Texas native Stinson seeks top-5 finish in strong field
Parker Stinson said he could have been a contender in his Texas homecoming Sunday. Had anybody asked him the day he signed up for the 2023 Chevron Houston Marathon if he had a snowball’s chance of winning, he would have stuck his neck out and said yes.
But now? No. The onetime Texas high school champion from Cedar Park near Austin, where four generations of his family live, is a realist.
“I’ve run (2 hours, 10 minutes, 53 seconds), and I feel I’m back in that kind of shape,” Stinson said, noting Kenyan James Ngandu’s winning time of 2:11:03 from 2022. “When I saw that Houston was won in 2:11 last year, I wanted to sign up instantly, thinking it really was a race I could win, or at least get a top-three (finish). But fast forward. Now it’s a year past (the worst of ) COVID, the funding’s back and (the race organizers) brought in some really fast guys, 2:06 guys.”
Well, one almost-2:06 guy. Based on personal-bests, the strong favorite would be Ethiopia’s Tsedat Ayana, who has put up a 2:06:18. Behind him, Kenyan Evans Sambu has run a 2:07:43, Ethiopian Dominic Ondoro a 2:08 and Japan’s Kenta Uchida a 2:08:12.
“I’d never count anything out,” Stinson said, “but it’s going to be tough. It’s a really special field, a stellar field. If you’d talked to me a few months ago, I’d have believed I was running for a topthree (finish) or even a win.”
A spot in the top five has become his revised goal. That would also likely make him the first American to cross the line.
“I’m in shape, and I’m excited,” the 30-year-old Stinson said. “I’ve got a chance to run really fast and be around friends and family. This has always been a fun event. Me and my buddies used to come down and run in the open streets then watch the race.”
As it happened, he was in the crowd in 2007, when then-24year-old Ryan Hall both finished first and ran the fastest half-marathon ever by an American-born runner in 59:43.
“His splits were so astronomical I couldn’t process it,” Stinson said. “I was pretty good, but he was running a full minute (per mile) faster than I could. It blew my mind.”
Stinson conceded it would have been a great experience to go against the current fastest American marathoner, Conner Mantz, but Mantz opted to enter the Aramco Half Marathon instead. When Stinson was asked if a “rivalry” existed between him and his 25-year-old countryman — both are former U.S. Under-20 10,000-meter champions — he quickly demurred.
“I have a lot of respect for Conner,” he said. “I’m a big fan of Conner’s. He’s a special athlete. Maybe I’m closing, or can close, the gap, but there’s no rivalry. He’s in a different league right now.”