2011 Chevron Houston Marathon

Houston, A Place For Fast Times
The Chevron Houston Marathon is well known for producing some of the fastest marathon results in North America, year after year. Some of the best runners in history have won Houston, with a list that includes: Bill Rodgers, Paul Pilkington, Benji Durden, Deriba Merga, Ingrid Kristiansen, Teshome Gelana's 2:07:37 in 2010. For the women, Dire Tune's 2:24:40 in 2008 was improved to 2:24:18 by Teyba Erkesso in 2009 and then again to 2:23:53 in 2010 as Erkesso brought down her own record to 2:23:53.

The fields assembled for 2011's 39th Annual Chevron Houston Marathon were as strong as usual, with the possibility of record falling again. The weather was forecast to have severe lightning and storms and at times leading up the race the organizers were working on contingency plans in case the race had to be delayed or postponed. But the weather held out and the race started without incident amidst dry skies or light drizzle.

Brett Gotcher - The Favorite
Among other themes, American marathons tend to hope that there will be an American story emerging both pre-race and post race. For the 2011 Houston Marathon, the main story was that of Brett Gotcher, who with his 2:10:32 debut at the 2010 Houston Marathon was already one of America's best marathoners. The hope was that on the Houston Marathon course, he could drop his time to become one of the few American marathoners to run sub-2:10. With his success at the 2010 Houston Marathon, Gotcher chose Houston as his best chance for the time and while the rest of the best of American men were running in the Half Marathon Championships the day before, Gotcher was there to represent America in the full marathon distance. Gotcher was assigned bib number 3 - as race organizers expected him to be third best in the field. But as the top two seeds, including defending champion Teshome Gelana, were unable to make it to the USA - Gotcher becamse the favorite.

The Pacers Take Out the Race
The men's race lined up behind two pacers: Nick Arciniaga and Wilfred Murgor. Defending champion and course record holder, Teshome Gelana, was unable to make it to America and without him, the field was wide open. With the two pacers leading, the lead pack contained Bekana Tolesa (aka Bekana Daba), Brett Gotcher, Hussen Adelo and John Kales. Through 20K, the split was 60:55 and through the Half 64:17 - well off the course record. After the 25K the race split to four: Wilfred Murgor running with Bekana Daba and Nick Ariciniaga running with his teammate Brett Gotcher. The two Ethiopians ran together through 30K when Daba broke away, Murgor was unable to keep the pace. At this point, it was clear that Daba was running a strong negative split and that the course record could be beaten.

New Course Record and Surprising Top American
Daba continued strong through the end, and as Daba passed the 25 mile mark in 2:01:00, it was clear that the course record would fall and the question was whether Daba could best the 2:07 time. In the rain and tough conditions, Daba set a course record 2:07:04, a personal best in his second marathon (his first was a 2:14:40 blowup at Amsterdam where Daba's first half was 1:03:05 and second half was 1:11:35). Behind the leaders, Arciniaga had planned to run Gotcher through 25K and continue on if he felt well - as scheduled, at 25K Gotcher pushed on as Arciniaga slowed a bit. But the best plans don't end as set, and a few miles later Gotcher's wheels were falling off and Arciniaga caught Gotcher and tried to encourage him to continue. Arciniaga passed Gotcher and shortly after mile 24 had caught and passed Murgor to move into second place where he would stay to finish in a new personal best 2:11:30. Murgor finished third in 2:11:41.

The women's pack started with five women, all paced and lined up behind Genna Tufa: Mamitu Daska, Belainesh Gebre, Ashu Kasim, Salomie Getnet and Tigist Tufa. By mile 18, the race was down to two women, Daska and Kasim and by mile 19 the pacer left and Daska took over the job of leading with Ashu Kasim running with her as the others began to fade terribly behind. Daska proved the only woman able to keep the pace and finished in a strong 2:26:33. Kasim continued on to finish second in 2:27:47. Behind, American Stephanie Rothstein - paced by Sean Wade (the 2003 Houston Marathon winner) - was running a strong and solid race and passed all other women to finish in third place in a sub 2:30 time, 2:29:35 - beating her previous best and only prior marathon, a 2:40:07 5th place finish at the 2008 Twin Cities marathon.

Houston once again proved that it is one of the fastest courses in North America and that it has been successful at attracting many of the best runners in the world.

Top 15 Men:
1. Tolesa, Bekana (ETH) 2:07:04
2. Arciniaga, Nicholas (USA) 2:11:30
3. Murgor, Wilfred (NED) 2:11:41
4. Watson, Rob (CAN) 2:16:17
5. Davis, Jesse (USA) 2:18:47
6. Gotcher, Brett (USA) 2:19:30
7. Lyons, Brian (USA) 2:19:52
8. MacDowell, Adam (USA) 2:22:16
9. Tomas, Aleksandar (SRB) 2:22:51
10. Gomez, Robert (USA) 2:23:02
11. CHERUIYOT, DAVID (USA) 2:24:07
12. Jeuland, Marc (USA) 2:25:29
13. Kienzle, Ryan (USA) 2:29:24
14. Lumpkins, James (USA) 2:30:10
15. Rodriguez, David (USA) 2:30:45


Top 15 Women:
1. Daska, Mamitu (ETH) 2:26:33
2. Kasim, Ashu (ETH) 2:27:47
3. Rothstein, Stephanie E (USA) 2:29:35
4. Gebre, Belainesh Z (ETH) 2:34:47
5. Getnet, Selamie (ETH) 2:36:34
6. Fryburg-Zaitz, Kristen M (USA) 2:40:47
7. Cappello, Heather (USA) 2:40:58
8. Tufa, Tigist (ETH) 2:41:50
9. Harrison, Emily A (USA) 2:42:27
10. Hagobian, Nicole A (USA) 2:44:06
11. Richard, Erin R (USA) 2:44:35
12. LaBeaud, Natasha I (ETH) 2:45:20
13. Petrick, Sara E (USA) 2:45:23
14. Macsas, Allison R (USA) 2:46:47
15. Chaney, Emily M (USA) 2:47:16