Alex Masai

ALEX’S STORY
Alex grew up in the Mt. Elgon District of Kenya–a rural part of the country before eventually moving with his family to Trans-Nzoia in the Rift Valley. He comes from a family of professional distance runners. His brother Moses was a two-time Olympian. His sister Linet was an Olympic Bronze Medalist and a World Championship Gold Medalist, and his sister Maggie is a 2:22 marathoner. Alex chose to play other sports in high school, including team handball, before deciding to move to the United States for college on a running scholarship.

PRO STATS
Alex joined HOKA NAZ Elite in August of 2021. He began his professional career in the winter of 2022 by setting a team record, and a personal best, of 7:47.63 at the BU Terrier Classic. Two weeks later he set another personal best (and another team record) of 13:22.53 at the BU Valentine Invite. His outdoor season was highlighted by a 7th-place finish at the BAA Road 10k in 28:29–a team record.

He kicked off 2023 with a PB at 10,000 meters in 27:42.80 at The Ten and followed that up with a 4th-place finish at the BAA 5k on the roads where his time of 13:27 was a new team record. On Memorial Day, he finished 2nd at the world famous BOLDERBoulder 10k in a thrilling race to the finish. He recorded another podium finish the next month at the BAA 10k in a road PB and team record of 28:09. At the Kenyan World Championship Trials, Alex finished seventh in 27:59.

NCAA STATS
Alex attended Hofstra University in New York, where he majored in Criminology. After not running much in high school, it took a while before his talent began to produce high level results. In 2020, he ran 7:53.04 for 3,000 meters, 13:28.55 for 5,000 meters and 28:11.05 for 10,000 meters. That was all a precursor to 2021 where he finally reached the top of the NCAA–finishing sixth and tenth in the 10,000 and 5,000 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in personal bests of 27:45.19 and 13:24.68.