FISHER LOOKS FOR SOME FEELING MID SUNDAY
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly:all rights reserved, used with permission.
NEW YORK (Mar 12) – An overcast and raw morning, rain spat here in Lower Manhattan, two-time Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher addressed reporters at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, where on Sunday he will have just passed eight kilometers. United Airlines NYC Half, America’s largest half marathon with nearly 30,000 runners. Fisher, 28, will make his long-awaited half-marathon debut and run the first-ever race— and he tried to put into words what defines a successful person race for him.
“It’s a tough question,” said Fisher, who holds the North American record for the 10,000m (26:33.84). “I’m looking for a feeling more than a time or a place.” He added: “I’m the newbie now.”
On Sunday raceThe 19th edition features a formidable professional field boasting 26 Olympians and Paralympians. Ten men – led by reigning champion and event record holder Abel Kipchumba of Kenya (58:07 PB) – have broken 60 minutes for the half marathon in their careers. Perhaps the one on the front line with Fisher will be a fellow American Alex Mayer (59:23 PB), Canadian Rory Linklater (59:49), Kenya Daniel Ebenyo (59:04), Morocco Mohammed El Yousfi (59:21), Norwegian Sondre Nordstad Moen (59:48), and South African Adrian Wildshut (59:13).
But unlike most of the world’s top half-marathons, there will be no pacesetters to shepherd the leaders from Prospect Park in Brooklyn to Central Park in Manhattan. Like the TCS New York City Marathon, the course is decidedly challenging with a series of hills in the first eight kilometers, followed by a flat section in the middle, and the last five kilometers which are almost all uphill. That’s good for Fisher, who sees Sunday race as both an important learning opportunity and tough competition.
“One of the reasons I chose this race because time doesn’t matter,” Fisher said. “Technically, it’s a record-breaking course, so that takes that out of my mind. I can only focus on racing. I’m up against some of the best half-marathoners in the world, people with a lot more experience than me.” He continued. “I will study here. I’m here to push myself. At the end of the day, I’m here to find out if I have a future in this area of ​​the sport.”
With no Olympics or World Athletics Championships this year, 2026 is a great year for athletes like Fisher to try out, especially those from North America who don’t have to worry about this summer’s Commonwealth Games or the European Athletics Championships. Fisher will have plenty of time to recover from the half marathon before opening her running season, which will include the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in early July (where she will run two miles), and the USATF Outdoor Track and Field Championships in New York City later that month. The extra miles he logged at high altitude at his winter training base in Flagstaff, Arizona will help him both on Sunday and later on the track.
“There were a lot of things that stayed the same,” Fisher said of his training under coach Mike Scannell. “More volume is kind of a thing. More miles, longer training sessions, focus on fuel, road racing, new shoes, so lots of things to change and review. I feel like we’ve had a really good preparation so I’m excited and ready to go. It feels real now.”
Although Fisher has been limited to track and field since completing his NCAA career at Stanford in the spring of 2019, he was a standout runner throughout his collegiate career. He finished second at the NCAA Championships in 2018 and fifth in 2017 and 2016. He said he’s ready for Sunday’s ups and downs. race.
“I’ve been at 7,000 feet (2,134 m), so even the smallest hill feels pretty aggressive,” Fisher explained. “My hill workouts are longer. I deliberately run hilly routes where I usually try to find a flat, very simple run.” He continued. “The hills are all at the beginning and end of this course. They will beat us at first. Hopefully I can get a bit of a break in the middle as we go up the east side of the island, then once we get to the park it’s hilly again. I’ll watch how people react and move and base my moves off of that.”
The closest parallel to Fisher’s transition from the track to the roads is when Galen Rapp made his half marathon debut at the NYC Half in 2010. Although he fell in the early stages race and hit his hip, the then 24-year-old ran 1:00:30 to finish third (the course then featured a 28m drop). Five years later, he moved to the marathon, eventually winning an Olympic bronze medal in 2016, the Chicago Marathon in 2017, and running a personal best of 2:06:07 (before Supershoes).
While Fisher hinted at his possible interest in the New York Marathon in his comments today, he didn’t want to get ahead of himself. He emphasized that after Sunday he should feel something special race before taking another shot at high-profile road racing.
“Whether it means I win race or i get 30th place racethat will be the feeling I’m looking for, is there more to give here or should I stay on the track a little longer?’ Fisher told reporters. “That’s what I’m looking for here. It’s really hard to describe. Not the time, not the place. It’s a sense of competition and a sense of wanting more from myself. If I find it, I will inform you later.”
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It United Airlines NYC Half Local coverage in the Tri-State area will be ABC New York, Channel 7 with live newscasts from 6:00 am to 10:00 am EDT; abc7ny.com:and New York Road Runners digital channels beginning at 7:00 a.m. EDT.
FINISHING
Bonus If you want to see Grant Fisher’s interview from January 2026 on #SocialingtheDistance, please go here: https://www.runblogrun.com/2026/01/socialingthedistance-episode-139-grant-fisher-olympic-bronze-medalist-10000m-5000m-talks-track.html?swcfpc=1
