Citius Mag Podcast

Biya Simbassa took many American track and field fans by surprise on Sunday morning when they awoke to results from the Valencia Marathon and saw that the 31-year-old notched a personal best by nearly four minutes to run 2:06:53. The performance was good for 17th place in the race but moved him to No. 4 on the U.S. all-time list. Only Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:38), Galen Rupp (2:06:07) and Ryan Hall (2:06:17) have run faster. Back in 2022, we paid a visit to Flagstaff, Ariz. for a video featuring Simbassa and also recorded a podcast episode detailing his career path from being born in Ethiopia, moving to the United States in 2007 and then going through the school system. He started running in high school in Minnesota and then continued his development at Iowa Central Community College before transferring to Oklahoma.  After graduating, he was coached by Scott Simmons in Colorado Springs before signing a pro contract with Under Armour to be part of the Dark Sky Distance Project with coach Stephen Haas. In 2023,