Winning LA Marathon a 'dream come true' for Montana State alum Matt Richtman

Relief washed over him as he crossed. The result — winning in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 56 seconds — had been “years in the making,” Richtman said, and it was special to do so in front of friends, family and a running world that may not have seen it coming.

Richtman won the Los Angeles Marathon Sunday, becoming the first American man to do so since 1994 (Paul Pilkington in 2:12.13). It was just the second-ever marathon for the 25-year-old, tying him with Leonard Korir for seventh all-time among American men on qualifying courses.

Richtman is now one of four active American male marathoners to break the 2:08 mark, joining Biya Simbassa, Conner Mantz and Clayton Young.

“It is definitely a dream come true, especially being in LA and all the history behind the race, and really having all the support there in the stands and along the course and then back home,” Richtman said Tuesday, adding, “So it’s definitely exciting to not only do it for me, but everyone that’s been there the whole time.”

Before graduating from Montana State last May, Richtman hadn’t thought much about the marathon. He had tuned into the Olympic Trials and the Chicago Marathon, but didn’t have much knowledge beyond that.

As a Bobcat, Richtman was a two-time All-American in cross country, finishing 26th at NCAAs in 2023. He ran personal bests of 28:21.79 in the 10,000 meters and 13:47.04 in 5,000 meters. Richtman narrowly missed NCAA Outdoors in his final year, finishing 14th in the 10K at the NCAA West Regional.

No longer being a collegiate runner was “quite the adjustment” in shifting to a self-coaching model, Richtman said. He still runs with the MSU cross country team a few times a week and even paced some of his former teammates for a mile during this past indoor season.

Richtman also lives with Rob McManus, who recently placed 15th at NCAA Indoors to earn second team All-American.

“So I’m definitely still a big part of Bobcat Athletics,” Richtman said. “But it has been an adjustment just starting to do things on my own as well.”

He moved back home to Illinois last summer before eventually returning to Bozeman in February. In between those moves, Richtman took to road racing.

He’s always been a fan of longer distances, Richtman said, and signed up for the Missoula Half Marathon in June 2024 to further explore that. Richtman finished second in 1:05.43.

“And from there, it was like, ‘Well, I might as well try the marathon at least,’” Richtman said.

He entered the Bozeman Half Marathon on Sept. 8 — finishing first in 1:02.34 — before the Twin Cities Marathon on Oct. 6 in Minneapolis. Richtman placed fourth in 2:10.45 (5:00/mile) in his first marathon ever.

Marathon racing is vastly different from anything he had done previously, Richtman said, in terms of training block, pacing, fueling and how to attack each stage.

“I wasn’t really focused on any big goals or anything like that,” Richtman said. “Just to really experience it. And then coming off of that, it was a huge excitement just because I did surprise myself and really enjoyed it.”

His performance at Twin Cities also got him in contact with ASICS, which offered him sponsorship. Three of the four active U.S. marathoners to break 2:08 are now with ASICS (Simbassa, Young and Richtman).

It made sense for Richtman’s next marathon to be LA because ASICS was sponsoring the race — giving him a chance to meet more of the team — and it made sense on the calendar. He also looked at the winner of the 2024 race (Dominic Ngeno in 2:10.20) and thought he could compete.

Richtman is still in the process of tweaking his training plan. He’s always emphasized high mileage, peaking at 100 miles a week entering Twin Cities and increasing the load for LA (his peak was 113, with four weeks over 100). Richtman told Chris Chavez on the CITIUS Mag Podcast he limits intense workouts to avoid “putting my body in a hole that it can’t recover from for a week or two down the road.”

He also likes to make “each day unique,” Richtman said. Some of his logs on Strava — an app to track running, biking and other outdoor exercising — reflect that, such as running in a perfect circle or the shape of a heart on Valentine’s Day.

“That’s pretty characteristic of how my training is, kind of not super serious about it,” Richtman said. “I’m obviously doing everything I need to be doing. But still kind of (doing it) with that having fun mentality.”

Richtman did another ramp up similar to Twin Cities by competing in the Houston Half Marathon on Jan. 19 (24th in 1:01.40) and the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta on Jan. 31 (sixth in 1:01.13). He had no expectations going into LA beyond competing for the win.

About halfway through the race, Richtman found himself in a pack of four with Kenyans Sammy Rotich, Boniface Kibiwot and Athanas Kioko. Richtman surged again with a 14:37 5K split to take the lead. Rotich, Kibiwot and Kioko stayed put.

Richtman had built confidence from his results in Houston and Atlanta. He also knew he could run faster paces despite LA being a hilly course. His naïveté in terms of marathon racing also played to his advantage.

“I think making that move early on and being confident with it, sticking with it for the rest of the race, that was a little bit of a surprise to a lot of the other competitors and really spectators in general,” Richtman said.

He had enough left in the tank to continue pulling away and up over the final hill in the last mile. Richtman beat Kioko (second in 2:10.55) by almost exactly three minutes.

Days after the race, Richtman was still sorting through all the congratulatory messages he had received from friends and family in Illinois and Montana. He appreciated the support from MSU Athletics as well.

The race also sets him up for a potential future as one of the top marathoners in the U.S. He’s not sure how long he will stick with the self-coaching method or if he’ll bounce between the track and the roads.

It’s also difficult not to think about qualifying for the 2028 Summer Olympics, Richtman said, especially after winning a race in LA.

There’s still “lots of time” to make all those decisions, Richtman added.

“And that’s the thing with the marathon, nothing’s ever guaranteed,” he said. “You got to do it on the day. And that’s something that I’m not getting ahead of myself.”