The Road To Houston - A Look Back: David Odom and Krista Blevins in 2013

Over the years, Volte has had some prolific training duos - or even, at times, trios.

We see this today with what Nine Volte likes to call the "We three kings of Volte running are" -- Roger and Robert King and Darren Hadden, Paolo Biagi and Tammy Grado and the longest-running duo of our group, Laura Godfrey and Sandra Tezino.

But in the early days of Volte it was Dave (David) Odom and Krista Blevins.

And while most of Volte's runners have always had a high HQ - humility quotient, Dave and Krista's HQ, for their ability level, was off the charts.

"I love Dave," says Volte founder Bill Dwyer, "He is famous in our group for saying stuff like "I really wasn't that fast". He's very humble.

"Krista like Dave is pretty humble about how well she runs."

Dave, who currently lives in Tucson, has a long history in the running community in Houston -- and at the Houston Marathon.

He was second overall in 1978 in 2:23:00, followed it up with a fourth-place finish the year following in 2:19:31 and posted his personal best in 1984 with a 2:17:13.

And, he ran in the 1984 United States Olympic Marathon Trials.

"We had Jeff Wells come speak to our groups several years ago. Dave was there," said Dwyer.  "The first thing Jeff mentioned (after seeing Dave) was telling the group about Dave at UH (Jeff competed for Rice)."

Even when he ran at the Polish Pickle 5K in Bremond many years ago, long-time Terlingua Running club member and race director Ken Yanowski - after seeing Dave had won his age group - provided a short and unexpected bio about Dave to everyone there.

Krista's personal best came - at the age of 32 - in 2002 at the Chicago Marathon with a 3:01:27, but even 10 years later - at the inaugural The Woodlands Marathon - she won the masters division in 3:11:52 that earned her a BQ which she used to run a 3:14:44 the following year in Beantown.

Camille Herron (1st), Krista Blevins (5th), Rebecca Bell (4th) and Allie Scott (2nd) after the inaugural The Woodlands Marathon in The Woodlands' Market Street.
(Photo courtesy of Jon Walk)

But leading up to the 2013 Aramco Houston Half Marathon, Dave and Krista ran a lot of training miles together.

On race day, they finished two seconds apart, both taking second place in their respective age groups.  Dave stopped the clock in 1:28:16 while Krista was right there - in 1:28:18.

In the picture below, they were also - two seconds apart - in one of the wettest races in the marathon's history (independent of the 1987 ice storm) making this year's Run Thru The Woods look like a light shower.

Krista Blevins chasing David Odom all through Houston during the 2013 Aramco Houston Half Marathon  (Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

"Dave mentioned after the race that every time he looked back Krista was right there," Dwyer reminisced.  "Two good friends pushing and pulling each other; fun stuff.

"They were a perfect training match in 2012-13 making it fun and memorable to see them two seconds apart that rainy day in Houston."