By Chris Chavez
January 13, 2025
On Sunday, Weini Kelati will look to bring down the American record in the half marathon for the fourth time in four years when she toes the line in the Houston Half Marathon.
Last year, Kelati debuted at the distance and took fourth in the race in 1:06:25 to break Keira D’Amato’s record of 1:06:39 by 14 seconds. It kicked off the best year of Kelati’s professional career, which included personal bests of 14:35.43 for 5000m, 30:33.82 for 10,000m (No. 6 on the U.S. all-time list), a win in the 10,000m at the U.S. Olympic Trials and then an eighth place finish at the Paris Olympics.
Kelati is the third-fastest woman in Sunday’s field. She’ll face off against Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw, whose 1:03:51 personal best puts her at No. 5 on the all-time list. A strong American contingent in the race includes Amanda Vestri, who made her debut in 1:08:12 at the Orlando Half Marathon last month and was fifth in the U.S. Olympic Trials 10,000m final, and Natosha Rogers, who ran 1:09:36 in 2021.
We caught up with Under Armour Mission Run Dark Sky Distance coach Stephen Haas for an update on Kelati’s training ahead of Sunday’s race. The following has been edited lightly for clarity.
CITIUS MAG: How has training gone for Weini in this build-up?
STEPHEN HAAS: It’s been very good. She’s had a really good build-up that is similar to last year. We don’t do the exact same thing but we have similar patterns of workouts and added a little bit more volume here and there to some things. I think she’s pretty well prepared to go in there and try to break 66 minutes.
CITIUS MAG: Last year, she was running about 70 miles per week over six days, was that kept about the same?
HAAS: Yeah. It’s just been a bit more consistent in the mileage through the fall and through the winter. Last year, there were some ups and downs with the mileage and trying to get some more consistency built up. This year, it’s been more consistent with longer long runs and the workout volume has been at a higher level between eight to 10 miles. There were very few times last year when we had sessions close to 10 miles. 18 miles was still her longest run. We’ve done a couple of those in the build-up.
CITIUS MAG: Last year, she had Abrham Tesfamariam as her pacer. Is the plan to run it back with her training partner?
HAAS: Yep! Running it back. He’s done all the sessions with her. He’s very prepared and has been great. He raced the 10K with some of the guys in Hawaii when we were there last month. After that, he took a little break and I was worried that she might get in better shape than him. He’s come around fairly quickly and been a big help with all of the training. I think he’ll do a really good job. Hopefully, he’ll keep her controlled early like he did last year. Multiple times early on she yelled at him to go faster but he kept it under control when he needed to and picked it up when he needed to. She’s in really good hands.
CITIUS MAG: What are the targetted splits this time around?
HAAS: Honestly, we haven’t discussed that yet. Last year, we waited until the race to talk about it and go through how we wanted it to play out. It’s a little different of a race in Houston with the male pacers, which can make it a lot easier for the ladies. We’ll probably talk about it closer. With how the workouts have gone, we’ll be trying to run 5:00/mile pace pretty much. We might start off a little bit more conservative just like we did last year. It worked well. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t follow the same gameplan and look to close hard. It also depends on what the wind is doing and what the weather is. The closer it gets to the race, we’ll make those decisions.
CITIUS MAG: Overall, how did she feel about her 2024?
HAAS: Overall last year, I think she made a big step up. I know it had been sitting and waiting for a little while as a big recruit coming out of college and a big signing for Under Armour. There were definitely some signs of what could be and last year was a bigger breakout. She ran well every single time she went out and performed. From Houston started off with the American record, 14:30s in the 5K, 30:30 in the 10K to get the standard and then winning the Trials. I think maybe she regretted not being a little bit more assertive in the Olympics. She was very fit and I think if the race would’ve played out differently she could’ve placed a little bit higher. She could’ve benefitted from a different style of race at the Olympics but overall I think she was pretty happy with the performance and happy with the year in general. That gives her a lot of confidence coming into this year. I think she trusts me a bit more with the training and taking a bit more risk with some higher mileage, longer long runs and things like that.
I can see this year being another big breakout year. I was very happy with how it started. Off very little training, we went back to Manchester for the Manchester Road Race in November and she was only a couple of seconds off her course record – which is an incredible one – in the pouring rain and cold. It was just not a great day and I felt like that was such a strong jumping-off point and everything’s gone really well since then.
CITIUS MAG: Seems like all the 10,000m specialists right now are planning for Houston Half, the 2025 USATF Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta and then The Ten. Is that also Weini’s plan?
HAAS: That’s the plan. We did a similar plan last year with Houston and The Ten. This year, we’re adding in the U.S. half marathon championships, which is a much different race than what Houston is going to be. It’s going to be more of a race. We’ll prepare a little bit differently for that in the coming month. At the same time, all of this just helps set us up for running The Ten. Hopefully, we can establish a really good race there like it was last year and some women can get the 30:20 standard knocked out. From there, our plan is for her to defend her title in the 10,000m and make the World team. Then, we’ll go to the World Road Running Championships after. That might be our last track season.
I will not make that decision. That will be her decision. We’ve had a lot of conversations about when the right time is for her to move to the marathon and make a big push for that event. I think it’s coming sooner rather than later. I know she has the ability to get better at the half and still work in the 10,000m for the World team right now. For us, when we go to the marathon, the biggest thing is making sure she’s prepared to be at a very high level.
It was the same with Sharon (Lokedi). When she joined the team, we told her she would be a very good marathoner and that it would take us a few years. It did but when she made the transition, she was very prepared. Obviously, it went really well. We want that same type of setup for Weini when she makes the transition.
CITIUS MAG: When you see Weini running and training, what are the signs that could make her a good marathoner?
HAAS: She’s very light on her feet. She’s very good on the roads. We caught onto that very early on. I do think the super shoes help her a lot. She does get a bigger benefit from the road shoe more so than what we’ve seen on the track. The way she handles the long runs, her biggest strength is being able to grind. That’s been pretty apparent when we can go out and debut almost 20 seconds faster than the American record. That shows that she can sit at a high pace and just grind. That’s one of the biggest attributes of a really good marathoner that you can have. Everything from a training standpoint points toward the ability to extend this out over time and distance.
CITIUS MAG: Will she be wearing the Velociti Elite 3 that Biya Simbassa wore in his 2:06 marathon in Valencia?
HAAS: Yes. I believe this will be the first time that she will be racing in it. Sharon debuted it in New York. It wasn’t a great day for her there (9th in 2:27:45) but it’s a big step up in shoes for us. If Sharon would’ve had it for the Olympics, I think we would’ve had a slightly different result. I think it’s that good. It’s unfortunate that it wasn’t quite ready for the Olympics and we didn’t have the ability to wear it there. Even though she struggled in New York, she was able to give a lot of feedback and said it’s better than previous versions. Weini has trained a little bit in it.
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
