Chevron Houston Marathon / Aramco Houston Half Marathon – News – USA Half-Marathon Records Under Serious Threat In Houston On Sunday Morning

USA HALF-MARATHON RECORDS UNDER SERIOUS THREAT IN HOUSTON ON SUNDAY
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission

HOUSTON (18-Jan) — Ryan Hall’s USATF half-marathon record of 59:43 was set here in 2007 at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon, and despite the introduction of “super shoes” in 2016, which use carbon plates to help propel runners forward, Hall’s record has yet to be broken.  Hall, now 42, set that mark as a 24 year-old while making his half-marathon debut.

“My plan was to just see how I felt,” Hall told Race Results Weekly that day.  “I was just going with the race pace I could maintain.”

America’s best road runners of the last decade –Dathan Ritzenhein, Galen Rupp, Leonard Korir, and Hillary Bor– have been unable to break the record giving Hall’s mark a mythical quality.  But a new crop of athletes are ready to try on the streets of Houston on Sunday, including Olympians Conner Mantz, Joe Klecker and Morgan Pearson.  For them Hall’s record is definitely top of mind.

“There were a lot of races to pick from, but the most exciting one for me was always Houston,” Klecker said at a press conference yesterday.  The 28 year-old, who is coached by 2009 World Half-Marathon Championships bronze medalist Dathan Ritzenhein, is trying the distance for the first time and wants to run fast.  “I’ve seen the field and there’s people in this race who have run faster than that record.  So, if I go in there and try to win, and if I feel good push for it, it’s possible.  From the stuff I’ve done in training I believe it indicates that it’s a doable goal.”

Klecker did his build-up with Pearson, an Olympic silver medalist in the triathlon mixed relay, who is a gifted runner.  Pearson, 31, ran a 1:01:08 half-marathon in Valencia last October a week after he wrapped up his triathlon season in Malaga.  He was clearly excited by the chance to run fast here.  He called his result in Valencia an “OK race” and would like to go faster.

“I was left wanting more,” Pearson said of his run in Valencia.  He added: “After Valencia, I hope to improve my time.”

Mantz, 28, the 2024 USA Olympic Trials Marathon champion who won the 2021 USATF Half-Marathon Championships in a personal best 1:00:55, was motivated to run here based in part on the strength of the field.  He had a terrific year in 2024 culminating in an eighth place finish at the Paris Olympic Marathon and a sixth place showing at the TCS New York City…