Andreas Almgren’s New York City Marathon debut is a genuine test of what his speed can do over 26.2 miles. The 31-year-old Swede arrives after winning the World Half Marathon Championships in September, and he’ll face a field that includes former winners, Olympic medalists, and leading Americans Conner Mantz and Zouhair Talbi on November 1. A marathon debut is a big unknown, but Almgren’s European records—26:45 for the road 10K and 58:06 for the half—make him a credible podium contender.
His path to the start line is unusual. Until two years ago, Almgren worked in data science; today, he’s a Nike-sponsored professional who mostly trains alone and writes his own plans. This fall he has built up to more than 135 miles a week, including runs longer than 24 miles. He says the preparation has gone well, while recognizing that confidence can only take him so far:
“I’m actually feeling really confident,” Almgren told Runner’s World before the race. “I might be a bit naive, but the training has gone really well. I’ve done a few really good workouts. But the marathon is a different beast. You don’t really know until you're reaching that 35K mark if you're going to make it or not. But I’m feeling really good.”
Here are six parts of Almgren’s approach and ambitions that help explain why his debut deserves attention.
He writes his own training plans
Almgren first emerged internationally as an 800-meter runner, winning bronze at the 2014 World Junior Championships. Urban Aruhn coached him for roughly a decade. Around 2019, Almgren began trying Norwegian-style threshold training and gradually took responsibility for designing his own schedules.
Aruhn still reviews each training cycle, acting as a sounding board who challenges Almgren’s choices and asks him to defend the reasoning. The final call stays with the runner. “If we disagree on something, then we discuss it,” Almgren said. “But in the end, it’s in my hands.”
He applies a data scientist’s habits to running
Before turning professional, Almgren worked as a risk analyst at a financial company and then as a data scientist at sports technology firm Svexa. A stress fracture that kept him out of the 2024 Olympics helped prompt him to leave his job and focus on running full-time.
He has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and management, along with graduate coursework in mathematics, optimization, and systems theory. He still puts that analytical bent to work, logging each session in an Excel spreadsheet and tracking interval times, heart rate, blood lactate, and other measures. The records reach back to 2012, giving him years of past workouts to compare against current training.
“I like data,” he said. “And I collect basically the things that I think are important for every workout.”
Gaelle Mobuchon // Getty Images. Almgren averaged 4:26 mile pace at the 2026 World Half Marathon Championships, winning in 58:06.
He looks for small training advantages
For New York, Almgren trained at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona, about 7,000 feet above sea level. He has also added heat training to some training blocks and looks to cycling and speed skating for ideas he can apply to running.
He’s also tried Nomio, a broccoli sprout extract drink. The company says it can lower lactate during hard efforts and speed recovery; Almgren is sponsored by the brand, so his account of its benefits comes with that context. He says it leaves his legs feeling fresher during intervals.
“I just feel like I can train harder than I did before and more and still recover from it,” he said. “Run a little bit faster on my threshold workouts and everything. So I think if you get those tiny margins over and over, day by day, I think that could help quite a lot.”
New York suits the uncertainty of a first marathon
Almgren had been considering a fall 2026 marathon, but wanted to complete a track season before taking on a full marathon build. New York gave him time to recover from the track campaign. He also preferred a race where he could compete with a pack over a flat course built around a fast finishing time, such as December’s Valencia Marathon.
“In a time trial, I wouldn’t really know what time to aim for,” he said. “There’s a big risk that I blow up. If I’m going in Valencia, you have Yomif [Kejelcha] and John Korir taking off in probably sub-two-hour pace, and I’m not going to follow that. So I think that New York is a better race for me with inexperience, just trying to stay in the front pack and see what can happen.”
Kaz Photography // Getty Images. Almgren (left) celebrates his 10,000-meter bronze at the 2025 World Championships; Jimmy Gressier of France won gold.
The marathon won’t end his track career
“Moving to the marathon” often signals a runner’s exit from track racing. Almgren plans to keep both in play: he expects to race on the track in 2027 and thinks the 10,000 meters may be his strongest event at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
A top-five finish in New York would earn him the Olympic standard and put him on course for a place on Sweden’s marathon team. Winning Olympic gold in both the 10,000 meters and the marathon at the same Games has been done by only one athlete: Emil Zatopek.
He’s willing to race for the win
On New York’s hilly course, Almgren isn’t focused on a finishing time. He wants to stay with the lead group as long as possible, even if the pace eventually catches up with him.
“The goal is to be in the mindset that I should try to be able to compete for the whole race,” he said. “I don't want to, let’s say, chicken out at 30K. I want to try to be in it for as long as possible. And if that means that I blow up at 37K, then so be it.
“But I hope that I should be able to be in the mix up until Central Park and hopefully even maybe come out on top. We’ll see. You should never underestimate a marathon. And I don’t have the experience, so I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to try to be in the mix.”
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