By Xavier Donajkowski, Contributing Writer
Earlier this year, a Michigander and elite marathoner raced against 199 of the nation’s best athletes for a spot on the 2024 Olympic Marathon team. He finished the race in two hours and eleven minutes, missing the requisite top-three finish that could have secured him a spot in the 2024 Olympics, but rounding out his third Olympic Marathon Trial with a personal best and a seventh-place finish.
Just a few days later, after a brief recovery period and a few interviews, he was home in Jackson, Michigan preparing to get back to work on what he is most passionate about – coaching his athletes at Jackson High.
Though he has flown under the radar of the general public for the past 10 years, this was far from the first time Nathan Martin has drawn attention in the elite running world. The 34-year-old Three Rivers native has been balancing his day job with nighttime workouts and weekend races while dominating the national 10-mile and marathon scene for nearly a decade. Perhaps most famously, in 2020, Martin raced at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona and finished with a time of two hours, eleven minutes, and five seconds. With this, he became the fastest United States-born African American man to ever race a marathon.
Since then, Martin’s career has continued to grow. He has acquired sponsorships and appeared in interviews by the country’s most popular running magazines and news outlets. He has also been hailed as an up-and-coming star of the elite marathon scene and one of the nation’s most gifted Team USA hopefuls following the 2024 Olympic Trials. Aside from his talent, one of the attributes that sets Martin apart from the hundreds of elite athletes vying for a place on Team USA – and one that is often overlooked – is his unshakable commitment to the development of youth runners in Jackson, Michigan.
Martin’s dedication to Jackson stems from his upbringing. Though he was technically born in Illinois, Martin considers himself a Michigander. He spent his childhood in the town of Three Rivers and ran track and cross-country for Three Rivers High under the leadership of Coach Gene Schroll.
According to Martin, Schroll invested in his athletes and taught them to work as a team. Schroll spotted Martin’s talent as a middle-distance runner, coached him to success at the Michigan state finals, and later introduced him to Dante Ottolini, the coach at Spring Arbor University in Jackson County. Ottolini took Martin on as an athlete on the Spring Arbor Track and Cross-Country teams, where Martin’s talents flourished.
Over his career at Spring Arbor, Martin won nine national titles and eight conference championships. In 2013, as a senior, he became only the second person in history to win both the 10,000-meter run and the marathon at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championships in Marion, Indiana. Even more remarkably, his marathon time surpassed the 28-year-old National Championship marathon record by two minutes. This finish catapulted Martin into the spotlight just beyond graduation. He returned to Michigan elated, confident in his goal to pursue a professional marathon career and ready to buckle down on his training.
As Martin continued training in Michigan, he took a position as assistant coach with the Jackson High School Cross-Country team. Coaching quickly became Martin’s passion, and he began to plan workouts, training schedules, and races around the Jackson High athletics schedule. He picked up substitute teaching gigs during the day and helped to lead practices after school.
Consistently, often after dark, Martin finished his 12-hour workday with training runs through the city of Jackson. These workouts, along with feedback from Coach Ottolini, led Martin to his now-famous finish at the Marathon Project, three Olympic Trials qualifications, a top-10 finish at the prestigious New York Marathon, and a top-four finish at the equally renowned Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota.
Martin is now in his fourth year as coach of the Jackson High Cross-Country team – eighth, if you add the time he spent as an assistant. While many of Martin’s competitors are training full-time at high-elevation landscapes in Arizona and Utah, including the top two finishers at the 2024 Olympic Trials, Martin is committed to living his dreams in Jackson.
“My heart’s with coaching,” Martin said in an interview shortly before his February race. “I want to be in a place where I can feel like I’m having a huge impact, and Jackson is that place.”
Martin’s dedication has not escaped the recognition of his athletes. One former student, Chad Perrine Jr., remembers summer workouts that deepened his connection with the city itself.
“Some of my favorite memories come from those summer fun run practices. Every year he’d spend hours designing and setting up his elaborate scavenger hunt competition – buying prizes and writing riddles and then hiding them around town. Then we’d divide into groups and compete for points, trying to decipher all the riddles to win the prizes.”
Perrine went on to describe how this gave him “a feeling of comfortable autonomy” within Jackson.
“I became familiar with my city in a very real and physical way – not from the driver’s seat of a car, but rather from the vantage point of my own two feet. I’ve been away at college for a couple years now, but when I look back on my favorite parts of high school, I find that bunch of them came about because of the team, and, by extension, the effort and the passion Coach Martin poured into it.”
According to his athletes, Martin is “humble,” “genuine,” and “goofy;” but he is also a leader who expects them to bring their best efforts to each day.
“Coach Martin had a huge impact on me during high school and even more so afterwards,” said Keegan Rumler, former Jackson High runner. “His knowledge of the sport and insight into what it takes to succeed is a very valuable resource. One thing that has stuck with me is the importance of pushing and testing yourself to see what you are capable of. I used this mentality throughout my races in high school and continue to use it with current races.”
For those under his leadership, Martin has served as a living example of what hard work and perseverance can accomplish both on and off the course. Aidan Sova competed in cross country for Jackson High while Martin was an assistant coach, and he later went on to study at the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accomplishments, Sova became the youngest-ever Black person elected to any office in Ann Arbor when he was elected to the Ann Arbor District Library Board of Trustees in 2022. Sova said that Martin’s drive for personal improvement and his commitment to mindset-building and sustained fitness inspired him beyond just high school athletics.
“I’m a better man thanks to his teachings,” Sova said. “Most importantly, [Coach Martin] has served as a model for me as a Black man. It would be a true honor to emulate a fraction of his generosity, work ethic, and poise.”
Martin has confirmed that his goal as a coach is to positively impact students beyond the track and cross-country course.
“I want them to get faster, but really it’s all about helping them get through issues they have in general,” Martin said. “The biggest focus of my coaching style is empowerment,” he continued. “The biggest thing I try to do is ultimately get them to see what it takes to fight to achieve a goal.”
Today, track season at Jackson High is in full swing, and Martin is busy coaching a new field of athletes. Meanwhile, he shows no signs of slowing down on the racing front. On March 17, Martin won the Bank of American Chicago Shamrock Shuffle 10-mile, beating out fellow Michigan resident and Olympic Trials competitor Zach Panning. On April 7, he raced at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-miler, finishing in second and besting the previous men’s American 10-mile record along with first-place finisher Hillary Bor. In an Instagram post, Martin’s coach, James McKirdy, expressed Martin’s plan to focus on shorter, faster races over the next few months and hinted at a major race on the horizon.
Martin himself has been quiet about his future racing plans. However, when asked whether recent career successes have changed his attitude toward coaching at Jackson High or whether making it to the Olympics would shake his priorities, his answer was loud and clear.
“Coaching is a priority. At the end of the day, I am very aware that I have a finite amount of time to run at the level I am. Making it to the Olympics is not going to come close to my years of coaching and just investing in others. To some people, obviously, it would, but to me it’s just like ‘Hey, cool, I did a thing. Now let’s get back to the thing I truly enjoy.’”
To stay updated on Martin’s journey as a coach and professional athlete, you can follow him on Instagram at @nim_i_am.
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