January 18, 2025: Houston Marathon Saturday

As we've mentioned many times here in the past, Chevron Houston Marathon weekend is huge in our southeast Texas running community as well as for our Volte athletes and friends.

But it isn't always the only race in town!

Kevin Baker and Katerina Savelieva got us started on Saturday morning, January 18 - well, technically, it was a few minutes behind the 5K downtown (but it's our story, right?) - at the Spindle Tree parkrun 5K in east Magnolia.

Kevin Baker (right) giving a little fist bump to Houston Homeschool Athletics'
Luis McCauley on a job well done, beating him by six seconds.
(Photo courtesy of Spindle Tree parkrun 5K)

It was the 159th running of the event and Kevin was second overall among 55 hardy finishers in 20:06 while Katerina was the fifth overall female in 26:06.

Moving to downtown Houston for the We Are Houston 5K, which is actually sponsored by both Chevron and Aramco, five Volte athletes and five of our friends did a little shake out run getting ready for Sunday's main events.

Mark Moran was the first across in 35:39, followed by Damon Foy in 35:57.  

Mike Kuykendall rounded out our men with a 36:54 effort, while Donna Moran and Sherry Cameron took it easy with marks of 39:55 and 41:35, respectively.

Our friends were led by Elvira Hall with her time of 27:18. 

She was joined by Femi Adegbola in 28:29, Josh Rivas in 29:59 and Melissa Holloway, and her husband, Rob, in 40:48.

And even though it was Sunday morning when he started where he was, it was still Saturday evening here in the States.

The time zones between Houston and Mumbai, Maharashtra, India are 11 hours and 30 minutes apart.

So Gourav Kumar either closed out our Saturday or kicked off our Sunday from half way around the globe with a 1:51:39 half marathon at the Mumbai Half Marathon - a companion event with the Tata Mumbai Marathon.

Some nice swag in Mumbai!
(Photo courtesy of Gourav Kumar)

"The hype about the Mumbai Marathon didn't disappoint," he said on his Facebook page.  "It was a fun filled weekend to catch up with friends, be part of the courageous gang and of course some running as well."