Whereas some photographers trip Segways to maintain up with elite runners, others simply practice for it–and for French photographer Alexis Adrian, that coaching got here in useful when he needed to dash alongside Conner Mantz at Sunday’s 2025 Chicago Marathon.
Adrian, who’s initially from France however has been residing in Montreal for the previous 9 years, was photographing Mantz for a model. “I began taking pictures firstly line, then in Chinatown,” he informed Canadian Working. “However I wasn’t tremendous proud of the photographs or the lighting there.” He proceeded to run a couple of extra blocks, and waited along with his telezoom (lengthy vary taking pictures lens); when Mantz handed by, Adrian dropped the lens and raced after him to seize higher photographs.
“It was type of instinctive,” Adrian admitted. “Actually, I wasn’t prepared for that pace.”
The photographer, who additionally participates in path operating, biking and “every kind of mountaineering sports activities,” says it’s common for him to should race after runners–particularly on the path. “I’m not the sort to remain in a single place and anticipate the shot,” he mentioned. “I wish to run and comply with the athletes–I simply can’t do it for 26.5 miles, although.”
As soon as, Adrian says, he even ran and hiked 38 km with 2,800m of ascent in the course of the Hardrock 100 ultramarathon.
Adrian efficiently acquired the shot of Mantz, who went on to turn out to be the quickest marathoner in U.S. historical past, clocking 2:04:43 for fourth. Mantz not solely smashed his earlier private greatest of two:07:47 but in addition lowered Cam Levins’s North American report to underneath 2:05.
