On ZAP Endurance’s Tristin Van Ord was the first across the line for the ZAP team on Sunday in Houston. Her 1:12:31 performance was the first in a string of personal bests for the team on Sunday. She was followed by teammate Whitney Macon who ran 1:15:12, and Josh Izewski who finished the marathon an hour after Van Ord crossed the line in 2:12:45.
On a cool, breezy morning in Houston that played host to 2 American records in the women’s marathon and half marathon the On ZAP Endurance team kicked off 2022 on a strong note.
Tristin and Whitney both competed at the US Half Marathon Championships in early December, 2 months after finishing a grueling marathon in Chicago. Tristin walked away from that event with a 1 minute PB of 1:12:54. Today she chopped another 23 seconds off that mark with her 18th place finish. Tristin raced bravely, passing halfway on pace to break 1:12. She struggled a bit in the final 2 miles of the race, but was rewarded for her aggressive approach.
Whitney struggled in early December to a 1:17 finish at the US Half Marathon Championships, but ran nearly 2 1/2 minutes faster Sunday to run her first PB in a ZAP uniform. She was encouraged by the progress with how she felt and performed during the race. Both her and Tristin are eagerly looking forward to building on this weekend’s success as their attention turns to preparing for the Rotterdam Marathon on April 10th.
In the men’s marathon Josh approached the race with caution. His main goal to have a positive experience coming off the disappointment of Chicago. Coming into the weekend, it had been nearly 2 years since the 2020 Olympic Trials where he placed 17th that he had that kind of experience. After being forced to miss fall 2020 and spring 2021 racing opportunities due to catching and recovering from COVID Josh entered Chicago in the fall with high expectations. Early cramping in that race left him eager to return to the marathon at Houston and come away with positive momentum.
He did that this weekend. Moving through the opening 10k at 2:14 marathon pace Josh slowly began to work his way through the field. Moving up 1-2 spots every 5k Josh cracked into the top 10 for the first time at the 35k split after covering the 5k from 30k-35k at 4:56 mile pace. He would go on to finish in 8th, running 2:12:45 to knock 30 seconds off his personal best from the 2018 Cal International Marathon.
It was the performance he was looking for to kick off his 2022 racing season. After a few weeks of recovery he’ll join his fellow 2:12-marathoner teammates Tyler Pennel and Andrew Colley on the build-up to Boston.
You can view full results from this weekend here.
