by jeffrey.martin@chron.com
Brett Gotcher had just finished the Chevron Houston Marathon, setting a course record for an American in his marathon debut, and the 25-year-old had one request.
“You can leave those with me,” he said, pointing to cookies in a volunteer's hand.
He was drained but satisfied with how his Sunday morning had gone. His time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, 36 seconds yielded a seventh-place finish, all of which made his coach, Greg McMillan, “super happy.”
Gotcher went a step further, labeling the race “a dream come true” before crediting his Flagstaff, Ariz., training teammate, Paige Higgins.
“She's a marathon vet, and she helped me every step of the way with this — with what to expect, what you can feel, and keeping my mind calm because it's easy to lose it the last couple of weeks,” Gotcher said. “In that respect, she was a huge help. She took me under her wing, and I owe a lot to her. It shows — she ran awesome today, too.”
Good day for Higgins
Indeed, Higgins finished fourth in the women's marathon, running a time of 2:33:22. She'd hoped to be faster, but she was the top U.S. finisher. And because this was sort of more of the same for her — it was Higgins' sixth marathon — she took extra delight in how her buddy was handling his first.
“He's a great guy,” Higgins said. “At the starting line, he looked back at me with a look that was like, ‘Here we go.' There was that understanding and that bond. He's a wonderful person, a wonderful runner — he's just a great guy.”
She said she told Gotcher to open himself up to the possibility of being great, and he's comfortable doing so in Houston. He's had success at this site, specifically last year in the half-marathon, in which he finished third.
And Sunday, there was no telling what might have happened if he hadn't run alone for the last eight miles or so; his partner hung around for the first 16 miles or so. Then, there was that meltdown …
“I thought, ‘Man, if I could get up with the leaders and tuck in, that would be good,' ” Gotcher said. “But they picked it up and jetted off, and then I was starting to feel it. I was trying to stay in my zone, keep the legs moving, and I could feel the miles clicking. I was doing well until three miles to go, and then it all cut off.
Bad patch of road
“Everything tightened up. I told myself to keep the legs moving, but my head was back, my eyes were closed — it was a bad scene.”
But he finished, establishing a record, and his future seems limitless. McMillan believes this is proof he'll be in competition for the marathon in the 2012 Olympics, possibly as a contender.
“There are so many variables that happen in a marathon, and to have it all come together in my first one — it's amazing,” Gotcher said.
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