Pre-race favorite, 2004 Olympian Dan Browne (Portland, OR) lived up to his number one seed and captured the first title of the 2005 USARC at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in Houston, TX.

After a wind hampered 5:12 opening mile, eventual open winner Julius Kibet of Kenya, began to steadily push the pace, opening a ten second gap by seven miles, leaving Browne to fight it out with fellow U.S. challengers Matt Gabrielson (Apple Valley, MN), Jason Lehmkuhle, (St. Paul, MN), Chris Graff (Arlington, VA) and Justin Young (Boulder, CO). Browne's 1:03:56 put him across the line ten seconds ahead of Gabrielson.

Browne recalled after the race, "Right when Julius started to press the pace, I started having some stomach trouble, every time I tried to push past 4:55 pace, it would just start to churn, so I knew that I just had to relax and lay back."

By the time Kibet hit 10 miles, he was cruising at close to 4:45 pace and nearly a full minute clear of the U.S. contingent, where Browne was biding his time at the back of the pack. "Jason, Justin and Matt made all the moves, I just made sure that I covered them. It worked out well for me today, it's a good start to the season."

Gabrielson, a member of the Minneapolis based Team USA-Minnesota, was equally pleased with his first effort of the year. "This is my first race ever over 10 km. My legs were a little heavy after 11 miles, but I told myself, you've made it this far, just keep it going. It was a good race, I'm pretty happy."

In addition to earning a spots for Browne and Gabrielson on the U.S. Team for the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Edmonton Canada on October 1 2005, their efforts earned them a total of $8500 and $6000 respectively.

In the USATF National Club Team Half Marathon Championships, Team Nebraska (NE Association) took the team title, lead by Mike Morgan (Lincoln, NE) in eighth place (1:04:48).

The 2005 USA Men's Half-Marathon Championship is the first race of USA Track & Field's 2005 USA Running Circuit (USARC), which features USA Championships from 5 km to the marathon.

The first ten U.S. runners earn points at each USARC race (15 for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1), with a final $12,500 grand prix purse ($6000, $4000, and $2500) for the top three men and women point scorers overall. The USARC points at the USA Marathon Championships will be doubled.

The mission of the USA Running Circuit is to showcase, support, and promote U.S. runners. Since its inception in 1995, the USARC and its races have provided over $4 million dollars to U.S. distance runners.

For more information on the 2005 USA Men's Half Marathon Championship and the 2005 USARC, visit: www.usatf.org.

Top Ten

1 Dan Browne (OR) 1:03:56
2 Matt Gabrielson (MN) 1:04:06
3 Jason Lehmkuhle (MN) 1:04:08
4 Chris Graff (VA) 1:04:17
5 Matt Lane (CA) 1:04:18
6 Justin Young (CO) 1:04:36
7 Peter De La Cerda (CO) 1:04:48
8 Mike Morgan (NE) 1:04:48
9 Peter Gilmore (CA) 1:05:12
10 Abderazzak Haki (NM) 1:06:08