It’s been a long and winding journey for Zouhair Talbi to realize his American dream, but winning the Houston Marathon in 2:05.45 on January 11 as a U.S. citizen was only part of that dream coming true. The 31-year-old Moroccan-born runner ran the third-fastest time ever by a U.S. runner on a record-eligible course—behind only American record holder Conner Mantz (2:04:43 in Chicago last fall) and Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:38 in London in 2002)—taking nearly a minute off his personal best set two years earlier in Houston when he ran under his Moroccan citizenship in his lead-up to the Paris Olympics. But not long after he celebrated at the finish line with an American flag draped over his shoulders, Zouhair relished another milestone moment as his wife, Elizabeth Talbi, 23, also had a breakthrough result in the marathon, placing 10th among women in 2:35:26—a 15-minute personal best from her debut effort in 2024—just 10 months after giving birth to their son, Amir.
Moreover, they each surpassed the qualifying standards for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, which means they’ll both be on the starting line of the races that will determine who will make the U.S. team for the Los Angeles Olympics. The race will either be in Phoenix or St.
Louis, and it is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of March 25-26, 2028. In other words, after August 2027, when Zouhair becomes eligible to officially compete for the U.S. in international races and national team qualifying events. Best of all, they were also able to celebrate their success with Amir, who was cared for during the race by Elizabeth’s sister, Kaitlyn, who lives in Houston.
It was something I had always dreamed of when I thought about coming to America. And to have Elizabeth run so well, too, really made it a special day for both of us.” Zouhair discovered his talent as a teen growing up in Tighassaline, Khenifra, Morocco, and emerged as one of the top high school runners in the country, eventually placing 14th in the U-20 race at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, as a 17-year-old in 2013. He continued on an upward trajectory as a college student, running 13:51 in the 5,000 meters as a 19-year-old and earning the silver medal in the event at the World University Games in Seoul, South Korea.
Despite his success, Zouhair says training and racing always seemed to be a constant struggle because of a lack of guidance and marginal support. He dreamed of running in the U.S. collegiate system, but it wasn’t until 2019, at the age of 23, that he enrolled at Florida State University. That dream was temporarily derailed due to paperwork problems, but he eventually landed at Northwest Kansas Technical College (now Fort Hays Tech Northwest), a small junior college in Goodland, Kansas.
Zouhair ran on the team there with some success, but then Covid hit in 2020, wiping out the spring track season and mandating all schoolwork to be done online. After transferring to Oklahoma City University, things started to look up for Zouhair. Not only did he start running well again under energizing young coaches Matt Aguero and Frezer Legesse, but he also met Elizabeth Heffernan, a runner on the women’s team from Bentonville, Arkansas, who he immediately bonded with over a love of the sport.
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