By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

USA HALF-MARATHON TITLES UP FOR GRABS IN HOUSTON

HOUSTON (11-Jan) -- With deep fields but no clear favorites, Sunday's USA Half-Marathon
 Championships hosted by the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon look to be wide open races.  Most athletes are only
 in the base phase of their training cycles, either recovering from, or in the early stages of
 preparing for, important marathons.  Expectations amongst the top entrants are modest, despite the
 $12,000 winner's purse.

"I was in the same boat last year at this time," said defending women's champion Elva Dryer in a
 telephone interview last night from Houston.  Prior to last year's championship, Dryer was just
 restarting her training after running the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in October.  This year, she's
 had even less recovery time after placing sixth at the ING New York City Marathon last November.
  However, Houston offers her a good chance to see where her training stands for April's USA
 Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon in Boston.  A two-time Olympian at 10,000m, Dryer has an
 excellent shot of qualifying for her first Olympic marathon.

"You haven't done enough workouts to know if your're ready to do this or do that," Dryer
 explained.  "I did recover better from New York than I did from Chicago the previous year.  That was a very
 positive note to start the year feeling that way."

Dryer only ran her first serious half-marathon in Houston last year.  Nonetheless, she won the USA
 title in what was a two-woman race against former Yale star, Kate O'Neill.  Dryer, who lives in
 Gunnison, Colo., clocked 1:11:42 to O'Neill's 1:11:47, personal best times for both women.  But
 what about this year?

"I'm not putting too much stock in making any preditions as to what I will run or how I will
 feel," she said.

O'Neill echoed the same sentiments.  Speaking on her cell phone from Palo Alto, Calif., where she
 has been training because of heavy snow in Mammoth Lakes, O'Neill admitted that her recovery from
 her marathon debut in Chicago last October was going slowly.

"The first few weeks after the marathon I felt kind of crummy," said the soft-spoken athlete who
 competed at the Athens Olympics at 10,000m.  "But I was warned."

O'Neill's coach, Terrence Mahon, sent her to Chicago in hopes of running a fast time on the Windy
 City's flat course.  But blazing heat made just finishing a significant accomplishment.  O'Neill
 outlasted seasoned marathoners like Benita Johnson and Liz Yelling to finish a surprising third in
 2:36:15.  She's now a favorite for a podium finish at the April Trials, and is hoping her race in
 Houston will give her some positive feedback.

"The last few weeks I've felt pretty good," she said.  "I think it will just be good to have a
 benchmark for where I'm at."

Other top entrants for Sunday's race include Blake Russell, who missed her fall marathon due to a
 foot injury; Desiree Davila, who set a half-marathon personal best of 1:12:54 at last October's
 IAAF Road Running Championships; Colleen De Reuck, the four-time Olympian who holds the Houston
 course record of 1:10:55 set in 2004; and Zoila Gomez, who was the #2 American at the IAAF World
 Championships marathon last August.

FIRST BIG POST-TRIALS RACE FOR THE MEN

For the men, the Olympic Trials in New York last November is still a very recent memory, in both
 their minds and muscles.  The Trials champion, Ryan Hall, who also won the half-marathon title at
 Houston last year in a North American record 59:43, has decided not to defend his title here.  That
 opens the door for Jason Lehmkuhle and Dan Browne to take the win here on Sunday.  Lehmkuhle,
 from Minneapolis, Minn., finished fifth at the Trials in a personal best 2:12:54 and has been on the
 rise for several years.

"It's been a short time to recover from the marathon," Lehmkuhle said in a telephone interview
 from Minneapolis.  He said that the race would be a good rust-buster for him.  "It's something of a
 question mark as to how my fitness is."

Lehmkhule enjoyed a very solid race in Houston last year, finishing fifth in a personal best
 1:02:51.  Working with coach Dennis Barker, he's using this race as part of his build-up for the IAAF
 World Cross Country Championships at the end of March.  The U.S. Cross Country Championships, which
 serve as the selection race, are scheduled for next month in San Diego.

"My eyes are kind of set on cross country in a month," he said.

As for Browne, who finished one place behind Lehmkuhle at the Marathon Trials, he's also feeling a
 little tentative about his form.  "The recovery from New York has gone pretty smoothly," he said
 at a press conference today.  "I took two and a half weeks off after the race.  I've been training
 pretty hard... given the holidays."

Also in the hunt for the title should be Ryan Kirkpatrick, who had an impressive track season last
 year posting a 13:19.68 5000m; Ian Dobson, who ran a 1:02:45 debut at the Big Sur Half-Marathon
 in 2006; and James Carney, who ran a 10,000m personal best of 27:43.64 last year.  Meb Keflezighi,
 who was listed on an early entry list, will not be competing, according to his brother and
 manager, Merhawi.

"I know for sure this year's race for the belt buckle will be very competitive," Browne said of
 the huge, western-style belt buckle awarded to the race winners.  "I think it's going to be
 reasonabley fast."