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. In January of 2024 he made his debut at the half marathon distance, running 1:01:46 to finish 11th at the Aramco Houston Half. A month later he set a PB at 5,000 meters (13:18.96) at the BU Valentine Invite. He returned to the roads in the spring and finished third at the Cooper River Bridge Run in April.

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.