Park City’s professional distance runner Grant Fisher is best known in the sport for his accomplishments on the track. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Fisher won bronze medals in the 5000m and 10000m races.  Almost 29 years old, Fisher has also turned an eye toward road running. In the later stag es of professional distance runners’ careers, they often lose a bit of speed and transition into longer-distance runners, competing in races like Olympic marathons.  With Fisher likely to lose a touch of his speed before the 2028 Los Angeles Games, he’d like to compete on the track and roads there, something not many Olympic runners have done before. He’ll need to be quick enough in the track events and have the marathon training under his belt.  With this lofty goal in mind, Fisher hit the streets of New York Sunday for the New York half marathon, his first professional road race. Fisher finished in 14th place with a time of 1:00.53. The time was one of the best-ever debuts for an American in the event.  Fisher said he appreciated the challenge of the road race, where he drifted behind the leading pack in the last three miles or so. He will head back to the track and primarily race Diamond League events this season. Fisher knows some areas where he can improve for the next time he hits the roads.  “It felt a lot more chaotic,” Fisher said about Sunday’s race. “You have the wind and a larger pack. … So it was different and fun.” Fisher enjoyed racing among about 30,000 other runners instead of a small field of just his professional peers.  “I would have loved to have maybe an extra month of preparation,” Fisher said. “Normally in track season. I’m running something like 90 miles a week. For this I was running more like 100-115. … Trying to be good on the roads and track simultaneously, you can’t really fully adjust to one or the other.” Fisher trained in Flagstaff, Arizona, this offseason as he does each year, though he joked that, with the lack of snowfall in Park City, he could’ve stayed. He’s back training in Park City for the rest of his season.  Fisher’s only other race this season was an indoor 2K on Jan. 24 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, where he finished in second place in 4:49.48. While Fisher’s 2K time beat the old indoor world record, Hobbs Kessler in first place set the new record in 4:48.79. Fisher’s next race will likely be one of the Diamond League’s early June stops in Europe.  Fisher would have liked to race more in the indoor season but battled through pneumonia after the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.  “The Diamond League is still constant,” Fisher said, who raced in the bankrupt Grand Slam Track league last season. “It’s a great product. … The Grand Slam league is talking about going through this bankruptcy, rebranding and having a league again in 2026, and we’ll see if that happens. For right now, I’m focusing on the Diamond League instead.” Fisher anticipates racing a lot of 1500m, 3000m and 5000m races this season. The U.S. championships July 23-26 in New York will also be a highlight of his season, though with no world championships this season there isn’t the pressure and highlight of a world championships team to make.  “It leaves me a little extra freedom to do a bunch of different races,” Fisher said about the absence of the world championships. “That’s one of the reasons why I tried a half marathon and ran a 2K earlier this year.” He continued, “My success has been on the track so far, so I don’t feel a ton of pressure to move to the roads too quickly. But at the Olympic Games, having them in the U.S. and being an American athlete, it is an idea in my head to try the marathon. … I think I still have quite good potential on the track, so I hesitate to completely abandon it and move to the roads. But, this first road race I did this past weekend was fun and encouraging.” Fisher said he’ll reevaluate where his running is at the end of this season, with the potential to shift to the roads next season.  Fisher can be spotted enjoying time in Park City when not competing across the world this season. He said that, after being in Flagstaff all offseason, he’s ready to stop living out of his suitcase.  “Having some of the comforts of Park City will be nice,” Fisher said. “Being on the trails that I enjoy and am familiar with, and going out to eat in places that I know. And of course, having some good gelato from Mack’s and seeing friends that are in town that I haven’t seen in a while.” The post Grant Fisher races first road competition in New York half marathon appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less