Runners to watch
MARATHON
Kelkile Gezahegn: The 23-year-old Ethiopian, who is making his Houston debut, has a personal best of 2:05:56, run in Rotterdam in 2018, and has already claimed multiple career marathon victories, including six in China. In his last start of 2019, he prevailed in Ljubljana with the second fastest time there — 2:07:29 — seemingly making him a viable threat to break Houston’s course record of 2:06:51, set by countryman Tariku Jufar in 2012.
Hassan El Abbassi: The Asian record-holder for the men’s marathon, he owns the fastest personal best in the field, having run a 2:04:43 in 2018. The 35-year-old native of Morocco has been representing Bahrain since 2014.
Biruktayit Degefa: Already one of the three three-time women’s champions in Houston, the 29-year-old Ethiopian is trying to become the first runner, male or female, to claim a fourth victory. This will be her first start since posting a personal best 2:22:40 in Toronto in October. Degefa, who fell only 14 seconds short of the course record, has been running marathons since she was 19 and has finished 31 of them over the past decade — 14 in 2014 alone. She has eight career victories and 20 podium finishes.
Meseret Belete: Only 19 when she debuted in Houston a year ago, she came in third with a personal best 2:26:56 and pushed countrywoman Degefa hard through the first 30 kilometers.
Alexi Pappas: A 2016 Olympian for Greece in the 10,000 meters (she holds dual GreekAmerican citizenship) and a former All-American at Dartmouth, the 29-year-old Pappas has a personal best of only 2:43:38 in the marathon. But she’s confident she’s ready to post at least a 2:29:30, the time she needs to qualify for this year’s Tokyo Olympics. HALF-MARATHON
Shura Kitata: The 23-year-old Ethiopian is trying to repeat as the men’s champion. He ran a 1:00:11 last year, not far off his personal best of 59:16 in Philadelphia in 2018. He finished fifth in the New York City Marathon in November.
Jake Robertson: Houston’s 2018 champion, the 30-year-old New Zealander returns after an injury-plagued 2019 season. His last competitive race at any distance was the 2018 Toronto Marathon, when he placed fifth.
Ruti Aga: After a finishing fourth in her halfmarathon debut in Houston in 2016, the now 25-year-old Ethiopian won in 2018 with a personal best 1:06:39, then placed third a year ago, running just 17 seconds slower. She has had three podium finishes in major marathons.
Molly Huddle: Huddle, 35, ran the fastest half-marathon by an American woman here in 2018, finishing seventh with a 1:07.25 in her only previous Houston start. She posted her personal-best marathon time of 2:26:33 in London last year as she points toward the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
Jordan Hasay: The now 28-year-old former high school phenom is a solid favorite to make her first Olympic team this year as a long-distance runner after failing to quality in 2012 and 2016 in the middle distances. She ran her first half-marathon in Houston in 2017, finishing fourth, and subsequently ran a personal best 1:07:55 that year. Her 2018 season was cut short by a stress fracture in her foot and, after a third-place finish in the Boston Marathon last spring, she had to drop out of the Chicago Marathon early because of a hamstring injury.
Sarah Hall: Former Houston half-marathon men’s record-holder Ryan Hall’s sister had top-15 finishes here from 2014 through 2017, placing as high as fourth, but didn’t race in Houston the last two years. Hall, 36, posted a personal best of 2:22:16 in her most recent race, the Berlin Marathon last fall.