PROFILE: Biya Simbassa’s Long, Fruitful Journey to Flagstaff and Marathon Success with 2:06:53 in Valencia, 4th Fastest American Ever

On the eve of his third marathon, a concerned Biya Simbassa sought advice and looked for reassurance. It wasn’t so much that Simbassa, a Flagstaff-based runner for Under Armour, doubted his ability or his training but, well, the elite pace group he was thinking of joining for the Valencia Marathon seemed – maybe, you know, perhaps – just a tad fast.

Weeks earlier, when Simbassa’s agent, Hawi Keflezighi, was negotiating for spot in the pro field, Valencia organizers told him that there would be three pace groups, the slowest going out in 2:06:30 pace.

Keflezighi called Simbassa, 31, and asked, “How do you feel about this?”

His response?

“I was like, ‘Yeah we should give it a shot,’” Simbassa recalled. “But I, really, was hoping to find another group in there that was around 2:08.”

His hesitancy was understandable. Simbassa’s previous two marathons, in Prague in 2023 (seventh place, 2:10:54) and the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2024 (11th, 2:12:21) had been promising but didn’t necessarily project to a sub-2:07 time. By this time, though, Simbassa had committed to the famously fast course at Valencia, where he ran his half marathon personal best of 1:00:37 a year before.

As we know now, Simbassa needn’t have worried. He pulled off the fourth fastest time ever for an American marathoner last Sunday in Spain, clocking 2:06:53 and putting himself up there with the likes of Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:38), Galen Rupp (2:06:07) and Ryan Hall (2:06:17).

Still, in the waning hours before the race, doubts persisted.

So, perhaps to calm his nerves about joining the 2:06:30 pace group, Simbassa reached out to friends, mentors, and coaches, both current and former, and a few fellow participants.

Should he latch on to that 2:06 group?

Could he hang with that pack the whole race?

Or should he hold back, be conservative, and hope for a big negative split?

That night, he talked to Ian Carter, his current coach in Flagstaff. He also talked with Ryan Hall, his former coach, who was in Spain because his wife, Sara, was racing. He even talked to Australian marathoner Andy Buchanan, who earlier had told Simbassa that he planned on a 2:07:30 pace, but Buchanan had changed his mind that night and said he was joining the 2:06 pack.

“I asked a lot of people, ‘What do you guys think?’” Simbassa said. “They all said, you don’t get these types of opportunities all the time. Whatever happens, just go for it. I saw Ryan over there and he said, ‘I think you should send it. You’ll be fine.’

“Having someone like Ryan, someone of that caliber, tell you that helps. I knew I had the fitness. But it’s the marathon, you know. You never know what might happen. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what fitness you are in, and I felt in great fitness.  I did a workout up here (in Flagstaff) close to that pace and that gave me confidence. I put in high mileage (120 miles per week) and showed that I’m capable of doing that, even though I hadn’t done it before.”

Perhaps one reason Simbassa, in his words, decided to “go for it” was because he had regrets from last February’s U.S. Olympic Trials when he held back and paid the price.

He calls that experience a lesson learned, and something he didn’t want to repeat in Valencia.

“I made a mistake that day, and it was a mistake I’ve had to live with,” he said. “I didn’t go with the leaders because of the (hot) weather (in Orlando). I held back. I didn’t know that some guys (most notably Zach Panning) are trying to get the Olympic standard at the Trials. By the time I reacted to that, well, they weren’t coming back. It was too late.

“For me, by the time I reacted to their pace, I’m now running a faster pace, quicker than marathon pace, trying to catch them. If you’re going to try to do that yourself, at some point, it’s going to catch up to you. At 23 miles, I was like, there’s no way.

“Did I learn something from that mistake? Absolutely I did. The race doesn’t happen from the back. You got to be with the leaders.”

At Valencia, Simbassa’s goal of going sub-2:08 meant that he couldn’t be too conservative again. He ended up latching on to the back of the 2:06:30 group, which included some 20 runners most of the way.

His tactics were simple: Just keep contact with the group.

Oh, and this, too: Don’t look at your watch.

“I didn’t look at my watch until halfway, because I knew these guys were going at a fast pace,” he said. “I didn’t want to keep looking at my watch. My goal was just to stay in the back of that group. Not in the front or the middle — the back. A couple seconds behind.”

At the halfway mark, it was working. Simbassa knew the group probably was going slightly faster than the agreed upon pace, but it wasn’t until he saw the split at the half marathon that he knew how fast.

The group clocked 62:47.

They were supposed to reach the half at 63:15.

 “I looked down at my watch and went ‘Oh, wow, that’s fast,’” Simbassa said. “But I had committed, so I may as well keep going at that point, stay relaxed and stay with these guys as long as I can. When you have 15 or 20 people around you, it’s different. Everybody’s hurting, so I didn’t think about that.

“Later in the race, that 25 seconds catches up to you, but you know, if you don’t try, you don’t know what you can get out of it.”

Simbassa didn’t panic when he went through the half marathon timing mat only two minutes slower than his half marathon PR on the same course. He tried to keep pace, not fall off the back and most especially tried not to think too much.

Sure, there was pain; there always is in a marathon. Simbassa was undaunted. He fell back from the back a bit with 5K to go, but kept going and reached the 40K mark in 2 hours, flat. That buoyed his confidence even more.  The final 2K he picked up the pace, but didn’t go all-out because he wanted to make sure he didn’t blow up.

“I’m happy that I went for it, and it paid off,” he said. “The crowd was crazy, the energy was crazy, and that took me through the whole marathon.”

He said he had no clue, while crossing the finish line, that his time was the fourth fastest ever for an American marathoner. Actually, he said, he could’ve shaved even more seconds off had he put on a finishing kick.

“I didn’t kick at the end because I didn’t want something to happen,” he said, laughing. “I just wanted to run the same pace and get to the finish line. Sometimes, you have to be cautious.”

Biya Simbassa raced 10 times on the roadsin 2024 before pulling off a 2:06:53 marathon last week in Valencia, Spain.

Cautious at the end, but definitely not for the previous 26 miles.  

Simbassa has never been afraid to take chances in his running career and perhaps do things a bit differently. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Simbassa’ running evolution is that he didn’t even take up the sport until his junior year in high school.

His family came to the U.S. when Biya was 13 on a family visa because of the political situation in Ethiopia. His father had been forced to flee to Kenya and lived for a while in a refugee camp before being granted asylum in the U.S. in 2003. The rest of the family followed a few years later.  

Though Simbassa likes to say he “wasn’t very good” as a novice runner, he actually ran well in high schools in Houston and then Iowa, placing in the state meet his senior year. He ran well at an Iowa community college for two years and received a scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, where his times vastly improved but Simbassa said he still wasn’t a top runner.

In fact, he said running was harder than mastering the English language, which he picked up his first year in school, state-side.

“It wasn’t hard for me,” he said about learning English. “Going to school here (in the U.S.) is a lot. You don’t have any choice but to learn to speak the language quickly. I picked it up fast. It’s like, if you don’t have an option, you learn something.”

Running, apparently, took a bit longer.

“Running wasn’t a big thing for me because none of my family are runners,” he said. “Somebody just introduced me to it and I enjoyed it. I wasn’t good at first. I ended up going to college because of running, because my parents couldn’t afford to pay for it. I think I ran the 10K (in) 28:42 (at Oklahoma). Back then, it was considered good, not great. But I didn’t break 14 in the 5K and didn’t make NCAA in anything.”

When did he believe that he could make the jump to the pro level?

His college coach, he said, was honest with him. His times were not good enough to get a shoe contract or sign with a pro team. But, there was so much untapped potential that Simbassa wanted to see how much faster he could get.

He joined Team USA Minnesota (now called Minnesota Distance Elite) out of college, then lived in Colorado and trained with members of the Army team, though he was not part of that group. He saw progress, but not great progress.

“I realize I started late.” Simbassa said. “There’s a process for runners. In the U.S., most guys start running in middle school. You have to take it step-by-step.”

Tired of Colorado, Simbassa decided to go “all in” and move to Flagstaff. He didn’t have a contract, but he knew some runners and ex-runners who took him in and mentored him. Foremost was former Kenyan Olympian Janet Cheroben-Bawcom, who trained in Flagstaff and later became a registered nurse That was in 2019.

“Jay (Bawcom) and Janet have been great,” Simbassa said. “They gave me a room and I was living with them. Janet’s an Olympian and she helped my running, too. I still live with them. They are a big part of my success.”

That first year in Flagstaff, Simbassa showed promise. He finished second in both the Pittsburgh 10 Miler and the USATF 10 Mile Road Championships in Minneapolis.

By 2021, Simbassa had signed with Under Armour Dark Sky Distance. He stayed as member of Dark Sky for about two years before going out on his own to dedicate himself to the marathon (he retained his Under Armour contract.) That was when Simbassa hooked up with Ryan Hall.

“When I decided to go to the marathon, I was thinking, who (in Flagstaff) can be my marathon coach?” he said. “I reached out to (Hall), and I’m glad he said he would coach me. He taught me a lot. Simbassa trained alongside another Hall-coached marathoner, Rory Linkletter. But last summer, Hall informed his athletes he was stepping aside from coaching.

Linkletter went to Verde Track Club Coach Jon Green; Simbassa stayed with former Hall-coached teammate Ian Carter, who since became a coach for McKirdy Trained.

“I didn’t want to look for a new coach because of the timing (for a fall marathon build-up), and Ian had been around during Ryan’s coaching, so it made sense,” Simbassa said. “I had a great conversation with Ian. I told him I really don’t want to change anything. Because he knows what Ryan used to do in workouts, and we decided to have him train me until December, until this race.”

Carter didn’t stand in Simbassa’s way when he wanted to compete on the USATF road race circuit during his marathon build. Whereas many marathoners either don’t race or do one tune-up half marathon before the big race, Simbassa ran no less than 10 times since the Olympic Trials last in February. Carter gave him his blessing to hit the roads.

“I love racing,” Simbassa said. “I’m not one of those athletes who just keep training. I want to mix it up for mental and physical, you know. I want to get out of my training environment for a little bit.”  

The partnership with Carter and tactics paid off with a breakthrough race at Valencia. Interestingly, Simbassa only ran Valencia because he did not get invited to run the Chicago Marathon in October.

“It was nothing personal (with Chicago),” he said. “It was about the times I had run. They had to make a decision with their (elite) field based on that.”

It’s fair now to say that Simbassa’s marathoning status in the U.S. has significantly bumped up after Valencia. He is the current fastest American marathoner currently active – Rupp is still recovering from significant injury.

When asked about his future, including which spring marathon might be in his future (Boston, London?), Simbassa just smiled. His Under Armour contract runs out at the end of the month, and his 2:06 is certainly going to draw interest from shoe companies and teams.

“People are asking me about that, but right now, I’m just enjoying taking a break,” he said. “I had a long season. From Trials, I didn’t take much of a break and got ready for Valencia.”

This much seems certain: Simbassa will remain in Flagstaff.

“I do love it here in Flagstaff,” he said. “It’s a small town, but a community. I mean, if you don’t train here, where do you want to train? It’s the best for a runner.”

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