The Chevron Houston Marathon is a world-class event that attracts athletes from over 40 states in the US and many countries around the globe. The 2017 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon has featured 27,000 registered participants, 7,500 volunteers and over 200,000 spectators, making it the largest sporting event in Houston.
The 27,000 marathoners were split evenly between Full Marathon (26.2 miles) and Half Marathon (13.1 miles). The Marathon started and ended at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. The guaranteed prize money for the Full Marathon first place was $45,000 and for the Half Marathon $20,000. It is the same amount for men and women.
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A casual scanning and observation has suggested that the participation from the Indian American community has grown after being steady for a number of years! There were many young runners as well as veterans. There were quite a few Indo-American volunteers at the water and Gatorade stations on the course.
The Houston Marathon has certainly come a long way from it had started in 1972 with a field of 113 runners who ran through a 5-mile loop at Memorial Park. The winners then were Danny Green in 2:32:33 and Tanya Trantham in 5:11:55.
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The winners of the full-marathon this year were for men, Kenya’s Dominic Ondoro clocking 2:12:05 and for women Meskerem Assefa of Ethiopia, coming in at 2:30:18. In the Aramco Half-Marathon (21.1km or 13.1miles), among women, Veronicah Nyaruai Wanjiru of Kenya won in 67:58 and among men, Leonard Korir of the United States came with a time of 61:14.
The number of desi runners has been increasing over the past two decades. In a rough sampling of common Indian last names which were registered for the 2017 marathon, there were in excess of 150 desis who participated in this years marathon in all the ten types of races that were run.
By Premji
