Buchanan High School grad CJ Albertson finishes as 3rd-fastest American at Boston Marathon

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- CJ Albertson, a Buchanan HS grad and current head coach of the cross country team at Clovis Community College, finished in 13th place at the Boston Marathon.

He was the third-fastest American in the elite field running a time of 02:10:23, a new personal record.

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Albertson finished 10th in last year's marathon that took place in October (due to COVID-19) and led at the halfway point.

His running style of bursting out of the blocks to get ahead of the pack was deemed unconventional, something he again tried in 2022.

"I don't know if there's anything untraditional about trying to win," Albertson said after this year's race. "For me, the only chance to really win or to be up there in the top is to kind of break some people and I kind of just had the mindset that I'm invincible. I had that mindset and my race strategy worked."

He led for much of the early part of the race, averaging an overall mile time of 04:59.

"Super unexpected -- I just felt terrible coming down the hill. The last five miles, everything cramped up, so it's just disappointing I couldn't race that last 8k. I've got to figure it out."

Evans Chebet of Kenya was the overall winner with a time of 02:06:51.