Twenty-year-old Merima Mohammed of Ethiopia overcame leg problems and cold, wet conditions to run the second-fastest ever women’s race at the 2013 Chevron Houston Marathon. Mohammed ran the first half of the race with Buzunesh Deba (ETH) and Meskerem Assefa (ETH) and that pack stayed together through 33km, when Mohammed made a strong move and broke away. She stretched her lead to 47 seconds over Deba by the 40km mark and crossed the line in 2:23:37, missing the course record by 23 seconds.

Mohammed ran her best marathon time of 2012 just over a month before the Chevron Houston Marathon when she finished fourth in the Shanghai Marathon in 2:25:21 on December 2.

Results
2012:
3rd at Xiamen Marathon (2:31:46), 3rd at Rotterdam Marathon (2:25:48), 4th at Shanghai Marathon (2:25:21)
2011: 2nd at Mumbai Marathon (2:26:57), 1st at Dusseldorf Marathon (2:28:15), 4th at Frnakfurt Marathon (2:24:32), 10th at New Dehli Half Marathon (70:46)
2010: 8th at Mumbai Marathon (2:42:40), 1st at Ottawa Marathon (2:28:19), 3rd at Toronto Marathon (2:23:06PR), 2nd at New Delhi Half Marathon (68:36PR)