Marathoning agrees with Clovis cross country coach: Two races, two records

Clovis Community College cross country coach CJ Albertson has a new title: world record-holder.

Albertson set the indoor marathon record April 13 in New York, completing 211 laps around the 200-meter track at The Armory’s New Balance Track & Field Center in 2 hours 17 minutes 59.4 seconds.

The previous record of 2:19:02 was set by two-time race champion Malcolm Richards, a 36-year-old San Francisco schoolteacher who was runner-up this year in 2:18:47.9.

“It’s definitely cool, exciting and an amazing experience,” Albertson said Friday. “The indoor marathon is a fairly odd event and my goal is to be more competitive on traditional road marathons that everyone does, such as the Boston Marathon, New York Marathon, or the Olympic Marathon.”

The outdoor world record is 2:01:39 set by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge last September in Berlin.

Kipchoge won the 2016 Olympic marathon and is expected back for 2020 in Beijing – a place Albertson would like to be. He qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials by winning last year’s Two Cities Marathon and Half in Fresno in a course-record 2:17:40. It was his first marathon.

Albertson, 25, was a standout at Buchanan High and Arizona State specializing in shorter distance runs in both cross country and track. But he appears to be finding a niche in marathoning, first setting the Fresno race record and now scoring the indoor win worth $7,000 – $3,000 for winning plus a $4,000 bonus for breaking the world record.

Albertson’s wife, Chelsey, was second in the women’s race in her marathon debut, running 2:54:26.5 to finish behind winner Stephanie Pezzullo’s 2:42:11.3.

“It definitely helped me having her in the race and I hope it helped her,” CJ Albertson said.

This story was originally published April 19, 2019 at 7:16 PM.