Recap of the Houston Races for Team USA Minnesota

“The men’s race was on the edge right from the gun,” said Dennis Barker, Team USA Minnesota coach. “The lead pack was running sub-2:07 pace for the first half of the race and the chase pack – which included Andrew(Carlson) and Jason(Lehmkuhle) – was running 2:09 pace. Anyone who wasn’t in one of those packs had little chance of making the Olympic team. Andrew and Jason really went for it and were only a minute and 40 seconds behind the leaders at 20 miles.

“But the guys up front stayed tough all the way to the end and no one from the chase pack was able to catch them. It was the first time four Americans have ever run under 2:10 in one race so the guys who made the team (Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman) really earned it. Andrew held on pretty well and ran the seventh fastest US marathon debut ever. Jason had a tougher time over the last few miles. I really have to hand it to both of them for giving everything to try to make the team.

“Matt (Gabrielson) felt a little off but was still running 2:11 pace through 15 miles. But in a race like this if you wake up and are 98 percent instead of 100 percent that day, it’s going to be rough. He battled as long as he could to stay in contention and gave what he had. If it had been another day, it easily could have been Matt leading the chase pack.

“Josh (Moen) got a hamstring problem about ten days out from the race. It had gotten better but not good enough to run a high level marathon. It started tightening up after just a couple miles and got worse from there.”

There were 294 runners who competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, which was a selection race for the marathon team that will represent the US in London this summer. It was the first time that the men’s and women’s marathon competitions were held on the same day at the same location. The first three men and the first three women were named to the team.

“In the women’s race, Katie (MacGregor) was doing fine in the lead pack when they were running miles in the 5:30s but when they started dropping them into the 5:20s, she wasn’t able to respond,” said Barker. “Meghan (Peyton) was running a pace that would have given her a finishing time in the low 2:30s, trying to stay as close as she could to the lead back in case it broke up.

“But the leaders ran strong all the way and Meghan struggled after 20 miles. Both Katie and Meghan did everything they could on that day to make the team, but there were some great runners in front of them who ran great races.” (Shalane Flanagan, Desi Davilla and Kara Goucher comprise the women’s Olympic marathon team.)

Gabrielson, Moen and Peyton did not finish the race. In the men’s field, there were 111 starters and 85 finishers. 183 women started the marathon and 152 finished.



Aramco Half Marathon – January 15
Jon Grey was fifth in a time of 1:02:25 and Matt Llano was seventh in 1:03:26. Both runners were making their debuts in the half marathon distance.