The Elevator

As Katherine and I got on the hotel elevator at 5 a.m. to head down to the race start, the elevator stopped on a floor below. A small African runner got on. He was about 6 inches shorter than me, looked a bit like he was made of toothpicks and was wearing a Kenya national track suit.

"Are you going to win?" I asked.

"Maybe." He shyly said tugging on his skull cap.

Needless to say, we didn't see him after that - at the start, during or at the finish of the race. He placed 4th. Unfortunately for him, Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga broke the 20-year-old Chevron Houston Marathon course record by more than two minutes.

I don't have my official results, but I think the course record is safe at 2:07:52.