Natasha Wodak is going for a personal best time in the Houston Half Marathon

© Copyright – 2025 – Athletics Illustrated

Canadian marathon record holder, Natasha Wodak, is going for a fast time at the Houston Half Marathon on Sunday, January 19. How fast? Potentially the national record, or at least a new personal best. Well, they are almost the same things (69:41 and 69:38).

“I am excited to return to Houston where I ran my personal best in 2020,” shared Wodak. “I feel like I am in pretty good shape. With the stellar field of speedy women to run with and decent weather, my PB could go down!”

Her PB is the former national record of 1:09:41. She held it for all of two weeks before Guelph, Ontario’s Andrea Seccafien improved it by three seconds in Marugame, Japan. Seccafien’s 1:09:38 performance continues to be the national record.

Like fine wine

Wodak is still racing fast at age 43.

Like her occasional training partner, Malindi Elmore (44), of Kelowna, BC, she sees no reason to back off. Elmore holds the second fastest time and the fastest masters 40-plus record as a Canadian with her 2023 Berlin performance of 2:23:30.

Both Wodak and Elmore are three-time Olympians.

Seccafien also took Wodak’s 10,000m national record of 31:41.59 with her 31:13.94 run in LA in May 2021.

But Wodak is not looking for the rare, fast, perfectly scheduled 10,000m race. She is looking at the half-marathon followed by a yet-to-be-announced late winter or spring marathon. She wants to improve her own national marathon record. Meanwhile, she holds another national standard.

Harriers Pioneer 8K

Wodak has won the Harriers Pioneer 8K nine times. The one time that she did not win, she finished second. The North Vancouver native is the only athlete to run under 26 minutes in the event’s 46-year history. She did it twice, the latest was a 25:55 35-plus Canadian masters record run in 2020.

She also holds the fastest known time by a Canadian in the 8K which she accomplished in Victoria in 2013, running 25:28.

Wodak has run the race 11 times since 2010. In the years she has missed it, she was racing the Houston Half Marathon or was injured. There was a virtual Covid race in 2021. The Harriers Pioneer 8K takes place on Sunday, January 12. As Houston is scheduled too close to the Harriers Pioneer 8K, she will have to pass this year. Otherwise, you bet she would line up for the fast 8K just north of Victoria, BC.

The fastest known Canadian time (which is a roundabout way of saying “national record,” without the officialdom of the national governing body presiding) is 25:28, set in 2013 by Wodak at the Harriers Pioneer 8K.

Houston Half Marathon

Wodak ran the Houston Half Marathon three times in a row in 2018 – 2020 clocking 1:11:31, 1:10:33 then 1:09:41. The latter performance was the first sub-1:10 by a Canadian.

The Houston Half Marathon course record is 1:04:37 by Sutume Kebede of Ethiopia run in 2024. It is the fastest half-marathon run by a woman on North American soil. Only 16 women have run faster in history. They are led by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia with her 62:52 performance during the 2021 Valencia Half Marathon.

The top 5 times in history have been run in Valencia. Ten of the 31 fastest times in history have been run in the Spanish city. All the top 26 performances in history have been run since 2020 except for Kenyan Brigid Kosgei’s 2019 performance. The 1:04:28 win Kosgei ran took place in Newcastle-South Shields, which offers a net downhill course.

The women’s-only half-marathon record (no men) is held by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir from the 2020 Gdynia World Half Marathon Championships. She won the race in the time of 1:05:16. Jepchirchir is a two-time world champion at the distance.

To qualify as an elite in Houston, the following performance standards must be met.

The following standards guarantee complimentary entry