This Mental Trick Helped Clayton Young Become the 2nd-Fastest U.S. Marathoner Ever at the Chicago Marathon

At the 22-mile mark of the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, Clayton Young was running in a pack with two American competitors, Charles Hicks and Vinny Mauri.Although they were running fast, any hope of an American record was gone, Young knew. The 2:04:43 that Young’s training partner, Conner Mantz, ran last year in Chicago would survive another year.At that point, Young, 33, wanted to make sure he accomplished his other goal: becoming top American.He and Hicks took turns at the lead and Mauri dropped off. And then Young was back in front—and he went to a mental trick that he’s employed since the 2025 Boston Marathon: 100 seconds hard.“Before I knew it, I gapped Charles a little bit, and he closed,” Young said. “I was like, ‘Okay, well, I'm going to count to 100 seconds, press as hard as I can, see where I'm at in 100 seconds.’”The results were good. He had opened up a sizable gap.So Young did it again.“I was like, ‘Okay, let’s do another 100 seconds. Let's focus on the next guy,’ and it was pretty much that all the way to the finish.”Young split 4:38 between miles 23 and 24, just when he was using the technique. He finished in seventh place, in 2:05:23, a personal record, and the second-fastest U.S. time ever on a record-eligible course.Young later clarified to Runner’s World that he doesn’t look at his watch for 100 seconds. He counts in his head.It’s a way to make staying with another runner’s move—or in this case, pressing his advantage to open a gap—more manageable.“Sometimes you bargain with yourself and you’re saying, ‘I can’t cover this move, but I can cover this move for 100 seconds,’” Young explained. “And then I can reevaluate. It’s way easier to do something for 100 seconds than know that I have to do this for six more miles or 10K or whatever it is.”The time interval is adjustable—sometimes Young uses it for as short as 10 seconds.He says the technique came from Jared Ward, a 2016 Olympian in the marathon and a friend and training partner. Ward, Young said, is all about “running the mile you’re in,” one at a time.“But for me,” Young said, “getting my mind to do something for 100 seconds instead of waiting a mile keeps me present. It keeps me grounded. You need something digestible.”So what would he advise for people who are running significantly slower, say, 9:00 minute pace? Should they try it for 200 seconds?Absolutely not, Young said: “No, 100 seconds is enough.”Find Your Next Running PlaylistSarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!