Another Great Year for Volte at The Woodlands Marathon

Forty athletes.  

Sixteen friends (and probably more that we didn't list).  

All participated in the 12th annual Legacy Capital The Woodlands Marathon weekend nearly three weeks ago.

With many of the Volte family serving on the race committee or in volunteer roles, thank you from all of us for being a part and supporting our hometown race!

Our lucky seven in The Woodlands Marathon 10K was led by The Woodlands High School freshman Brayden Park, who finished third in his age group in 38:06, tenth among all males and 12th overall.

His father Jarrett also earned hardware with a second place age group time of 42:29.

Park is the only Jerritt that has ever finished a race in conjunction with The Woodlands Marathon
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

In between the two was Volte friend, alumni and Mach 5 Racing coach Kate Looney, who won the 5K at The Woodlands Marathon in 2015, but finished third overall in 39 minutes even.

Sabrina Mengual and Angel Martinez Interiano crossed the finish line together in 56:14 less than a minute in front of Rob Myers, who stopped the clock in 57:03.  

It was Rob's ninth race finish of an event at The Woodlands Marathon, after six half marathons and two marathons.

Finishing in just over an hour was Brittany Haddad in 1:01:03 while Mike Kuykendall continued to tune up for triathlon season in 1:04:07 and George Rux powerwalked the course in 1:32:47.

When Brittany Haddad sports the Volte Orange it almost looks Burnt Orange.  Hook 'em!
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Twenty-six Volte athletes ran the 12th annual Houston Methodist Orthopedics and Sports Medicine The Woodlands Half Marathon plus another nine Volte friends.

Lu Bouanga led us all in a time of 1:11:21 while Robert King improved his time by six minutes from a year ago with a showing of 1:24:01.

The breeze from Lu Bouanga nearly knocked the cone over!
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Great race from Robert King, and likely had a quip on his mind as he went by!
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Gustavo Murillo, who ran 3:02 five years ago in the marathon, slipped under 1:30 in the half with a 1:29:51 and almost pulled Beto Alvarez with him, but Beto was two seconds over in 1:30:02.

Volte friend Rip Reynolds, who has finished all 12 The Woodlands Half Marathons, led Christopher Branch across the line with a time of 1:31:09 while Chris was three seconds behind.  

All of Rip's times have been between 1:27:33 and 1:31:09 over those 12 races, while Chris has brought his time down from 1:49:11 in 2019 and 1:38:52 in 2020.

Volte friends Halie Elzoghbi and Auggie Campbell posted respective efforts of 1:32:41 and 1:34:57 before Kim White grabbed third place in his age group in 1:39:38 while shaving five minutes off of last year's time.

Gourav Kumar and Trey Taylor owned the 1:41 minute with marks of 1:41:04 and 1:41:33, respectively, while Volte friend Paul Blutt and Santiago Alvarez ended their mornings with times of 1:44:39 and 1:45:01.

Paul was one of the two 1:45 half marathon pacers with Casey Wilson.

Meanwhile, Jason Bodie, Jane Cardnell and Rob Gay all were quite chuffed with their jolly run down the motorways of The Woodlands as they all finished together - nearly hands-in-hands - in 1:46:09.

Erika Sampson finished her third The Woodlands Half Marathon in 1:48:33 followed by Paolo Biagi in his fifth The Woodlands Half Marathon finish - and best - in 1:49:52.

Kimberly Simmons was just over the 1:50 mark in 1:50:13, but went home with a second place age group award to boot!

Urica Chevis and Volte friend Kahn Grice together were close behind in 1:50:20 while Tammy Grado and Kyley Hampton easily stayed under two hours in 1:51:17 and 1:52:20, respectively.

It was Grado's eighth The Woodlands Half Marathon and her best ever - a year removed from pacing her daughter Taylor to her first half marathon finish.  

Hampton shaved more than nine minutes from her 2021 half marathon time of 2:01:58.

Improving on his time from the last two The Woodlands Half Marathons was Michael Donelan with a finish of 2:01:14.  

He has run eight The Woodlands Half Marathons like Grado and two The Woodlands Marathons - and is the second fastest half marathoner in the event's history with four or more finishes at the age of 70 and older behind Porter's Lee Topham.

A trio of Volte friends took Donelan's lead - Cristina Gray finished her fifth career The Woodlands Half in 2:04:43, William Ott his ninth in 2:09:18 and Kevin Kranson debuted in 2:11:01.

Susan Rouse finished her seventh The Woodlands Half Marathon in 2:14:01 - to go along with a pair of The Woodlands Marathon, while Michelle Wells ran her first The Woodlands Half - in 2:15:58 - after running the 5K race seven times between 2013 and 2020.

Volte friend Mariela Rodriguez with Woodlands Fit finished her third straight The Woodlands Half Marathon in 2:30:17 - an event best for her, while Volte coach Rich Cooper recorded his seventh The Woodlands Half Marathon in a time of 2:30:33.

The seventh The Woodlands Half Marathon came nice, steady for Volte coach Rich Cooper.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Kimberly Roth and Lori Tell worked together to come to the finish line in 3:15:05 while Jessica Shen and Heiki Dierck teamed up for an effort of 3:18:29.

In the marathon, we played a pair of sixes - six Volte athletes and six friends.

Third in his age group in the marathon was Volte friend Than Dinh, with a Boston qualifying time of 3:13:34.  

Dinh is a Spring High graduate who Bill helped coach on the side in the late 1980s.  Than's older brother and sister graduated with Waverly Walk's father, Jon.

Finishing her third The Woodlands Marathon - to go along with a pair of half marathon finishes - was Devyn Cook, who covered the distance in 3:39:06 - just ten seconds in front of Mark Embry.  

Embry was running his first event at The Woodlands Marathon.

Volte friend Lorena Rowell finished her second The Woodlands Marathon in 3:44:47 while another Volte friend Dawn Spoljaric notched her best of four career The Woodlands Marathons in 3:45:26.

Faith Craig's father Thomas Thomson recorded a time of 3:55:26 - the second fastest of his six The Woodlands Marathon races.  

He went home to Shavano Park, in the greater San Antonio Area, and ran a half marathon the following day.

In her tenth year at a The Woodlands Marathon race and her 12th race finish, Julie White completed her first one in her married name - and the marathon was the second best time - 4:06:04 - of her seven The Woodlands Marathon journeys.  

Some call 511 for traffic info; Julie White dials in her second best The Woodlands Marathon
finish ever!  (Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Julie also has three half marathons and a pair of 5K finishes here to her credit.

"Waverly Walk from Spring.  The family PR is going to go down!" said the announcer.

Waverly Walk has the marathon mantle passed to her by her father, Jon, at the finish!
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

And she finished her third career marathon in 4:45:27 - to go with her 2:06:47 half PR at The Woodlands two years - to take down her Dad's best of 54 marathon finishes, 4:47:32 at the Freescale Austin Marathon in 2006.

Volte friend Cheryl Edwards ran the distance in 5:20:17 just a short while before another Volte friend - Vincent Attanucci - finished his 11th The Woodlands Marathon in 5:24:37.

And getting every minute and penny out of his entry fee was Neven Krstulovic-Opara, who closed out our efforts with a 5:55:16 finish - his seventh The Woodlands Marathon in addition to his two The Woodlands Half Marathon finishes.

Great work by everybody that toed the starting line, crossed the finish, volunteered or worked on the race committee!