Chevron Houston Marathon Legacy Runner Notes

So I'm using borrowed data here, but it is very well put-together data.

Data that started as an effort to take all of Jack Lippincott's results books of the early years of the Chevron Houston Marathon and put it into a very usable form.

The individual that spearheaded the gathering, OCR scanning and programming of the databases and subsequent website was done by a good friend of mine, ultramarathoner and Chevron Houston Marathon veteran himself, Dalton Pulsipher.

It resides on the Internet as HoustonResults.com.

I discovered yesterday that there are four links to be able to download the current lists of marathoners and half marathons who have run 10 or more of each event as well as those who have run 5-to-9 of one or the other.

I took those clicks on the Information Superhighway!

These are the following numbers in each category:

+  1,572 marathoners have run 10 or more Chevron Houston Marathons  (1,225 men, 347 women)

+  4,213 marathoners have run between 5 and 9 Chevron Houston Marathons (3,154 men, 1,059 women)

+  97 half marathoners have run 10 or more Aramco Houston Half Marathons (48 men, 49 women)

+  1,740 half marathoners have run between 5 and 9 Aramco Houston Half Marathons (805 men, 935 women)

That's 7,622 entries for a total of 59,582 official finishes.

1,832 of those 7,622 -- 24% -- finished one of the two races last year.  1,482 did the marathon while 350 ran the half marathon.

73 of those 97 half marathoners that are now Aramco Houston Half Marathon veterans ran the race in 2015.

There are three runners who are veterans at both distances:

Nathaniel Collins (24 total finishers - 14 half marathons and 10 marathons)
Joann Luco (22 total finishes - 12 half marathons and 10 marathons)
Sammy Balch (20 total finishes - 10 half marathons and 10 marathons)

Another 178 have five or more finishes in both events.

Jay Murry, who last finished the half marathon in 2013, is the next one that is eligible to enter this group of "double veterans" as he recorded 16 marathon finishes through 2014 and crossed nine half marathon finish lines through 2013.

The five most number of combined finishes - where the runner has five or more in both events - are as follows:

Gerald Meyers (31 total finishes - 25 marathons and 6 half marathons)
Phillip Smith (30 total finishes - 25 marathons and 5 half marathons)
Margaret Montgomery (29 total finishes - 24 marathons and 5 half marathons)
Robert Thompson (28 total finishes - 23 marathons and 5 half marathons)
Stephen Sawchak (27 total finishes - 20 marathons and 7 half marathons)

Speaking of "Who wants to become a Chevron Houston Marathon or Aramco Houston Half Marathon veteran?", there's 348 - 286 marathoners and 62 half marathoners - that have nine (9) official finishes in that respective distance.

Almost 40% of those runners (including me) finished that same distance last year.  134, to be exact - or 38.5%.

Youngest in the Marathon 5-to-9?  Jenna Loredo, who finished her 5th Houston Marathon last year at the age of 17.  Twenty-year-old Auston Douglas is the youngest male with 6 marathon finishes.

The youngest half marathoners in the 5-to-9 pool are Connor Hannigan and Carrie McIntyre, who both finished their fifth Aramco Houston Half Marathon in 2014 at the age of 16.

So who are the youngest marathon veterans?

Raymond Tam and Elaine Ver Halen.

They were 25 and 31 when they finished their last Houston Marathon, respectively, in 2015 and 2014.  Raymond has 10 marathon finishes while Elaine has 11.

Brett Davis ran this year's marathon (2015) at the age of 31 for his 16th finish while Chris St. Jean ran his 12th Chevron Houston Marathon - also this year - at 32.

There are also 24 runners age 70 and over who are veterans at either distance -- and all of them finished last year's race.

The oldest of the marathoners are Boris Balic and The Woodlands' Jim Braden.  Both were 79 when they finished this January.  Boris has 33 finishes to his credit while Jim has 19.

Two females - Sally Sims and Ute Eisele - are also in that category.  They are both 71 and Ute last year ran her 10th Chevron Houston Marathon to become a veteran.

Four half marathoners - the oldest being Hans Meyer at 79.  He has finished 11 half marathons while Collins has 14 (at the age of 78) followed by Michael Chicka's 13 and Sesh Bala's 12.