PHOTO VIA DESIREE LINDEN FACEBOOK PAGE
Defending champions Reid Buchanan and Sophia King will return to downtown Orlando on Saturday, December 5, to headline the elite field for the 50th running of the OUC Orlando Half Marathon (Website). The field also includes former U.S. men’s masters marathon record holder Elkanah Kibet, several U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers and a group of runners with Central Florida ties, according to the official press release.
Two-time Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden will serve as official race starter, then begin the 13.1-mile race in last place. For every participant she passes, $5 will be donated to the Track Shack Youth Foundation to support youth health and fitness programs across Central Florida.
“For our 50th running, it’s especially meaningful to welcome back past champions while introducing new talent to a race that has been a part of Orlando’s running community for five decades,” said Jon Hughes, co-owner of Track Shack Events (Website), which produces the race.
Buchanan, 33, of Kansas City, Missouri, won the race in 2023 and 2025. Earlier this year, he won the 50th Lilac Bloomsday 12K in Spokane, Washington, becoming the first American man to win that race since 1986.
Kibet, 43, of Colorado Springs, set the race’s men’s masters record of 1:05:53 last year. At the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, he ran 2:10:02, then a U.S. men’s masters marathon record.
Other men’s contenders include James Quattlebaum, 31, of Greenville, South Carolina, who finished second in Orlando in 2024 and won this year’s IU Health 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in Indianapolis. Garret Lee, 33, of Denver, placed 27th at the 2024 Olympic Trials in Orlando, and Noah Stevenson, 28, of Mission, Kansas, ran a personal best of 1:04:13 this year.
- King, 30, of Richmond, Virginia, won the women’s race last year and is a 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier.
- She will face Savannah Berry, 30, of Orem, Utah, a three-time Olympic Trials qualifier who finished 12th at the 2024 Trials, and former University of Central Florida standout Anne-Marie Blaney, 33, who set 16 school records at UCF and has qualified for three Olympic Trials.
- Flannery Davis, 32, of Boulder, Colorado, has already qualified for the 2028 Olympic Trials. Lindsay Hayman, 34, of Newark, Delaware, a University of Delaware Athletics Hall of Famer, is chasing the Trials qualifying standard while balancing work and motherhood.
- Fredison Costa, 49, of Kissimmee, returns as a two-time champion after winning in 2015 and 2019. According to the official press release, he has more than 100 victories in national and international competition, including seven Walt Disney World Marathon titles.
- Orlando’s Alexander Colon, 45, holds the Puerto Rico masters half marathon records in the 40-44 and 45-49 age divisions. Neftali Colon, 42, of Orlando, is also entered.
In the women’s sub-elite field, Clermont’s Gabrielle “Gabbi” Suver, 36, a professional IRONMAN triathlete, returned to competition this year after a serious hit-and-run bicycle crash in November 2025. Tampa’s Chloe Byrd, 26, set her half marathon personal best in Orlando in 2024, and Jacksonville’s Ellie Abraham, 24, is a former U.S. Naval Academy steeplechase record holder.
- Other sub-elite entrants include three-time Olympic Trials qualifier Ben Payne, 44, of Colorado Springs, and former professional triathlete Kevin Collington, 41, of Longmont, Colorado, a three-time U.S. national champion.
- 1996 Olympian Keith Brantly of St. Augustine will also run. Brantly won the race in 1994, when it was known as the Florida Citrus Sports Half Marathon.
The race starts at 7:15 a.m. in downtown Orlando. Linden will present the donation check before the Suncoast Credit Union Lake Eola 5K on Sunday, December 6.
The athlete field is subject to change. For full details and registration, click HERE.
