ERICA KEMP IS TWO YEARS WISE, WILL MAKE A SECOND ATTEMPT AT THE HOUSTON MARATHON ON SUNDAY.
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly All rights reserved, used by permission.
HOUSTON (Jan. 17) — When Erika Kemp entered the 2023 Boston Marathon as a dual 15- and 20-kilometer national road champion boasting a half-marathon personal best of 1:10:14, she thought the transition to the marathon distance would be smooth. : But through the first 10-K After going 35:26 in 2:29:30, he slowed down in the second half of the race and finished in a slower than expected 2:33:57. He didn’t get the result he wanted, but it was a valuable, and sometimes painful, learning experience.
“I learned how brutal the marathon was,” Kemp told reporters at a press conference here this morning. The 29-year-old former NC State star will run the Chevron Houston Marathon on Sunday and hopes to build off of two personal best half marathons. which he ran in this sprawling southeast Texas city, 1:10:14 in 2023 and 1:09:10 in 2024.
“I decided to run the full (marathon) this year because I built up good course karma coming into Houston and had a good experience and ran a fast PB,” the Brooks-sponsored athlete continued.
That would certainly be a reasonable goal. Using Riegel’s time-tested formula, his half marathon personal best translates to a 2:25:13 marathon and a 10,000m personal best of 2:26:56. He was clearly feeling positive today. when he reflected on the past two races here.
“It was such a good experience since I came to Houston,” Kemp said. “Even today it was sunny and I didn’t need a puffer jacket. We’re in the middle of winter in New England right now, so coming down to Houston in the middle of January is always a great break, and the running is always fantastic.”
But Kemp, who lives in Providence, Rhode Island, may have brought that cold New England weather with him, which is expected to hit the city of 2.3 million people starting Saturday night is specific safety protocols from both race organizers and local authorities.
“We’ve really done everything we can to prepare for this,” Mayor John Whitmire told reporters at a press conference this morning will be created for any Houstonian who needs to get out of the weather.”
Kemp wasn’t too concerned about the prospect of cold temperatures. In Providence, where she trains under Canadian coach Kurt Benninger, husband of 28-time USATF champion Molly Huddle, she’s putting in plenty of cold-weather miles and feels ready for her last race here in Houston he ran so well in both appearances that he didn’t even notice much about the course, which he said was a good thing.
“I don’t remember anything about it,” Kemp said, drawing laughter from the gallery. in a state of flow and just running to the best of your ability. I had that experience when I ran in Houston.”
Houston’s very early start time (6:55 for the marathon) gives Kemp one factor of concern: running in the dark, he said, can be disorienting, making it difficult to get a feel for your true pace.
“I think the biggest challenge is going to be almost the same as running in the half (which starts at 6:45 for the elites),” Kemp explained. “You’re so excited. You know that It’s going to be a good day and it’s so, so hard to walk fast for the first few miles because it’s not super hot and it’s also dark, which throws me off a bit.” “You kind of don’t know what to do, and the fear of the dark kind of makes you run faster. I think just staying calm those first few miles is going to be the biggest challenge.”
The Ethiopian quartet of Tsige Haileslase, Anna Dibaba and Kumesh Sichala will be in contention for the overall title and the $50,000 first prize and will be chasing Kira D’Amato’s record of 2:19:12.Guided by coach Benninger Kemp will follow own goals.
“I feel so good about the half marathon and the 20, and we’ve just spent the last couple of years trying to figure out how to be strong enough to double it and really compete at the end,” he said. “I think we just figured it out.”
