2025 LA Marathon winner, Matt Richtman says it took "months of dedicated training"
In just his second-ever marathon race, Illinois native Matt Richtman won Sunday's Los Angeles Marathon, the first American to do so in 31 years.
For the Montana State cross-country standout, he said the inspiration for doing the 26-mile race came from the running community.
"For me, really getting into the marathon was just, you know it just started with being with everyone," Richtman said. "You know the marathon and half marathons are such a community group and for me, I just wanted to be part of that."
Richtman's high school cross country coach said he called the win at mile 13 when Richtman made his move. "The commentator on the stream was saying he might be fading a little bit, I'm going, I've seen him do this move 50 times. He's gonna win it, and I don't think I blinked the last hour of the race," Kaneland High School head track and field coach Andy Drendel said.
The coach told CBS News Chicago that Richtman was "the best competitor that we'd ever seen."
There was a lot of preparation and training for the 25-year-old ahead of the March 16 race. His father, Tom Richtman, told CBS News Chicago that his son trained two hours a day, for six months – running over 100 miles a week, despite the weather.
"There was a lot of preparation for sure, years building on it and months of dedicated training, just for the LA Marathon," Richtman said.
He said he wasn't sure about his winning prospects, not until the last three miles or so. "And so really it was just focusing on the finish line, try not to get ahead of myself -- because you're not done until you cross that line."
Richtman finished at 2:07:56, while the second-place runner, Athanas Kioko of Kenya came nearly three minutes later, at 2:10:55. Both of those times surpassed the 2024 marathon winner's finish at 2:11:01.
So what's next for Richtman? "We'll see. I haven't really decided yet. I'm sure I will run a marathon fairly soon here, hopefully in the fall but I really haven't decided anything going forward, just because it has been so busy so far," he said.
