Former Top Performers of The Woodlands Marathon (and Half) Compete Well Internationally on Sunday

Over the weekend, a number of former top performers of The Woodlands Marathon and its companion half marathon competed well internationally.

Austin’s David Fuentes, who was second in the inaugural The Woodlands Half Marathon in 2012 in 1:07:09, is a member of Team USA’s Mountain Running team that raced at the NACAC Mountain Running Championships, which were held 30 minutes outside of Tepatitlan de Morelos, Jalisco, Mexico on Sunday.

Team USA’s men took the silver and Fuentes placed seventh overall in the 12th Carrera Cerro Gordo, which “offered a challenging course with over 2,000 feet of climbing from a starting elevation of 7,000 feet to nearly 8,700 feet at the high point — the turnaround point — on an out and back course covering 12 kilometers of trail,” according to Nancy Hobbs’ report for the American Trail Running Association.

Fuentes said on his Instagram account that “the altitude, the mud, the ascents and descents made for an incredible race.

He added that he “red lined hard in the first two miles climbing to ~8,700 feet, got passed by basically everyone, but clawed my way back and took some serious risks on the downhill for seventh.”

At the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Sunday in Canada, 2013 sixth-place The Woodlands Half Marathon finisher Enoch Nadler was ninth overall with a personal-best 2:13:04, that lowered his previous best of 2:17:06 at April’s Boston Marathon by more than four minutes.

It was his third career marathon, according to a Facebook post by Ricky Quintana, who also reported that Nadler improves to having the 27th best qualifying time (up from 72nd best) of all current qualifiers for the United States Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta next February.

2018 The Woodlands Marathon champion Calum Neff also spirited away a new personal record as he nearly went sub-2:20 on Sunday with a 25th place overall finish of 2:20:44 – a two-minute, 15-second improvement.

He told Jarrett LeBlanc in a comment on a post on his athlete Facebook page that “the fitness is there, fueling (was) on point and (that he) just needs the legs a little more conditioned (for) Tokyo, March 1.”

Neff added on his own post-race post that “my hamstrings were the governor today, firing from 31 kilometers onwards, meaning that I was fairly comfortable throughout the race and unable to push to the full extent until the end where I was flying.”

The Toronto Waterfront Marathon was where he set his world record for pushing a stroller during a marathon with his daughter, Aley.

Etaferahu Wodaj Temesgen, then 23, won the 2013 edition of The Woodlands Half Marathon in an event record that still stands today in 1:13:18.

On Sunday in Toronto, she was eighth overall in the women’s marathon in a time of 2:27:21.

Last year’s The Woodlands Half Marathon winner Kinsey Middleton was 13th overall – and the third best Canadian – in a time of 2:34:36.