Canadian trio achieves personal-best times in Houston Marathon, Half Marathon

Elite Canadian runners Kinsey Middleton, Leslie Sexton and Ben Preisner set personal-best times in the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon held simultaneously on a cloudy and warm Sunday morning.

Middleton delivered the highest placing, finishing fifth among 2,397 female athletes in two hours 29 minutes 22 seconds, a 47-second improvement from her previous best last May 29 in Ottawa.

Middleton set a 1:12:15 half marathon PB three years ago in Houston, nine days after receiving a cortisone injection for an undiagnosed rotator cuff tear in her left shoulder that led to surgery.

A native of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, she holds dual citizenship as her mother was born in Guelph, Ont. 

Montreal's Élissa Legault, in her eighth marathon on Sunday, was 11th in 2:34:02, 35 seconds shy of her PB. The 28-year-old former triathlete clocked 2:37:35 for 27th at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore.

The 35-year-old Sexton of Markham, Ont., who was 13th in the women's marathon at worlds last summer, placed 17th in a field of 6,685 female athletes in Sunday's half marathon in 1:12:05, more than a minute quicker (1:13:13) than her previous PB from Oct. 20, 2013. Hiwot Gebremaryam of Ethiopia posted a 1:06:28 winning time in Houston, where the race time temperature was 15 C with a 20 kilometre per hour wind.

Preisner, who plans to run a spring marathon, placed 13th in a field of 6.271 men, covering the 21.1 km half marathon in 1:02:42. The 26-year-old's previous best was 1:03:08 from Oct. 20, 2019 in Toronto.

"I thought it was a good day. I wanted to get in a fast race and see where my legs were at with the recent heavy training," the Milton, Ont., native who lives in Vancouver told CBC Sports on Monday morning. "I was with the front group through roughly 10 km and there were a few of us that broke off and we worked together. I am still learning to deal with pace changes in races, especially when the wind is not favourable.

"The main goal for me was to take the momentum from the race into the next marathon training phase."

The 2020 Olympian will train at altitude (over 7,000 feet) through February in Flagstaff, Ariz., where up to 45 centimetres of snow was forecast for Monday.

"From late November, early December until now, things have been clicking [in training] and I seem to have good momentum," Preisner said. "All facets of my training have been ramped up [nearing] the marathon season.

Olympic qualifying window open

"Workouts have been going well and I've almost been surprising myself how well things are feeling. It's good to have that confidence."

With the qualifying window for the 2024 Olympic marathon in Paris having opened on Nov. 1, Preisner noted a spring marathon provides flexibility to race either at the Aug. 19-27 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary or in the fall.

"It gives me two solid shots at a marathon this year," said Preisner, who ran 2:11:47 for 28th place at worlds last July 17. "That's important because the [men's automatic] standard [of 2:08:10 for Paris] is so tough that chasing [world ranking] points might be the way a lot of us will have to qualify."

Ethiopia's Leul Gebrselassie of Ethiopia won in 1:00:34 on Sunday, passing Kenya's Wesley Kiptoo (1:00:35) over the final 60 feet.

Frustrated, sad, embarrassed, and angry to - again - not show my fitness and hard work.— Canadian runner Dayna Pidhoresky

Dayna Pidhoresky of Tecumseh, Ont., was ninth midway through the marathon, 5:23 behind Japanese leader and eventual winner Hitomi Niiya, before she stopped around 25 km. Niiya crossed the finish line in 2:19:24 in only her second marathon.

"Frustrated, sad, embarrassed, and angry to — again — not show my fitness and hard work," Pidhoresky wrote in an Instagram post. "When tough days happen, I always feel like I've let my team down, and that is what hurts the most."

Wodak feeling 'much better'

Last October, Pidhoresky's 2:30:58 effort at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon was good for second to Malindi Elmore among Canadian women and seventh overall, but nearly two minutes slower than her previous Toronto marathon in 2019.

Fellow Vancouver resident Natasha Wodak withdrew from the half marathon on Thursday, two days after waking up to a sore throat and body aches. By Saturday night, the 41-year-old native of Surrey, B.C., was feeling "much better," she said on Instagram.

It is her fourth illness since contracting COVID-19 since late September when she took down Elmore's Canadian marathon record with a 2:23:12 performance in Berlin.

"I haven't seemed to stay healthy. Super annoying," Wodak said, adding she didn't begin workouts post-Berlin until November and endured a nagging cold in December. "None of the sicknesses have stopped me from training."

A week ago, in what was meant to be a Houston tune-up, she won the women's race for a ninth time in 10 appearances at the 44th Harriers Pioneer 8K in North Saanich, about 25 km north of Victoria.

Wodak broke away from two-time Canadian Olympian Gen Lalonde halfway through the race to win in 26:20, a national record in the Masters (40-and-over) division. Wodak is also the Canadian record holder in the women's 8K (25:28).

Calgary-born Rory Linkletter, now based in the United States, also pulled out of the Houston Half Marathon earlier this week.

"Unfortunately my December was riddled with illness and after considering the long game and my own personal expectations with a race like Houston I have withdrawn," the 26-year-old said on Instagram. "I am obviously sad as Houston is one of my favourite races."

Short stay on top

Linkletter still competed Sunday, posting a half marathon time of 1:05:28 at the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona event in Tempe.

A year ago, he clocked 1:01:08 in Houston to eclipse Jeff Schiebler's 1:01:28 Canadian record from 1999. Linkletter's mark lasted nine months until Ben Flanagan of Kitchener, Ont., earned his third national road race record of 2022, completing the Valencia Half Marathon in 61 minutes on Oct. 23.

Three months ago, Linkletter was second (2:13:32) among elite Canadian men at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

Also Sunday, Elmore took the women's half marathon in Tempe in 1:11:36, a 54-second victory over American Lauren Paquette and 28 seconds off her PB from June 16, 2019 in Winnipeg.

"It was fairly cold and windy," she told reporters, "so it was one of those days of just working on mental toughness. You kinda have to reset your goals mid-race when it's not a perfect day. But every time you finish a race, it's a victory."

The 42-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., hadn't raced since the Toronto event three months ago — her debut national marathon — where she was the first elite Canadian woman to reach the finish in 2:25:14, good for fourth overall.

A two-time Olympian, Elmore will race the Zurich Seville Marathon on Feb. 19 in Spain.

Elmore made her Olympic debut in 2004 and was 37th in the women's 1,500 metres in Athens. She retired from professional running in 2012, only to return seven years later after reinventing herself as a marathon runner.

On Aug. 7, 2021, she placed ninth in the 2020 Olympic marathon in Sapporo, Japan, the best Summer Games marathon finish by a Canadian woman in a non-boycott Games.