Houston Half Marathon Recap

This past weekend, in partnership with running content creator Kofuzi, I had the incredible opportunity to witness history at the Houston Half Marathon, where not one but two American records were broken— including a 17-year-old record of 59:43, originally set by Ryan Hall at this very race back in 2007.

Situated on the media bridge overlooking the finish line, I anxiously waited with other credentialed media as we incessantly refreshed our race tracking apps to see if American Conner Mantz could hang onto his 4:31 average pace— giving him a shot at not only a win but a chance at breaking the record.

As he turned the final corner side-by-side with Ethiopia's Addisu Gobena and approached the finish line, I had the opportunity to capture the electric photo finish and the subsequent celebrations that followed.

What struck me in hindsight was the eerie quiet surrounding the finish line. The grandstands were small and situated before the line, and the 17-degree windchill discouraged a large crowd. In the moment, though, I didn’t notice. I was hyper-focused on capturing the shot—balancing framing, focus, lighting, and ensuring I didn’t disrupt the other media.

The finish was so close that confusion lingered for a few moments over who had won, but Gobena was eventually declared the winner, and Mantz still celebrated a huge PR and new American record.

Moments later, Ethiopia's Senayet Getachew was the first woman to cross the finish line with a time of 1:06:05 (a 1:00 PR), followed shortly by American Weini Kelati, who incredibly broke her own record set just a year prior.

After thawing my frozen hands, I uploaded a video of the men’s finish, which quickly went viral— amassing over 180,000 views within the first 24 hours and sparking debate over whether Gobena veered off his line, potentially impeding Mantz (you can judge for yourself!).

A huge thank you to Steve Schnell and the rest of the Houston Marathon media team, and to Mike Ko (Kofuzi) for the continued support and collaboration. Be sure to check out Kofuzi’s Houston recap, dropping on his YouTube channel later this week, which will include more of my behind-the-scenes video footage.