idea remains the same: to challenge myself,” he says.

Filmmaker Pierre Petit, from Meije Productions, accompanied the team on the FKT and is currently producing a documentary about the project and daily life with a visual impairment.

Para-Athlete Alexis Trougnou Sets Mount Kilimanjaro FKT, Helps Pave Way for Para-Speed Efforts by Lydia Thomson.

[Editor’s Note: This month’s Community Voices article was written by Jerry Dunn, who has been running for just over 50 years — from early marathons in the 1980s through decades of ultras and long projects — and now, at 80, as an octogenarian. He is the founder of the Lean Horse Ultras in South Dakota and has run countless marathons, including setting a world record in 1993 by running 104 marathons in a year.]

For a long time, I believed distance changed a person.

Marathons made you serious. Ultras made you different. Hundreds made you something else entirely. I spent decades testing that idea. Now, at 80, distance no longer changes who I am. It only changes how clearly I see.

When Running Stops Adding

In the early years, running adds things. Confidence, structure, community, identity. Later, it adds fewer things and preserves more things — mobility, routine, a way to order the day. Eventually, it stops adding or preserving. It clarifies.

I finish runs now with less noise than I started with. Not accomplishment. Not relief. Just a quieter mind. Running used to expand my life. Now it edits it.

The Quiet Phase of Endurance

There’s a phase of running that rarely gets written about. You are no longer chasing times. You are no longer building mileage. You are not proving toughness. You are simply participating in motion. The run becomes a place where thought reorganizes itself without effort. Problems return to actual size. Memories settle into order. Physically, nothing really improves. Nor does it decline. Things become accurate.

After Competition

Most runners know the moment they stop racing other people. Later comes the moment you stop racing the clock. The final shift is quieter — you stop racing your former self. What replaces it isn’t acceptance. It’s the absence of negotiation. You run the way weather happens — not because you decided to, but because the day arrived and movement came with it.

What Endurance Leaves Behind

We often say endurance sports build resilience. What they really build is familiarity with change. Fitness arrives and leaves. Events come and go. Bodies cooperate, and then they don’t. Over time, the point of running moves away from achievement and toward participation — not in sport, but in being alive while moving through space under your own power. Running becomes less about finishing and more about noticing.

The Only Distance That Remains

After 50 years, I no longer measure runs in miles. I measure them by how little I need from them. When running stops giving meaning, it begins revealing it. Presence turns out to be the only distance that can actually be completed.

Call for Comments

• How has running changed for you as you’ve gotten older?
• What do you seek from your running today?

The Distance Stops Changing by Guest Writer.

In a giant leap for humanoid kind, a robot named Lightning outran all its human and robot competitors at the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon, on April 19, finishing in 50:26, faster than any human — or humanoid — has before.

Lightning and the other two robot podium finishers were built by the Chinese smartphone and consumer electronics maker Honor, whose representative said in a press conference after the race that the company has been making humanoid robots for only a year and that its work has focused on adapting technologies from other electronics industries into robotics.

This year was the second edition of the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon, and it reportedly hosted more than 12,000 humans and 300 humanoid robots — on parallel but equal courses. For the humans, Zhao Hai-Jie of China won the men’s race in 1:07:47, while Wang Qiao-Zia, also of China, won for the women in 1:18:06.

If last year’s robotic entrants won hearts and minds in the match-up of humans versus humanoid robots, this year’s competitors took that sentiment and ran away with it. Crowds of astounded and inspired onlookers gaped, their smartphones recording, as the mechanical athlete blazed by at an average pace of 3:50 minutes per mile. To put that in perspective, Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) and Letesenbet Gidey (Ethiopia), the men’s and women’s half-marathon world record holders, ran 57:20 and 1:02:52, with mere average paces of 4:22 and 4:47 minutes per mile.

Given the performances — or lack thereof — of the humanoid robots in the 2025 event, which had a fair amount of excitement leading up to it, the jump in robotics technology is astounding. Lightning was 100 minutes faster than the 2025 winner, the barrier-breaking, remote-controlled electric athlete Tiangong Ultra, a startling margin of improvement. Last year, Tiangong Ultra was the only robot to make it to the finish line under the 3:10 cutoff — finishing in 2:40 — and only six of the robotic entries made it to the finish line at all. This year, Lightning was among the 40% of robot entrants operating autonomously. The race also had a category for remote-controlled robots.

So how did the humanoid robot become such a fantastically fast competitor? Your author’s gut feeling is that this amazing performance likely has nothing to do with high-carbohydrate fueling strategies, as spilling Coca-Cola on my previous laptop did nothing to speed up processing times or increase performance. What was eye-catching was that this humanoid robot basically had no eyes, head, or hands. This suggests that if humans are going to take competing against robots more seriously, we will have to come to terms with more extreme weight-saving strategies that may or may not require a visit to a surgeon.

In reality, post-race discussion on the robots’ performance improvements has focused on the fact that Honor and the other top-performing companies implemented autonomous and navigation technologies from other electronics industries in their robots, whereas last year, the robots were remotely controlled by nearby humans. Lightning, for example, appears to have a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) device instead of a head, the same technology currently used in the autonomous automobile industry to create continuously updating scans of the conditions surrounding a car.

It is worth noting, however, that so far, the records of our coveted trail races and ultramarathons appear safe from our voltaic counterparts, as their success has been limited to pavement races and they have not been tested on rugged, mountainous trails. But make no mistake, their vast road running improvements in just a year indicate that the robots are coming for our records, which means we need to find ways to quickly evolve and adapt.

Perhaps we need to borrow a page from the playbook of the bicycle world, which in recent years has leaned heavily into advancing electric bikes — or e-bikes. Where are e-running shoes with battery-powered carbon plates that send us flying uphill with galvanic strides? Perhaps Nike knows what humankind is up against with their eye-catching Project Amplify battery-powered footwear system. Or Hypershell with its exoskeleton development. Our UTMB records might still be safe for a little while, but who can predict what humanoid-robot-running advancements there will be in 2027 and beyond?

You can learn more by watching the event’s livestream:

[Editor’s Note: Click here to watch the film on YouTube.]

Human Half-Marathon World Record Zapped by Humanoid Robot at the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon by Gabe Joyes.

At the top, there was the Penyagolosa Trails event in Spain, the year’s first Mountain Running World Cup race, and Ashley Paulson set another world record. It was a relatively quiet weekend of racing, though.

You can also check out our additional coverage from the weekend:

• Human Half-Marathon World Record Zapped by Humanoid Robot at the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon

Penyagolosa Trails – Castellón, Spain

CSP

The long course race went for 106 kilometers (66 miles) with 5,600 meters (18,372 feet) of climbing. Race winners earned 3,000 Euro.

The men ran it close. Raul Butaci (Romania) scored a 42-second win over Julen Calvó (Spain). Both finished in 10:41. The pair were just back of Ben Dhiman’s 10:35 course record from 2023. Third-place Joaquin Lopez (Ecuador) followed in 10:46.

Gemma Arenas (Spain) ran away with the women’s crown in 13:43. Emily Dixon (U.K.) and Yasmina Castro Chacón (Spain) were next in 14:07 and 14:39.

MiM

The 60k (37 miles) race had the same 3,000 Euro first-place prize with money going three deep, and the front two men dueled here, too. José Fernández (Spain) was just over two minutes better than Dakota Jones (U.S.) for the win. The two leaders finished in 5:15 and 5:17, and Mario Olmedo (Spain) was third in 5:23.

Women’s breakaway winner Sara-Rebekka Færø Linde (Norway) came through in 6:23, and Inés Astrain (Spain) and Anna Comet (Spain) were 10 seconds apart in second and third at 6:36.

Full results.

São Brás Cross – São Brás, Portugal

The Classic Up and Down race was the year’s first Mountain Running World Cup contest. It went 10.9 kilometers (6.8 miles) with 628 meters (2,060 feet) in central Portugal.

Men

A big men’s group stuck together on the opening downhill, but when the climbing started, Michael Selelo Saoli (Kenya) struck first. He opened a lead that he’d hold to the finish. Saoili won in 42:22. Andrew Douglas (U.K.) clung to Saoli going up, but was dropped going down. Douglas did hold onto second in 43:37. Third-place Oscar Subuh-Symons (U.K.) finished in 44:07.

The men’s top five was:

1. Michael Selelo Saoli (Kenya) – 42:22
2. Andrew Douglas (U.K.) – 43:37
3. Oscar Subuh-Symons (U.K.) – 44:07
4. Théodore Klein (France) – 44:39
5. Matthew Knowles (U.K.) – 45:37

Women

Defending World Cup champion Scout Adkin (U.K.) led to the top of the climb, but Ruth Gitonga (Kenya) blasted the second half downhill to win the women’s race 49:12. Adkin was second in 50:13, and 2025 breakout star Nélie Clément (France) was third in 51:20.

The women’s top five was:

1. Ruth Gitonga (Kenya) – 49:12
2. Scout Adkin (U.K.) – 50:13
3. Nélie Clément (France) – 51:20
4. Elle Twentyman (U.K.) – 53:07
5. Marie Nivet (France) – 53:20

Full results.

Puerto Vallarta Mexico by UTMB – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

The race names were words from the indigenous language. Hikuri means Peyote, Nakawé translates as Mother water, and Haramara means Ocean Goddess. The host country won nearly all of the races.

The Hikuri 81k (50 miles) long course had Juan Belman Ortiz (Mexico) go 8:45, and Mandie Currie (Canada) win for the women in 12:01.

Miguel Pérez (Mexico) and Josefina Perez (Mexico) won the Nakawé 53k (33 miles) in 5:21 and 6:35.

The Haramara 37k (23 miles) had Abraham Hernández (Mexico) and Nayeli De La Torre (Mexico) finish on top in 3:18 and 4:36.

Full results.

Additional Races and Runs

Les Courses du Mont-Terrible – Fontenais, Switzerland

Swiss runners Fabrice Fauser and Denise Zimmerman won the event’s long course 106k (66 miles) in 10:03 and 12:42. Full results.

Storm the Park 50k – Altura, Minnesota

At Whitewater State Park, Michael Borst and Andrea Louwagie led the 50k field in 5:05 and 6:05. Full results.

Outlands – Pilot Hill, California

The second-year event had Tyler Andree and Elise Gregoire win the 50 miler in 7:20 and 10:01, and Adam Kimble and Beverley Anderson-Abbs were first in the 50k in 3:56 and 5:08. Full results.

Whiskey Basin Trail Runs – Prescott, Arizona

The races were along the town’s Prescott Circle Trail. Michael Versteeg and Kate Taylor won the 91k (56 miles) race in 8:11 and 10:01, and Scott Traer and Rachel Entrekin were fastest in the 60k (37 miles) in 4:40 and 5:17. Full results.

Capitol Peak 50 Mile – Olympia, Washington

Connor Engelking and Alice May won the men’s and women’s races in 7:50 and 10:10. Full results.

Cedro Peak 50k – Tijeras, New Mexico

Just east of Albuquerque, Joshua Reddish and Kobe Jane won in 4:13 and 5:50. Reddish has the course record of 3:50 from 2024. Full results.

Rattler Trail Race 50k – Colorado Springs, Colorado

The Mad Moose Event saw Jacob Morales and Samantha Hengehold lead the 50k in 4:27 and 5:00. Full results.

Squak Mountain 50k – Issaquah, Washington

A small 50k field was led by Berrett Bentley and Andrea Lin in 4:20 and 5:08. Full results.

Go One More – Liberty Hill, Texas

They were still going at press time last week. The backyard-style race finished with Mark Dowdle totaling 73 laps and 306.6 miles in 73 hours. Dowdle won at least two backyard races in 2025, too, and the Arrowhead 135 Mile earlier this year. Full results.

Zane Grey 50 – Payson, Arizona

Michael Carilli won the men’s 50-mile race in 8:04, and Callie Arndt was first for the women in 12:16. In the 50k event, Ned Sudbeck won it for the men in 4:26, and Melissa Brewer was first woman in 6:23. Full results.

Women’s Treadmill 100-Mile World Record – Boston, Massachusetts

At the Boston Marathon Expo and with a 3:46 a.m. start, Ashley Paulson ran 100 miles in 12:47:10 on a treadmill. That’s 7:40 per mile, and it was a new women’s treadmill world record. In February 2026, Paulson set a new women’s 100-mile world record with a 12:19:34 run at the Jackpot Ultras event in Nevada. Edit Bérces (Hungary) set the old treadmill record in 2004 at 14:15:08. [Ashley Paulson served a six-month doping sanction in 2015 and 2016 due to a doping violation in triathlon for a positive test for ostarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM), from a contaminated supplement.]

Hyner View Trail Challenge – Hyner, Pennsylvania

The popular 50k had 6,500 feet of climbing across five big climbs at Hyner View State Park. Ben Quatromoni and Deanna Doane won in 4:24 and 4:54. Quatromoni won here in 2024, too, and Doane’s time was a new course record. Doane improved on Kassandra Spitler’s 5:09 run from 2024. Andrew Hutchinson and Eileen Maney were best in the 25k in 2:12 and 3:17. Full results.

Traprock 50k – Simsbury, Connecticut

Race champs Matt Pacheco and Kehr Davis took the three-lap event in 4:45 and 5:41. Full results.

Next Weekend

Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB – Auburn, California

All the races — 100-mile, 100k, and 50k — will be competitive, but the 100k stands out as a super Golden Ticket race with three automatic entries to this year’s Western States 100 for the top men and women.

It’s a long list of possible challengers, but at the top there are Hayden Hawks, Cade Michael, Zach Miller, Will Murray, Adam Peterman, and Canyon Woodward for the men.

For the women, expect frontrunners to include Careth Arnold, Riley Brady, Anne Flower, Ellaney Matarese, Martyna Młynarczyk (Poland), and Claudia Tremps (Spain). (Brady identifies as non-binary and competes in the women’s race.)

The 50k should be fast with men’s entrants Jupiter Carera Casas (Mexico), Matt Daniels, Alex Garcia (Spain), and Eli Hemming. Top women on the start list include Julia Font (Spain), Lauren Gregory, Tabor Hemming, Makena Morley, and Molly Seidel.

Elite runners.

Mt. Fuji 100 Mile – Fujiyoshida, Japan

In the 100-mile race, the year’s fourth World Trail Majors race has Chris Myers (U.S.), Guo-Min Deng (China), and Jia-Ju Zhao (China) as potential top contenders, and the women’s elite group includes Alyssa Clark (U.S.), Arika Ito (Japan), and Kaytlyn Gerbin (U.S.). Deng won the event in 2024, and Ito was third at last year’s race.

The Short Series 40k race includes men’s runners Ruy Ueda (Japan), Ru-Qin Wang (China), and John Ray Onifa (Philippines), and women’s runners Takako Takamura (Japan), Marcela Vašínová (Czech Republic), and Brittany Charboneau (U.S.).

Call for Comments

Today is the Boston Marathon. Christian Allen is out with an injury, but 50k world-record holder CJ Albertson will be racing. What other trail- or ultra-adjacent runners will be on the start line?

This Week In Running: April 20, 2026 by Justin Mock.

Pro runners and training partners Alex Masai and Wesley Kiptoo aren’t brothers, but they act like it. The Kenyans tease and heckle each other, they run with a near-identical stride, and you can easily feel their deep mutual respect. There’s also a levity about them — that nothing is so serious that it can’t be laughed about — which contrasts their serious dedication to running. And both are members of the now-institutional HOKA Northern Arizona Elite running team, with the 2026 Boston Marathon their imminent goal race.

HOKA has sponsored the Northern Arizona Elite (NAZ Elite) running team since 2015, a year after the team was founded. Its coaches and members live and train in Flagstaff, Arizona, which sits at about 7,000 feet in altitude and is surrounded by forests, with easy access to lower-elevation desert training grounds. It’s an area already known for its running community, and HOKA NAZ Elite team members have won countless national titles and placed in the top 10 of major marathons.

Watching Masai and Kiptoo, who’ve been members of HOKA NAZ Elite for several years, get ready for their workout on a cloudy and windy late March morning at Mile 0 on Lake Mary Road just outside of Flagstaff, it’s easy to forget that they’re elite athletes prepping for one of the most coveted prizes in marathoning. Masai has the doors of his unassuming black car open, with bass beats blasting; Kiptoo bounces around and smiles nonstop, the human version of Tigger in “Winnie the Pooh.”

The pair seamlessly switches between English, Kiswahili, and their respective tribal dialects as they chat and warm up their muscles with massage guns. Masai wears a beaded necklace with a pendant shaped like the African continent, which shifts around his neck when he runs. Kiptoo is unmissable in an orange long-sleeve shirt and black shorts.

Teammates Adrian Wildschutt of South Africa and the U.S.’s Paige Wood are here too. Wildschutt, who placed 10th at the 2024 Olympic Games in the 10,000 meters, is trying to load the day’s workout onto his new watch, while Wood, the 2022 U.S. Marathon National Champion, gives off the sense that she’s seen all these antics before but is happy to be in lighthearted company.

This controlled chaos is overseen by HOKA NAZ Elite head coach Jack Mullaney, who projects an even-keeled demeanor as he sends them out for a warmup. The four jog off into the forest, their chatter audible even after they’re out of sight.

Mullaney has been with the team since the fall of 2023 and writes all of the training for Masai and Kiptoo. He knows his athletes well, rattling off their exact times at various races over the years and offering analysis on their past performances and future potential.

He talks easily about them as humans, too. He says Masai is an introvert who understands the big picture of training and recovery in order to show up ready on race day. Mullaney assesses that Masai enjoys placing his full focus on his running: training, eating, recovering, and sleeping. Meanwhile, he thinks Kiptoo thrives off human interaction and benefits from having his two kids — ages four and five — around, giving his life another focal point.

Mullaney says Masai hits paces perfectly in workouts, while Kiptoo sometimes succumbs to racing a training run. “Kiptoo’s a child at heart,” Mullaney says. “And I mean that in an endearing way.” He notes that when Kiptoo and Masai train together, they don’t race because Masai doesn’t take Kiptoo’s bait.

Doing the Work

About 30 minutes later, back from their warmup, all four runners switch shoes for the workout. Kiptoo chooses the HOKA Cielo X1 2.0, Wildschutt opts for the HOKA Rocket X 3, and Masai dons the HOKA Cielo X1 3.0. They stretch and do strides, chatting about how the new HOKA Cielo will be good for the Boston Marathon.

According to Mullaney, the Cielo X1 3.0 PEBA foam offers top-notch shock absorption, which is critical on the hilly course. He says, “So much of having a good race comes down to keeping your legs under you through the Newton Hills [which stretch between miles 16 to 21] and being able to run strong all the way to the finish line.” Mullaney points out that the carbon-plated shoe is lighter than the previous version and says that both Kiptoo and Masai have commented on how responsive it feels while still providing enough cushion throughout a long run.

Today’s workout is a fartlek, with 25 repeats of one minute on/one minute off along Lake Mary Road, a hallowed training ground for area athletes. Mullaney has selected this hilly section of road to simulate the Boston Marathon course. It’s an effort-based workout rather than a pace-based one, but he still has his stopwatches in hand.

The group’s chatter continues as they jog up to the mile marker where the workout officially starts. Suddenly, it’s all business as Masai, Kiptoo, and Wildschutt fall into step with each other, with Wood starting her own workout just behind. Right away, you can see that this trio is used to running together, their strides often syncing as if moving as one unit.

For the first 13 one-minute efforts, they run south on Lake Mary Road, the blustery wind at their backs. They receive cheers when they pass by The Mailboxes where other training groups are warming up. Their pace on the hard minutes varies with the hills and wind, but ranges from 4:13 to 4:56 per mile.

Halfway through the workout, about 4.5 miles in, they turn around and into the wind, alternating leading and drafting. Mullaney waits for them every mile with water bottles and words of encouragement. On the final one-minute effort, Kiptoo and Wildschutt push the pace, opening a small gap on Masai.

“That’s on brand,” Mullaney says of this final acceleration, “I have to be careful when I pair [Kiptoo and Wildschutt] together because they will race.” Also, on brand, Masai lets them go.

The lighthearted energy returns immediately after the nine-mile workout as they drink and head out for a warmdown. Kiptoo, Masai, and Mullaney have clearly built an unspoken trust that allows each of them to be themselves as they all strive to improve.

Masai and Kiptoo have a lot in common. The two have known each other since 2020, when they met at a 10-kilometer race. Masai says that they clicked immediately as friends. They both came to the U.S. from Kenya on college running scholarships. They both ended up at HOKA NAZ Elite as pro runners. And now they’re both training for the Boston Marathon.

But they are also really different in their backgrounds, paths to pro running, and approach to balancing running with life. The differences are apparent from how they execute workouts to how they schedule post-workout interviews. Kiptoo is happy to sit on a rock right after warming down to chat, while Masai, who immediately drinks a protein drink, goes home to shower and rest before meeting up again at the HOKA NAZ Elite performance center before their strength session and second run.

Growing Up in Kenya

Masai grew up in a running household in the Mount Elgon region of western Kenya. Masai’s older sister took bronze at the 10,000 meters at the 2008 Olympic Games, and his older brother finished fourth at the same event. As a child, Masai wasn’t particularly interested in following in his siblings’ footsteps. He jokes, “My primary teachers invited me into their staff room to watch TV while my sister and brother were running.”

But Masai wanted to travel, and saw through his brother and sister that running was a path to this goal. Masai was already attending college in Kenya when he participated in a trial hosted by U.S. college recruiters. The opportunity to come to the U.S. was “pretty much a free education. I didn’t know how much into running I’d get. I just thought, I have good enough fitness for an education.”

Meanwhile, Kiptoo grew up near the famed running city of Eldoret and took up running in middle school, much earlier than Masai. While everyone else in his family refused to run, Kiptoo’s talent was apparent. In 2014, he was recruited to join 2012 Boston Marathon champion Wesley Korir’s Transcend Talent Academy, which provides scholarships and coaching to promising Kenyan youth runners. Kiptoo says that initially, “I didn’t think about where running could take me. I wasn’t thinking running was something big.”

But Korir understood the opportunities available to student-athletes in the U.S. and encouraged those in the academy to reach for them. Kiptoo eventually believed in the mission, “I wanted to get good in school, get good grades, and maintain my running.” In 2018, he was recruited to a Kansas community college. That first semester, he admits, “I got shocked because I had never experienced winter.”

Collegiate Success

During his first year in the U.S., Masai still saw running as a means to an end. “Cross-country training wasn’t that difficult. If I could just score some points on the cross-country team, I could get a free education.” His school at the time didn’t have a track team, so Masai ran cross country and studied criminal justice, hoping to join the Kenyan police force after school.

Then, in 2018, while home in Kenya for summer break, under his coach’s instructions to improve, Masai had a change of heart. “For those three months, I was training with elite athletes. I got to understand what they do, wake up every morning, and do all those workouts with them. That changed my mind. I thought, I want to run for a living.”

Masai learned that it wasn’t just the workouts that mattered but the recovery as well. He says, “There are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes. So I was like, If this is what it takes to train full-time, I have to change my mentality.” When he returned to the U.S. for the fall semester, now a student at the NCAA Division I Hofstra University in New York, he was all in on full-time running.

Kiptoo struggled through his first year at a U.S. community college. Using computers, learning English, and getting into classes were difficult. He was injured and not running well. He says, “I was thinking about going back home. I called my family and said, ‘I don’t think I can manage it over here.’ But they told me, ‘Find a way to learn things, and you’ll catch up.’”

Kiptoo stuck it out. By his second semester, he had made friends and started running better. He remembers, “I figured out how to take one step at a time without getting more stressed. I just wanted to make sure I don’t go back home, because life is always hard.” That year, he won the NJCAA 5,000 meters national championships and says, “From there, I never looked back.” He also met his future wife while working at the college cafeteria, “I had never dated here. But it was a little bit like, Oh man, I don’t know how that goes! But it was fun.”

Kiptoo transferred to Iowa State University in 2020. During his tenure, he became a seven-time NCAA Division I All-American in both track and cross country, and in 2021, he won the NCAA indoor 5,000-meter national championships. He also got married and had two kids.

Joining HOKA NAZ Elite

According to Masai, when he and Kiptoo first met at a 10k race in 2020, “We clicked.” Masai, who is two years older than Kiptoo, joined HOKA NAZ Elite first in August 2021 after graduating and made a case for bringing Kiptoo onto the team. Masai says, “If you get guys like him who always want to get better, we’re going to achieve more.”

He laughs when he tells the story, “It was for my own benefit, too, because I wanted someone to train with. That’s how we can get better, having someone you can count on every workout, every run.”

Meanwhile, Flagstaff and HOKA NAZ Elite appealed to Kiptoo, and he joined the team in 2022. He says, “Because I grew up in Eldoret in Kenya, I wanted to get somewhere where I can train like back home,” and Flagstaff’s high elevation fit the bill. He continues, “The second thing is they had a strong team for track and road running. My main goal was to get a group that could support me to get to the next level.” Kiptoo appreciates the social aspect of the Flagstaff running scene, “In the summer, there’s a lot of runners. And we get into group running. It’s fun.”

In the years that followed, Masai would focus on shorter distances before transitioning to the marathon. Masai would finish ninth at the 2024 Chicago Marathon, his debut at the distance. He returned to finish third at the event in 2025, which he calls “my breakthrough performance, by far.”

Kiptoo also initially focused on shorter distances before finishing 12th at the 2023 Chicago Marathon. In 2024, he finished 16th at the New York City Marathon, and in 2025, he finished 12th at his first attempt at the Boston Marathon.

Flying Higher Together

Masai and Kiptoo both say that training together makes them better. Masai says, “We understand each other’s weaknesses, and work from our own strengths to help each other.”

According to Masai, “[Kiptoo] is stronger in the shorter sessions. He’s more explosive. I try to hang behind him, because I know he’s going to do a good job.” When runs get longer, Masai takes over, saying, “I’m more patient. If I go in front and control the pace, we’re going to have a better outcome on long runs.”

This mutalism extends beyond running. Kiptoo says, “We also found a way to enjoy training. I feel like our personalities come out.” He continues, “When it comes to just laughing around, jokes and stuff, we let each other be ourselves. And that’s been great for almost four years now.”

For Kiptoo, keeping it fun is the key to enduring the daily grind. “We’re doing marathon training. It’s a long block. Sometimes we get tired, so we just have fun. And we just want to get through it.” He continues, “The main thing is, ‘How can we get better?’ So if it’s a workout, it’s ‘How can we push this workout? How can we control this workout so we go to the next one feeling healthy and strong and running with better spirits?’ That way, we always elevate each other.”

They also share an open honesty. Masai says, “We’re definitely like siblings. It’s easy to tell the truth because I know it’s not going to hurt him.” They’ll call each other out if one is making bad decisions and hold each other accountable for doing all the little things right, so they show up to each workout ready.

Boston and the Future

Coach Mullaney rightfully says that the Boston Marathon is a race where anything can happen. One needs to be able to handle the downhill of the first few miles, reach the Newton Hills at mile 16 with strong legs, and not fall apart on Heartbreak Hill after mile 20. If those things all come together, a runner is set up for a good result.

Both Kiptoo and Masai say they’ve been training healthy and strong in their lead-up. Kiptoo, who became a U.S. citizen in September 2025, raced in the 2025 U.S. Cross Country Championships in December and placed third, earning him a spot to represent Team USA at the 2026 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in January in Florida, where he was 14th. In March 2026, he won the U.S. Half Marathon National Championships.

According to Mullaney, Kiptoo has raced much less leading up to Boston this year than in 2025, and speculates that he’ll be fresher with more specific marathon training in his legs. But for Kiptoo, the biggest change has been his training partner. “Last year, I was training [for Boston] by myself. And this year, I have [Masai]. We are in a good spot to shoot for a good position.”

Masai’s confidence comes from knowing that he’s executed every workout to the best of his ability. After his third place at the 2025 Chicago Marathon, he learned that he can be at the front of the big races. He says, “As long as I train well, I believe in my ability to compete against the best on that given day.” There is a benefit to knowing what it feels like to run at the front of a World Marathon Majors event. “It changes your racing mentality. I’m not just going to hang out and see. I’m going there to race against the best.”

Masai is looking forward to racing alongside Kiptoo, knowing they’ve put in the work together. “Let’s say we’re at halfway and things get serious, then I know we train together. You’re staying strong, I’m going to stay strong too.”

Kiptoo is also looking forward to racing alongside his teammate. “Sometimes it’s scary going to a race because you don’t know how you’ll feel. But when you see your teammate, you’re like, We got this!”

Greater Than a Sum of the Parts

Perhaps what makes Masai and Kiptoo, and the whole HOKA NAZ Elite team, so strong is that they’ve embraced their different personalities and strengths to make the collective something bigger than the sum of its individual parts.

For Kiptoo, who has made a home for himself in Flagstaff for now, motivation comes from his family. “My kids love running. So when I go home, I want to stretch, and they join me. I bought them some HOKA shoes, and every time we go for a walk, they want to run all the way.” Kiptoo notes that his kids are also his biggest critics, “When I go to my races, they will wake up to watch. And if I don’t win, they’re like, ‘What happened? You need to be running in the front. We need a big medal.’ And when I win, they are so happy.”

For Masai, he says, “I want to continue performing.” He trains, eats, and sleeps with a full focus. He knows that a running career is temporary and is vague about what comes after, but says that for now, “just enjoying the ride of enjoying running” is plenty enough.

When it comes time to head to the Boston Marathon start line, it’s easy to imagine that Masai and Kiptoo won’t be the quiet, focused ones sitting with their internal thoughts. Kiptoo might be bouncing around with his Tigger-like energy, with Masai laughing along in his quieter confidence. It’s also easy to imagine they’ll spend that bus ride joking with each other, switching between languages, and bringing all the elements that have made them successful training partners — honesty, levity, and so many shared miles — to the streets of Boston.

[Editor’s Note: This article is sponsored by HOKA. Thank you to the brand for its sponsorship of iRunFar, which helps to make iRunFar happen and free for all to enjoy. Learn more about our sponsored articles.]

Boston Bound: The Joy of Wesley Kiptoo and Alex Masai by Sponsored Post.