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OFF THE RECORD No Run of the Mill Lawyer Brant Kotch is not your “run-of-the-mill” lawyer. In addition to practicing law as a transactional shareholder with the law firm of Crain, Caton & James, this native Houstonian is currently serving his fifth year as Race Director for the Chevron Houston Marathon. In case you think I use the term “serve” lightly, consider this: the Chevron Houston Marathon is Houston’s largest single-day sporting event. The Marathon events consist of four races: The Chevron Houston Marathon, the Aramco Houston Half Marathon, the Houston Press/Smart Financial Credit Union 5K, and the Texas Children’s Hospital Kids Fun Run. The Houston Marathon Committee, Inc., a non-profit corporation, plans and implements these four races. This committee consists of an eight-person board of directors (headed by Brant, who is also the president of the corporation), five full-time employees, a 100-person volunteer committee, 5,000 race day volunteers, and a $2.5 million dollar budget. Brant is remarkably unintimidated by the enormity of the task. He credits the consistently smooth operation of the race to his predecessor, David Hannah (also a lawyer), who held the Race Director position for 24 years. [Brant denies he will be giving David a “run for his money” in tenure.] Brant enjoys the planning (which goes on year-round), the more formal race “season” (which begins the Monday after Labor Day), the “due diligence” of researching what works and doesn’t work at other U.S. races, and (the purported best part) issuing the command to fire the starting cannon for 20,000 excited runners at 7:00 a.m. on race day. Not surprisingly, Brant is an accomplished runner. He laments that the five-minute miles he ran in training never translated to a good marathon time, but he has an impressive PR (runner lingo for “personal record”) of 2:53 with seven marathon finishes. He claims that shorter races were more “his distance.” Brant has been a fitness buff since his high school days at Memorial High School. In law school, he saw himself developing bad habits and decided running was a good way to relieve stress and keep off weight. His theory must have worked because he is a remarkably laid back, slender guy. Brant is married to Linda Kotch, who Brant regards as a saint for putting up with his eccentricities and schedule, and with whom he has two active children: Devon, 14, and Hayden, 9. When asked how he balances the demands of a family and a full-time practice with the responsibility of being the Houston Marathon Race Director, Brant claims his solution is to put everyone to work. Some of Brant’s favorite clients have (by virtue of sending him business) inadvertently interviewed for and landed volunteer jobs that have them working on a race course at 3:00 a.m. on a cold Sunday morning in January. The next Chevron Houston Marathon takes place on Sunday, January 14, 2007, marking the 35th Anniversary of the full marathon. The race has come a long way since 1972, when the course consisted of five, five-mile loops around Memorial Park, plus an out-and-back segment that used a station wagon as the turnaround point. There were 138 participants – only one of whom was a woman – and refreshments included helpings of beef stew served at nearby St. Theresa Catholic Church. Today, participants in the Houston races come from all over the universe . . . literally. In January 2006, one of the competitors was Bill McArthur, who ran the Aramco Houston Half Marathon on a treadmill on the space station. For those who plan to run on January 14, 2007, there will be a few changes. For instance, the runners will be allotted disposable timekeeping chips so the dedicated volunteers at the door do not have to untie sweaty shoes. Also, due to the construction of the downtown park across the street from the George R. Brown Convention Center between Walker and McKinney, the starting line will be moved to the front of Minute Maid Park and the runners will go one block further into the Heights – north to 11th Street and back to Studewood. Naturally, Brant encourages everyone to participate in the Marathon events. If exercise, fresh air and comradery are not enough to motivate you, come take a shot at winning the $25,000 first place prize money. In lawyer-speak, this translates to approximately $11,110 per billable hour. To register, volunteer or learn more about the January 14, 2007 Marathon events, log onto www.houstonmarathon.com. Of course, you can always try to “catch up” with Brant to get race information, but you better be able to keep pace with five-minute miles. Debbie Rank is an Insurance Section Partner at Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P., and a BB (before babies) marathoner.
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