This Self-Coached Data Scientist Has Never Run a Marathon Before. Here’s Why He Could Win NYC.

When the elites line up for the New York City Marathon on November 1, there will be a mix of former winners, Olympic medalists, and two of the top American marathoners in the country, Conner Mantz and Zouhair Talbi.Looking to spoil the party will be Andreas Almgren, a 31-year-old Swedish runner who won the World Half Marathon Championships in September. This will be Almgren’s debut at the 26.2-mile distance. Despite his inexperience, he’s a legitimate threat for the podium.Almgren has an unconventional background as a pro runner. He was working a full-time job as a data scientist just two years ago. He mostly trains alone and coaches himself. But he’s far from a competitive amateur. He’s sponsored by Nike and has set European records in the road 10K (26:45) and half marathon (58:06).Although his strengths have been on the track and shorter road events, Almgren has leaned fully into marathon training this fall, logging more than 135 miles a week and tackling long runs over 24 miles. He says he’s well-prepared heading into New York.“I’m actually feeling really confident,” Almgren told Runner’s World ahead of the race. “I might be a bit naive, but the training has gone really well. I’ve done a few really good workouts. But the marathon is a different beast. You don’t really know until you're reaching that 35K mark if you're going to make it or not. But I’m feeling really good.”Here are six things to know about Almgren ahead of his marathon debut in New York City.He’s self-coached Almgren first made a splash on the world scene as an 800-meter specialist, earning bronze in the event at the World Junior Championships in 2014. For about a decade, he was coached by Urban Aruhn, but around 2019, Almgren began experimenting with Norwegian threshold training and gradually started to create his own training plans.Aruhn is still involved today, but in a more general role. Before a training cycle, Almgren will run his plan by Aruhn, who plays “devil’s advocate,” trying to poke holes in it or prod Almgren to explain his reasoning.“If we disagree on something, then we discuss it,” Almgren said. “But in the end, it’s in my hands.”He’s a data whizBefore he was a full-time professional runner, Almgren worked as a risk analyst at a financial company and then as a data scientist for the sports tech software company Svexa. It wasn’t until he was sidelined from the 2024 Olympics with a stress fracture that he decided to quit his job and focus on running full-time.Now, Almgren—who has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and management and has taken graduate coursework in mathematics, optimization, and systems theory—scratches that itch by rigorously tracking his training metrics.“I like data,” he said. “And I collect basically the things that I think are important for every workout.”Almgren has an Excel spreadsheet where he logs every workout and numerous data points: interval times, heart rate readings, blood lactate measurements, etc. The spreadsheet data goes back to 2012, and Almgren will look back on past sessions to inform his current training.Gaelle Mobuchon//Getty ImagesAlmgren averaged 4:26 mile pace at the 2026 World Half Marathon Championships, winning in 58:06.He’s always hunting for marginal gainsAlmgren has been preparing for New York with an altitude stint in Flagstaff, Arizona, which sits 7,000 feet above sea level. He’s also introduced heat training during some of his training blocks, and he looks to sports like cycling and speed skating for cutting-edge training methods.About two years ago, Almgren started experimenting with Nomio, a broccoli sprout extract shot that is quickly catching on among elite runners. Nomio claims the product can reduce lactate during hard efforts and accelerate recovery.Almgren, who is sponsored by the brand, said it helps keep his legs feeling fresh during intervals.“I just feel like I can train harder than I did before and more and still recover from it,” he said. “Run a little bit faster on my threshold workouts and everything. So I think if you get those tiny margins over and over, day by day, I think that could help quite a lot.”He’s been considering a marathon since last summerAlmgren knew he wanted to race a marathon in the fall of 2026, but he didn’t want to sacrifice a full track season before diving into marathon training. He chose New York because it gave him time to recover from the track season, and he wanted to find an honest race, compared to a more time-oriented flat course like Spain’s Valencia Marathon in December.“In a time trial, I wouldn’t really know what time to aim for,” Almgren said. “There’s a big risk that I blow up. If I’m going in Valencia, you have Yomif [Kejelcha] and John Korir taking off in probably sub-two-hour pace, and I’m not going to follow that. So I think that New York is a better race for me with inexperience, just trying to stay in the front pack and see what can happen.”Kaz Photography//Getty ImagesAlmgren (left) celebrates earning bronze in the 10,000 meters at the 2025 World Championships. Jimmy Gressier (right) won gold for France.He’s not giving up track racesOftentimes, pro runners will “move to the marathon,” implying their days of barreling around the track are over. But Almgren wants to do both. He fully intends to run a track season in 2027, and, looking ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, he believes the 10,000 meters could be his best event.If Almgren finishes in the top five at New York, he will earn the Olympic standard and pave the path for a spot on the Swedish marathon team for the upcoming Games.Only Emil Zatopek has won gold in the 10,000 meters and marathon at the same Olympics.He thinks he could win NYCLike most elite runners who race the hilly New York course, Almgren doesn’t care what his finishing time is on November 1. Instead, he wants to run with the top group as long as he can.“The goal is to be in the mindset that I should try to be able to compete for the whole race,” he said. “I don't want to, let’s say, chicken out at 30K. I want to try to be in it for as long as possible. And if that means that I blow up at 37K, then so be it.“But I hope that I should be able to be in the mix up until Central Park and hopefully even maybe come out on top. We’ll see. You should never underestimate a marathon. And I don’t have the experience, so I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to try to be in the mix.”Find Your Next Running PlaylistTheo Kahler is the senior news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:37 in the half marathon, and finished 40th at the 2025 New York City Marathon. He enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)