TWO YEARS WISER, ERIKA KEMP TO TAKE A SECOND TRY AT THE MARATHON IN HOUSTON ON SUNDAY
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Outcomes Weekly all rights reserved, used with permission.
HOUSTON (17-Jan) — When Erika Kemp got here into the 2023 Boston Marathon as a two-time nationwide street working champion at 15 and 20 kilometers, who boasted a half-marathon private better of 1:10:14, she thought that the transition to the marathon distance can be a clean one. However after rolling by the primary 10-Okay in 35:26, on tempo for a 2:29:30 end, she slowed within the second half of the race and completed in a slower-than-hoped-for 2:33:57. She didn’t get the outcome she had needed, nevertheless it was a priceless –and typically painful– studying expertise.
“I realized simply how brutal a marathon was,” Kemp informed reporters at a press convention right here this morning. The 29 year-old former NC State star will likely be working the Chevron Houston Marathon on Sunday, and is hoping to channel some good power from the 2 personal-best half-marathons she has run on this sprawling southeastern Texas metropolis, 1:10:14 in 2023 and 1:09:10 in 2024.
“I made a decision to run the complete (marathon) this 12 months as a result of I constructed up some good course karma with coming to Houston and having an excellent expertise, and working a quick PB,” Kemp stated. The Brooks-sponsored athlete continued: “I hope to run one other huge PB.”
That will surely be an inexpensive aim. Utilizing the time-tested Riegel Formulation, her half-marathon private finest converts to a 2:25:13 marathon, whereas her 10,000m private better of 31:28.69 converts to a 2:26:56. She was clearly feeling optimistic in the present day as she mirrored on her previous two races right here.
“It’s been such an excellent expertise since I’ve come to Houston,” Kemp stated. “Even in the present day, it was sunny and I didn’t want a puffer jacket. We’re deep into winter in New England proper now, so coming all the way down to Houston in mid-January is all the time such a super-nice break, and the working is all the time implausible.”
However Kemp –who relies in Windfall, Rhode Island– could have introduced a few of that chilly New England climate together with her. A chilly snap is anticipated to reach right here starting on Saturday evening and ship uncommon, sub-freezing temperatures to this metropolis of two.3 million folks. That has triggered particular security protocols by each the race organizers and the native authorities.
“We have now actually performed the whole lot to organize for this signature occasion,” Mayor John Whitmire informed the media this morning at a press convention. “We’re doing the whole lot that town can do to organize for this climate transferring in. We’ll have ten warming facilities arrange for any Houstonian who must get out of the climate.”
Kemp didn’t appear too involved concerning the prospect of low temperatures. In Windfall –the place she trains beneath Canadian coach Kurt Benninger, the husband of 28-time USATF champion Molly Huddle– she’s been getting in loads of cold-weather miles and feels ready for the race right here. Throughout her final two appearances in Houston, she was working so nicely that she didn’t even discover a lot concerning the course. She stated that’s an excellent factor.
“I don’t bear in mind a single factor about it,” Kemp stated, prompting laughs from the gallery. “Which is nice, as a result of if you’re working longer distances the perfect races are if you zone out, and be in that circulate state, and simply run to the perfect of your means. I’ve had that have at any time when I ran in Houston.”
Houston’s very early begin time (6:55 for the marathon) does give Kemp one issue of concern: working at midnight. She stated that may be disorienting, making it exhausting to really feel your true tempo.
“I feel the largest problem will likely be virtually the identical problem as working within the half (which begins at 6:45 for the elites) which isn’t going out too quick,” Kemp defined. “You’re so excited. You already know it’s going to be an excellent day, and it’s so, so exhausting to tempo your self early within the first few miles as a result of it’s not super-hot right here and it’s additionally darkish, which throws me off just a little bit.” She continued: “You sort of don’t know what to do, and that little little bit of concern of the darkish makes you sort of, like, wish to run just a little sooner. I feel simply staying calm these first few miles would be the greatest problem.”
A quartet of Ethiopians –Tsige Haileslase, Sifan Demise, Anna Dibaba, and Kumeshi Sichala– must be battling it out for the general title and the $50,000 first prize, and would possibly chase Keira D’Amato’s occasion file of two:19:12, which might set off a $35,000 bonus. Guided by Coach Benninger, Kemp will likely be chasing her personal targets.
“I really feel so, so good with the half-marathon and the 20-Okay, and we simply spent the final couple of years actually making an attempt to determine the right way to be robust sufficient to double it and actually compete on the finish,” she stated. “I feel we’ve nearly figured it out.”
