TWO YEARS WISER, ERIKA KEMP TO TAKE A SECOND TRY AT THE MARATHON IN HOUSTON ON SUNDAY
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly all rights reserved, used with permission.
HOUSTON (17-Jan) — When Erika Kemp came into the 2023 Boston Marathon as a two-time national road running champion at 15 and 20 kilometers, who boasted a half-marathon personal best of 1:10:14, she thought that the transition to the marathon distance would be a smooth one. But after rolling through the first 10-K in 35:26, on pace for a 2:29:30 finish, she slowed in the second half of the race and finished in a slower-than-hoped-for 2:33:57. She didn’t get the result she had wanted, but it was a valuable –and sometimes painful– learning experience.
“I learned just how brutal a marathon was,” Kemp told reporters at a press conference here this morning. The 29 year-old former NC State star will be running the Chevron Houston Marathon on Sunday, and is hoping to channel some good energy from the two personal-best half-marathons she has run in this sprawling southeastern 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 some good course karma with coming to Houston and having a good experience, and running a fast PB,” Kemp said. The Brooks-sponsored athlete continued: “I hope to run another massive PB.”
That would certainly be a reasonable goal. Using the time-tested Riegel Formula, her half-marathon personal best converts to a 2:25:13 marathon, while her 10,000m personal best of 31:28.69 converts to a 2:26:56. She was clearly feeling positive today as she reflected on her past two races here.
“It’s been such a good experience since I’ve come to Houston,” Kemp said. “Even today, it was sunny and I didn’t need a puffer jacket. We’re deep into winter in New England right now, so coming down to Houston in mid-January is always such a super-nice break, and the running is always fantastic.”
But Kemp –who is based in Providence, Rhode Island– may have brought some of that cold New England weather with her. A cold snap is expected to arrive here beginning on Saturday night and deliver rare, sub-freezing temperatures to this city of 2.3 million people. That has triggered special safety protocols by both the race organizers and the local government.
“We have really done everything to prepare for this signature event,” Mayor John Whitmire told the media this morning at a press conference. “We’re doing everything that the city can do to prepare for this weather moving in. We’ll have ten warming centers set up for any Houstonian who needs to get out of the weather.”
Kemp didn’t seem too concerned about the prospect of low temperatures. In Providence –where she trains under Canadian coach Kurt Benninger, the husband of 28-time USATF champion Molly Huddle– she’s been getting in plenty of cold-weather miles and feels prepared for the race here. During her last two appearances in Houston, she was running so well that she didn’t even notice much about the course. She said that’s a good thing.
“I don’t remember a single thing about it,” Kemp said, prompting laughs from the gallery. “Which is great, because when you’re running longer distances the best races are when you zone out, and be in that flow state, and just run to the best of your ability. I’ve had that experience whenever I ran in Houston.”
Houston’s very early start time (6:55 for the marathon) does give Kemp one factor of concern: running in the dark. She said that can be disorienting, making it hard to feel your true pace.
“I think the biggest challenge will be almost the same challenge as running in the half (which starts at 6:45 for the elites) which is not going out too fast,” Kemp explained. “You’re so excited. You know it’s going to be a good day, and it’s so, so hard to pace yourself early in the first few miles because it’s not super-hot here and it’s also dark, which throws me off a little bit.” She continued: “You kind of don’t know what to do, and that little bit of fear of the dark makes you kind of, like, want to run a little faster. I think just staying calm those first few miles will be the biggest challenge.”
A quartet of Ethiopians –Tsige Haileslase, Sifan Demise, Anna Dibaba, and Kumeshi Sichala– should be battling it out for the overall title and the $50,000 first prize, and might chase Keira D’Amato’s event record of 2:19:12, which would trigger a $35,000 bonus. Guided by Coach Benninger, Kemp will be chasing her own goals.
“I feel so, so good with the half-marathon and the 20-K, and we just spent the last couple of years really trying to figure out how to be strong enough to double it and really compete at the end,” she said. “I think we’ve just about figured it out.”
