Conner Mantz may not have left the Chicago Marathon with the win, but he did achieve something very special. Coming in fourth, with Jacob Kiplimo taking the win, Mantz absolutely smashed the American marathon record with a clock-in time of 2:04:43, nearly a whole minute quicker than Khalid Khannouchi’s 2002 record of 2:05:38. He covered the first half of the race in 1:02:19, running nearly even splits. But breaking the American marathon record came at a literal bloody price.

A few days before the race, Mantz appeared on the Citius Mag Podcast, where he revealed to host Chris Chavez that he had a recurring blister problem and that almost every race he runs ends in bleeding feet. It’s a condition that’s made worse by any humidity.

While he hoped he could avoid that fate in Chicago, it was

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