This story was originally published just before the US Indoor Championships and I missed it.
However, I thought that David Monty’s wonderful piece on Charles Hicks, The former Stanford star, European cross country ace, and now US athlete deserved more recognition. I hope to meet the athlete one day, he is quite inspiring. Charles Hicks is also the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Champion. At the recent New York City Marathon, Charles ran 2:09.59, seventh in his debut.
At the recent USATF Half Marathon Championships, sponsored by Publix and hosted by the Atlanta Track Club, the men’s top five finishers were; 1:02.21.
Charles will likely be the replacement for the team. There was a lot of controversy between the top women’s finishers in that race, we’ll get into that in the next article.
For now, enjoy this piece on Charles Hicks as he takes to the roads to see how he’ll fare as a road racer/marathoner.
(Originally published on February 27. )
HICKS READY TO RUN FIRST HALF MARATHON AT USATF CHAMPIONSHIPS
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
ATLANTA (Feb. 27) – It’s hard to call it a half-marathon debut when an athlete has already run twice the distance, but Charles Hicks will run his first official half-marathon here Sunday when he lines up for the USATF Half-Marathon Championships as part of the Publix Atlanta Marathon weekend hosted by the Atlanta Club.
Hicks, 24, the 2022 NCAA cross country champion for Stanford, is coming off his marathon debut last November at the TCS New York City Marathon, where he clocked 2:09:59 to finish seventh (he ran halves of 1:05:20 and 1:04:39).
He and his coach, Jerry Schumacher, decided to switch to the marathon after Hicks had a string of successful road races last year, including a 45:14 at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile in Washington, D.C., where he won the USATF title for the distance. Notably, it was Hicks’ first ever auto race, something he had attempted after many years of running track and cross country in the NCAA system.
“Getting locked into that circle made it so much fun for me to break free,” Hicks told Race Results Weekly in an interview here today. “Seems like I’ve been waiting so long with so much anxiety. Could I really be a very good road runner? As soon as I got to it, I was very excited to be there.”
Hicks’ time at Cherry Blossom would have been an American record, but because he was not yet eligible to represent the United States in international competition;
But the record was beside the point. Hicks realized he had found his calling as a runner.
“When I came in, I was sure the front box was coming out a minute slower than it actually was,” Hicks explained. “I didn’t realize that Conner Mantz had cut the American record (at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon) by about 40 or 50 seconds. Even with this minute slow chase I was only hoping to get into the top ten for that race. It was my first road race and I’ve never run more than six miles.”
Before running the marathon in New York, Hicks ran two of America’s classic summer road races: the Steamboat Classic, a four-mile course in Peoria, Ill., in June and the Utica Boilermaker, a 15-K hill course in Utica, N.Y., in July. He ran 18:12 for the shorter race and 43:39 for the longer, and learned a lot more about road running. It was clearly his jam.
“The whole point of last year was to do things in the marathon space first and even answer the question, is this chaseable? Do you have a knack for road racing or is this the worst mistake you’ve ever made? It’s supposed to take a few races to get that answer, but after Cherry Blossom we were really sitting down.
With a successful marathon and plenty of recovery time, Hicks comes into Atlanta as one of the favorites to finish on the podium. Converting his 10-mile time to a half-marathon distance using the time-tested Riegel formula, Hicks’ theoretical personal best would be 1:00:24. That would make her the third-fastest person in Sunday’s field, trailing only Hilary Bohr (59:55) and Isaiah Rodriguez (59:57). A top-three finish here would put Hicks on the USATF team for the World Athletics Road Championships in Copenhagen in September. Hicks is excited for competitive, man-to-man racing.
“Even in the faster road races, placement is always the primary goal,” Hicks said. “Getting on the podium at a major or finishing high at a US championship is always something that’s always very valuable. It’s my favorite part of racing. So on Sunday I will absolutely be running for it. For the rest of my career, this is something I will enjoy doing.”
Under World Athletics rules, Hicks will be eligible to represent the United States in international competition beginning July 14. According to USATF rules, Hicks can qualify for the national team now as long as an international event is scheduled after his eligibility period. If Hicks earns a team spot, he will have to discuss with coach Schumacher whether he will take it.
“There’s definitely going to be a conversation,” said Hicks, who wasn’t entirely sure of his eligibility status. “My favorite thing about having Jerry as my coach is every decision I make as a professional athlete, I throw it at him and whatever comes back, I just do. Whatever he thinks is best, we’ll move forward with it. So far he has given me no reason to doubt him.”
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FINISHING
