U.S. marathon trials have Houston flavor
Olympic hopefuls provide big boost to city’s reputation as runner’s mecca
After hosting more than two dozen national championship races, including three Olympic marathon trials, Houston has earned a reputation among elite distance runners as a great place to bulk up their résumés.
Several Chevron Houston Marathon winners became Boston Marathon champions just months later, and American Ryan Hall became the first nonEast African runner to cover 13.1 miles in less than an hour, finishing in 59:43 at the 2007 Aramco Houston Half Marathon.
But the city has lagged in cultivating home-grown talent. The f astest man in town remains former Olympian and Kenyan
Way coach Sean Wade, who last week set a world record for his age in the indoor mile — 4:23:07 — three days after turning 50. That may be changing. Nine young runners either from or living in the Houston area have qualified for the U.S. Olympic team trials for the marathon, set for Saturday at Los Angeles. The race will determine which three men and three women will represent the country at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this August.
Jarrett LeBlanc, Ryan Miller and Kiya Dandena will run in the men’s race. Becky Wade (no relation to Sean Wade), Samantha McClellan, Megan Saloom, Lauren Smith and Kate Papenberg qualified for the women’s event. Hillary Montgomery also met the standard but decided not to run Saturday after she was picked to represent Team USA at the half-marathon world championships in Wales next month.
Not since the first women’s Olympic marathon trials in 1984, when most of the 11 Texas finishers were from this area, have so many local runners competed. In all, 211 men and 246 women will race.
While no one would argue Houston is about to replace Eugene, Ore., or Boulder, Colo., as a center of elite distance running, local advocates and the runners say a culture of support is emerging and that the city is a good place to train.
“It’s extremely exciting to see this level of talent developing in the area,” said Wade Morehead, executive director of the Houston Marathon Foundation.
‘ The brightest star’
The nonprofit organization has committed $40,000 this year to develop elite U.S. runners. It recently hosted five members of Team USA Minnesota, who traveled here to wrap up their trials training in Houston’s temperate climate. It also supported Team Green Running — a program in The Woodlands focused on developing elite runners.
The Houston Area Road Runners Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, recently established the Joy Smith Award, which gives $ 1,000 to local trial qualifiers for training expenses. The award is named after the group’s first president, who ran in two U.S. Olympic marathon trials, finishing sixth in the 1992 race, which was held in Houston.
“The clubs, groups and committees are coming together to help the local runners,” said McClellan, who earned her spot at the trials with a 2:42:41 finish at the Berlin Marathon in September. “They are really trying to get the community involved.”
The city has been a mecca for elite athletes before.
In the 1980s and ’90s, world-class competitors like Mary Lou Retton, the first American to win the all-around gymnastics Olympic gold medal, flocked to Houston to train with coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi. During those same decades, track and field greats like Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell emerged from the University of Houston.
Unlike those athletes, however, these runners are largely in a financial no-man’s land — postcollegiate but not proven enough to land lucrative sponsorships. They say every little bit helps as they juggle workouts with full- or part-time jobs. Most have no real chance of making this year’s team and have set their goal as the 2020 or 2024 Olympics.
Becky Wade, a former Rice University standout, is the exception. She is the only runner of the nine to meet the tougher “A” standard qualifier, with a 2:30:41 winning time at the California International Marathon in December 2013. That performance — it was her first marathon — marked her as a runner to watch; she is sponsored by Asics.
The Houston Marathon Foundation also took notice and awarded Wade a $10,000 grant — a quarter of its budget to develop elite racers.
“We decided to focus our finances, as she seems to be the brightest star at this time,” Morehead said, noting it has given smaller grants to other qualifiers.
“I feel like the Houston Marathon Foundation reached out and was there for me,” Wade said. “Running is not one of the most expensive sports in terms of gear, but there’s rehab, massage and travel.”
Not everyone is convinced the city’s streets will be clogged with professional runners any time soon.
A good place to train
“The level of elite running in Houston is still pretty poor when you consider we are the fourthlargest city in the USA,” said Sean Wade, who also set an American age record in the 3,000 meters last week at a meet in Boston. “I should not be winning any road races here at my age.”
LeBlanc, who moved to Houston from Louisiana specifically to train, said he decided to stay in the region in part because of the weather. Despite runners’ inbred hatred of heat, Houston’s steamy summers make for tougher competitors, he said.
Miller, a San Antonio native who moved to The Woodlands after graduating from Texas A&M with a degree in industrial engineering and landing a job at Anadarko, agreed.
“When people think of great training, they think ‘altitude,’ ” Miller said. “But this is a great training location. You don’t have to live in Boulder, Colorado, to become a great runner.”
Sean Wade might want to watch his back.