2024 JohnEagleHonda.com 5K / The Woodlands Marathon 2K Race Preview

By Jon Walk

We're less than 48 hours away from welcoming just under 900 registered participants to Town Green Park and The Woodlands Waterway in The Woodlands Township for our JohnEagleHonda.com 5K and The Woodlands Marathon Management 2K.

The JohnEagleHonda.com 5K will start at 7:30 a.m. along The Woodlands Waterway on Saturday, February 24, 2024, while The Woodlands Marathon Management 2K will begin at 9 a.m. in Town Green Park.

All event information can be found at thewoodlandsmarathon.com.

Just over 135 runners - exactly the same number of pre-race eligibles as a year ago - will be running one of the two events in addition to an event the following Saturday during the 13th annual Legacy Capital The Woodlands Marathon to earn The Woodlands Double medal.

Joining us in the JohnEagleHonda.com 5K field will be 2019 winner Oscar Garcia, 28, of Team Green Running, as he'll be the presumptive favorite, while three of our our top 10 female finishers from last year - Maureen Meredith (2nd), Marcela Jaramillo (4th) and Nikki Cannon (10th) - are already registered to run.

The JohnEagleHonda.com 5K course is fast, flat minus an over and back pass of the bridge near North Shore Park.  

Event records are held by Magnolia's Dylan Sequeira (15:36 in 2021) and Austin's Allison Mendez (17:53 in 2017).

Ernest Oropeza is set to run his 11th consecutive 5K, dating back to 2014, to become our race's all-time legacy leader at that distance.  

He has finished 15 of our races since 2013, including a marathon and half marathon each to go with the 10 5K's and three 10K's.

The event's all-time leader of finishes is Spring's Kathy McWilliams with 17.  

She has finished all 12 Houston Methodist The Woodlands Half Marathons and the last five 5K's - finishing the Double each year since the race was moved from the same day as the marathon and half marathon.

Having set the record a year ago as the most experienced runner to finish one of our races, 88-year-old community legend Jim Braden of The Woodlands is set to finish his sixth consecutive 5K and has run an event with us every year but two.  

Braden, who finished the Western States 100 and won his age group at the Ford Ironman World Championship both in 1990, ran the half marathon from 2013-2016 and 2018 (at the age of 82).  

In 2021 and 2022, he completed the Double, running both the 5K and the 10K, at the ages of 85 and 86.

Plenty of fun and excitement on Saturday with runners from the ages of three (with eight runners in the 2K) to 88 (Jim Braden in the 5K).

The entire team of the 13th annual Legacy Capital The Woodlands Marathon and The Woodlands Marathon Management looks forward to hosting you this Saturday.