Houston, We Have Two New US Half Marathon Records!

On a historic day at the 2025 Aramco Houston Half Marathon, Conner Mantz ran the fastest ever half marathon by an American man, followed a few minutes later by Weini Kelati running the fastest ever half marathon by an American woman.

In a dramatic finish in the men’s race, Mantz and Ethiopia’s Addisu Gobena sprinted for the line and broke the tape at the exact same moment, with Gobena given the win by a fraction of a second. Mantz’s time of 59:17 was 26 seconds inside Ryan Hall’s long-standing American record.

Kelati, who also finished second in her race, ran 1:06:09, 16 seconds faster than her own American record which she ran in last year’s Houston Half Marathon, and just four seconds behind the race winner, Ethiopia’s Senayet Getachew.

MANTZ’S ACE RACE

It was a cold start line but one with warm hope that one of many American contenders might take on the men’s half marathon record.

Mantz set off wearing a beanie, arm sleeves and gloves, and soon found that he was pushing the pace harder than any other American was willing to go, forming a lead pack of four racers and a pacer, running with Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay, and Ethiopians Gobena and Jemal Yimer.

The four aces further separated themselves from the pack and pressed ahead, constantly shuffling in position as they ticked off miles at 4:32 pace (to put that pace in context, it’s 14 minutes per 5k!).

The gloves literally came off for Mantz – as well as the arm sleeves and beanie – as they got into the final section of the race, and then into a thrilling sprint finish, where Gobena was judged to be just ahead, but Mantz was well ahead of the American half marathon record. Geay finished one second behind in third (in a national record) and Yimer was two-second further back in fourth.

Mantz becomes only the fourth American to break 60-minutes in the half marathon (his previous best was 1:00:55), with his time surpassing Ryan Hall’s 59:43 which was set at the 2007 Houston Half.   

Mantz’s win continues a great run of form from 2024. He was first in US Olympic Marathon trials, first American and eighth overall in the Olympic Marathon, first American and sixth overall in the New York City Marathon. Despite a quad injury which forced him to rest a few weeks before the race, he came to Houston to do one better than first American, and he wanted to win – he couldn’t have got any closer, but for now he’ll take the consolation of the American record.

Ahead of the race there was a lot of expectation that several men might be able to challenge for the American record, including Mantz’s training partner Clayton Young, and 10,000m specialist Joe Klecker who was making his debut over the distance. In the end, only Mantz came close to the record, but seven American men ran under 61-minutes.

It was 17 years ago that Hall set his record, and before that the American half marathon record had remained unbroken since 1985. With the quality of men’s distance running in the US right now, we probably won’t need to wait quite so long for the record to be lowered again.

KELATI RETURNS FOR ANOTHER RECORD-BREAKING RUN

Weini Kelati only ran her first half marathon last year, but in her debut race she set a new American record of 1:06:25 at the 2024 Houston Half Marathon.

She returned to Houston – via eighth place in the 10,000m at the Paris Olympics – and lowered her own half marathon record to 1:06:09. It’s now been four consecutive years that the US women’s half marathon record has been bettered in Houston.

Kelati finished just four seconds behind race winner Senayet Getachew. It was an incredible performance by the Ethiopian, who is only 19 years old.

It was an morning of incredible running at the Houston Half Marathon, and it gets the year of racing off to a very fast start.

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images