Thousands rush downtown for Chevron Houston Marathon

Runners take off from the starting line of the 48th running of the Chevron Houston Marathon Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, in Houston. Runners take off from the starting line of the 48th running of the Chevron Houston Marathon Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, in Houston. Photo: Brett Coomer/Staff Photographer Photo: Brett Coomer/Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 108 Caption Close Thousands rush downtown for Chevron Houston Marathon 1 / 108 Back to Gallery

As blustery winds whipped the air Sunday morning, most runners in the Chevron Houston Marathon had but one goal: To make it to the end.

Shivering in the chilly January weather, the athletes gathered at the starting line in downtown Houston in anticipation of the journey to come.

Roughly 13,500 were taking part in the 48th annual Chevron Houston Marathon, a 26.2-mile course that weaves between skyscrapers, potholes and bayou greenery. Another 13,500 signed up for the half-marathon, which took a gentle 13.1-mile lap out of downtown, into the Theater District and Montrose before coming to Discovery Green.

Race winners

By mid-morning, the main event had two winners. Kelkile Gezahegn and Askale Merachi, both of Ethiopia, finished at 2:08:36 and 2:23:29 to take the men’s and women’s races, respectively.

Jemal Yimer Mekonnen of Ethiopia won the men’s half-marathon title at 59:25, and Hitomi Niiya of Japan sprinted over the finish line at 1:06:38 to take the women’s half-marathon title.

As for the rest, it was a slow jog that would take them through much of the West Loop. Alyssa Fields, 27, and her father John Sanchez, 45, kept up a brisk pace as they walked the short blocks from their parking spot to the George R. Brown Convention Center, where runners were expected to gather by 7 a.m.

Fields was running her first marathon on Sunday — she raced the 5K in 2019, and made it her goal to get through the other 23.1 miles in 2020.

In recent weeks, she had trained for longer distances at Memorial Park with the expectation that the runner’s medal, the prize for completing the race, would dangle proudly around her neck by Jan. 19. The marathoners who failed to make it to the finish line after six hours and the joggers who couldn’t get to the half-marathon’s end four hours after they were sent off would not receive medals.

“I’m not really worried, I’m going to finish,” said Fields, who finished around 12:41 p.m.

Sanchez intended to wave her on from the starting line, before hopping back in his car to drive to a midway point and keep up with her.

“I’m really proud, she works hard and she’s very determined,” Sanchez said.

He came from Arkansas to race

Equally as determined Sunday morning was Scott Brock, who drove down from Harding University in Searcy, Ark. to compete in his eighth Houston Half-Marathon.

Brock, 44, is completing his master’s degree in special education at the private school. Finishing the run, he said, was going to set his mood for the rest of the year.

“The half is important because it’s just to mark off my first goal in 2020,” he said.

The rest of the goals? Finish his degree, read 50 books, lose weight and take a trip to Israel. But the first hurdle was to jog through 13.1 miles.

It was AirPods in and arms out for many marathon runners when the race started at 7:01 a.m. Some tossed their warm-up clothes over the green temporary fencing, which functioned as both a pen to keep thousands of runners within Congress and Austin streets and a clothesline for foil blankets and pajama bottoms, never to be seen again. Officials dispersed the crowd in four groups, with the later waves filled with half-marathon contenders and slower competitors doing the full race.

Friends and family cheered from the sidelines as their loved ones took off. Jim Piccione, 60, perched atop a silver utility box and scanned the last group of half-marathon runners for his fiancée, her sister and their friend.

The group on Friday drove down from Kingwood to attend the marathon expo. They chose to stay the weekend, making a whole trip out of the race.

After they completed the run, their plan was to hang back downtown and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

“As long as they’re still walking,” Piccione joked, clapping his gloved hands together for warmth. He waved to the trio as they passed.

After the last athletes left, yellow-vested volunteers sprung into action, picking up discarded water bottles and jackets off the ground.

The route started at the intersection of San Jacinto and Congress, looping through Midtown, Montrose, Rice Village, West University Place, the Galleria, Memorial and Fourth Ward to end at Lamar and Crawford.

At the intersection of Montrose and Westheimer, all was quiet except for the pitter-patter of feet and the tinny sounds of cowbells from bystanders cheering on runners. But larger groups, fitted with colorful tees emblazoned with their run club affiliations and charity causes, began galloping down the race course as a blinding sun emerged over Houston.

Fans waved signs for half-marathon runners as they jogged by, bouncing up and down for warmth.

He diligently trained

The Hamm family stood on a sidewalk, huddled in coats and boots as they searched for their racer.

Terri Hamm, 33, and her children Elle and Ethan, 12 and 7, peered at an iPhone. Rather than get up at 5:30 a.m. to accompany father Troy Hamm to the starting line, the family from the Heights chose to sleep in and see him halfway.

On Terri Hamm’s phone, the blue dot of Troy Hamm’s GPS tracker showed him slowly trickling up Montrose toward them.

“He’s been diligently training, hasn’t been drinking and he’s set a goal the kids can watch,” Terri Hamm said.

Elle and Ethan were excited to see their father jet by shortly before 9 a.m. It would be their dad’s third half-marathon.

“I know that’s something he likes to do and he tries to drag me along,” Elle said, pausing. “I don’t like it.”

“Thirteen miles is harsh,” the youngest Hamm said with a nod.

Driving within the 610 Loop was also harsh, thanks to a large number of road closures in and around the west half of the Loop.

Across Montrose Boulevard, University of Texas at Dallas professor Julie Haworth, 56, cheered for every half-marathon runner coming down the road, calling out many by the names printed on their race cards. (She skipped over some of the quirkier ones, like “Papa Bear” and “My Wife Rocks.”)

“I’m used to clapping for everybody at graduation,” she joked. “But I’m proud of everybody here because they’re making the city healthier.”

Two GPS trackers on her phone showed where her daughter Cori, 26, and husband Bryan, 59, trotted along on the half-marathon course. It would be minutes before they would finish running down Kirby Drive, turn left on Bissonnet Street and come back up onto Montrose. For now, she would continue clapping and waving at tired runners trying to push through the last three miles of the course.

Haworth sucked in her breath as a man clad in a Superman t-shirt tumbled to the ground, felled by the bumpy concrete of one of Houston’s treacherous streets.

But he got back up, pivoting on his left heel to test if he had rolled his ankle. Within seconds, he was off again.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

Twitter: @gwendolynawu