How Did Erika Kemp Break Through at the Houston Marathon?

Nobody—not the running media nor fans of the sport—knew that pro runner Erika Kemp, 30, would be racing the Houston Marathon until just a couple of weeks before the January 19 event. But Kemp and her coach, Kurt Benninger, were ready to surprise the running world with a breakthrough performance.

Kemp ended up running an 11-minute personal best of 2:22:56, which was good enough for second place. The performance also placed her at number 12 on the U.S. all-time list. The Brooks-sponsored athlete had been eyeing Houston for nearly a year—almost immediately after a disappointing showing at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, where Kemp dropped out at mile 12 of the race.

Benninger, whom Kemp began training with shortly before her 26.2 debut at the 2023 Boston Marathon, was the first to put the race on her radar, knowing that by the time it rolled around, Kemp would have had plenty of time to recover mentally.

“[Even though the race didn’t go according to plan], Erika’s build-up for the Trials was basically perfect, and I felt she was ready for the type of performance she had in Houston there,” Benninger adds. “I thought she was someone who could surprise a lot of people with a well-executed race.”

Kemp was also immediately on board, having raced the half marathon in Houston several times and knowing the race was known to produce stellar performances and record-breaking times. (Keira D’Amato set an American record in the marathon in 2022, and Weini Kelati broke her own American record from a year ago in this year’s half marathon.)

“I’m really glad I took the time to have some fun, race some 5Ks, and just really work my way back up to the marathon so that by the time we were getting back to that hard marathon work in November and December, I was actually excited to do it,” Kemp says.

For Kemp, who currently trains with the Rhode Island Track Club in Providence and was an All-American at North Carolina State University, a 2019 U.S. champion in the 15K and 2021 U.S. Champion in the 20K, the stellar marathon finish also sparked some newfound confidence and words of wisdom to impart to peers at all levels looking to achieve big goals. Here are just a few of her takeaways from the day.

Trust Your Coach and Your Intuition

At the pre-race press conference in Houston, Kemp indicated she was ready for a big PR.

“[My friend and pacer] Jonas Hampton and I thought going for the World Championships standard [of 2:23:30] was within reason and doable, but I spoke with Kurt after the technical meeting, and he wanted us to be a hair more conservative with how cold and windy it was supposed to be,” she says.

Benninger initially planned to accompany Kemp to Houston to watch and coach her from the sidelines of the race, but he unexpectedly had to stay home due to illness in his family. On race day, the weather turned out milder than expected. Kemp took the opportunity to go with her gut when she was feeling good, while not straying too far from the plan.

“When I spoke to him after the race, he was laughing and said he thought I would run 2:24 or 2:25 but that he knew the sky was the limit if I was feeling great.”

Draw Inspiration From Your Peers

Despite her potential, Kemp still found the length of the marathon distance to be daunting. She looked to athletes coming before her to fuel her own fire.

“Having been in this space for a few years and watching someone like Sharon Lokedi, who I went to school with and competed against in college, win the New York City Marathon and follow it up with like a million podiums made me really excited to embrace that this could be my event,” Kemp says.

Kemp is confident the best is only yet to come after her performance in Houston, as she turned 30 a week after the race, and it’s long been touted that female athletes peak in their 30s. Not only that, several accomplished female marathoners, from D’Amato to Sara Hall have demonstrated that competitive performances can last well into their 40s.

“Now that I am 30 and everyone around me is 30 and older and better than they’ve ever been, it changes your perspective on where you’re at,” she says. “I think about Edna Kiplagat, who is in her 40s and still on the podium with so many children and it’s absolutely incredible.”

Know Your Strengths

When Kemp ran her marathon debut in Boston in 2023, her finish time of 2:33:57 immediately shot her to the top of historian Gary Corbitt’s list of the fastest U.S.-born Black female marathoners (which currently states that only 32 U.S.-born Black female marathoners have broken the three-hour barrier). She said knew her standing at the top of the list might not last long, as some of the athletes behind her, including Ariane Hendrix and Peyton Thomas, have recently run times that were not too far behind hers.

This not only motivated Kemp to keep chasing her big breakthrough for herself, but to continue to inspire women of color at all ages and levels to pursue big goals. While there has certainly been a boom in diversity among recreational runners participating in marathons, Kemp emphasized that more can still be done to attract and develop Black women athletes to compete at the highest level.

“Black women especially are often tossed into sprinting, end up being just mediocre sprinters, and then their running career fizzles out because they weren’t pushed to try longer distances or they didn’t feel comfortable joining cross country,” she says. “I think a lot of it starts in high school, which is where it started with me, with my first-ever race being the 200 meters indoors. I wasn’t very good at it, so my coaches just kept pushing me up in distance until I started winning things, which was how we figured out I’m a distance runner.”

Kemp is eager to see where she can land alongside the best athletes in the world, and will enter another marathon in the fall or compete in the marathon world championships in Tokyo if selected for the U.S. team (she is not currently among the top three qualifiers based on ranking). In the meantime, she plans to compete in shorter road events this summer to hone her racing skills.

“With Houston, I learned that I really am good at [the marathon], and even if I don’t get any fitter, there’s still so much room for growth,” she says. “I’m excited to see what more [Kurt and I] can do.”

“I do think there is more there for Erika in the future – she’s run a great time, which shows she can compete with the best American women,” Benninger adds. “She has great racing instincts so our next step for her is to take those instincts in the shorter races, learn them in the marathon. She needs to get into some marathons with the best women in the world and really learn what it is like to run in a pack with them.”