Keflezighi, Lewy-Boulet Win USA Half Marathon Championships

By Chris Price
Copyright 2009 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (Janaury 18, 2009) Athens Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi made an early move to stake his claim on the men's title Sunday at the USA Half Marathon Championships in Houston, Texas, running 1:01:25 for his first U.S. half-marathon championship. 2008 U.S. Olympic marathoner Magdalena Lewy-Boulet won her first ever U.S. championship in 1:11:47.

The championships were hosted for the fifth time by the Aramco Houston Half Marathon with more than 100 of the top U.S. men and women joined a record field of 11,000 entrants for the eighth annual event.

After passing the first mile in a somewhat relaxed 4:44, Keflezighi and 2008 Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein began to pull away from the field and by two miles Keflezighi had opened a ten meter lead on Ritzenhein.

Going through the 5 km mark on American Record pace in 14:07, Keflezighi held an eight-second lead on Ritzenhein. By mile five, Keflezighi had fallen off record pace but had opened a 12 second lead.

Reaching 10 miles in 46:27, Keflezighi had extended his lead to 19 seconds but Ritzenhein began to rally and closed the gap to 16 seconds at 11 miles. As Keflezighi started to suffer from tightening hamstrings over the final two miles Ritzenhein continued to close but only managed to get within 10 second at the finish.

Former All-American at Stanford University Bret Gotcher ran a personal best by nearly two minutes to finish third in 1:02:09, 12 seconds ahead of his McMillan Elite teammate Andrew Carlson. 2006 Half Marathon champion Brian Sell rounded out the top-five in 1:02:36.

In the women's race, Lewy-Boulet took a more patient approach, running in a pack of five women that included 2004 U.S. Olympian and Houston course record holder Colleen De Reuck, two-time Olympian Amy Rudolph, Kelly Jaske, and Desiree Davila.

After running with the pack for nine miles, Lewy-Boulet made her move on the field and steadily opened a gap on Jaske who would go on to finish second in 1:12:06. Once again, masters standout De Reuck proved to be a contender in the open division as she finished third in 1:12:36. Davila and Rudolph followed in fourth and fifth, running 1:12:23 and 1:12:34 respectively.