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Houston Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Houston Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.5 
Organization 4.7 
Spectators 4.6
Number of comments: 365 [displaying comments 271 to 281]
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A. M. from Houston, TX
(1/17/2005)
"There is no better race in the country!!!!!!!!" (about: 2005)
6-10 previous marathons
| 3 Houston Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This is one of the best marathons in the country. The course is 99% flat, the fans are very supportive, and it is very well organized. Before and after the race runners and their families get to stay inside the convention center, which makes the start and finish very comfortable. I liked the technology that they had this year that enabled your family to receive e-mails or text messages as you finished every 6 miles. Finally they had a great medal, a nice finisher's sweatshirt, and finisher's mug, on top of a T-shirt that you get in your packet. This was my 3rd Houston marathon, 7th overall and it just seems to get better every year! This is a must-run marathon! | |
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J. M. from Indiana
(1/17/2005)
"Fast course, great race" (about: 2005)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Houston Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 I just got back from Texas and the Houston Marathon and it was great. I ran a PR by 15 minutes, my first marathon under 4:00. The chip time was 3:57, a fantastic improvement over my 3-year old 4:12 PR from Chicago. It was a great day for a race. Perfect chilly start at about 40 degrees, sunny (by the time the sun came up), but the sun was low enough to be in shade most of the first 10 miles. There were also a lot of tree lined areas of the course that kept it shady off and on. Finish temp was 50ish. It's a very flat course, although not as perfectly flat as Chicago. There's a highway onramp at the very beginning and a couple of other bridges and overpasses. There was one fairly big overpass over train tracks in the first half and some very minor rolling hills the last 6-8 miles. I had read reviews here talking about a perfectly flat course but some locals told me the course did have a few changes this year that added the moderate hills. The only weather imperfection was the wind occasionally. But hey, a PR by 15 minutes, I'm not complaining. The spectators weren't as plentiful as Chicago of course, but comparing it to a race closer to its size would be Cincinnati Flying Pig, which consistently has much larger spectator crowds. In fact, when you add in the Houston 1/2 Marathon runners, Houston has at least twice the number of runners compared to Cincy (a much smaller city as well) but the crowds didn't turn out in Houston. The spectators that were out were great, vocal, and fun. There were a handful of bands (including an all-Elvis impersonator band), belly dancers, and other amusing distractions. I'd read reviews here that talked about great crowds there in prior years and that was part of my decision to go, but a lot of the locals thought the 'cold' (for Texans) weather kept spectators inside. There were frequent clusters of crowds, and occasionally spots of several hundred yards with a few hundred people, but there were also mile-long stretches with only a handful of people. Volunteers were great. I was at race weekend registration and they all helped to make sure I got registered smoothly. Water tables were well stocked and staffed the whole way. My only course complaint would be there are too many runners for the width of the roads. Especially when you count another 6-7000 1/2 marathoners on the same course for most of the first 9 miles (they merge in around mile 2 I think after a dual start from a different street), the roads are a lot more crowded that the # of marathoners would indicate. Great finisher goodies too, including a nice sweatshirt and a glass mug. I highly recommend this race, especially to northerners like myself looking for a 'warm' winter marathon - hey, compared to the 3 degrees in my city this past weekend, 40-50 in Houston was perfection. | |
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R. A. from Houston, TX
(1/17/2005)
"Another great Houston Marathon!" (about: 2005)
4-5 previous marathons
| 2 Houston Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Houston was great again this year! Packet pick-up is effortless, although it can get crowded in the too-narrow aisles between the expo vendors. The GRB is great before the start for keeping warm. Plenty of great water/Gatorade stations. Wonderful volunteers as usual. Better finish location this year with the long straight final run. The stairs some people had used in the past to get back into the GRB are no longer an issue. This year's medal was much improved, but many complaints about the finishers' items (sweatshirt, mug, certificate) so far from the finish - clear across the GRB. It was a long walk with sore legs! Overall this is a terrific marathon - highly recommended!!! | |
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B. B. from Euless, Texas
(1/17/2005)
"5-Stars, First-Class - A #1, Must-Do Marathon" (about: 2005)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Houston Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The HP Houston Marathon, in my opinion, is the best marathon in Texas. I would even venture to say that it's the best marathon in the U.S. I've been to the big show (Boston) and once again, in my opinion, the HP has it beat hands down. Of course not in history, but in organization, hospitality and service for the runners. If I had to nitpick, I would prefer the course not be almost entirely on concrete. And the finisher's medal could be a little more beefy, but those are very small negative critiques when compared with all the first-rate positives. Don't waste your time with other winter marathons. Next January head to Houston and enjoy a first-rate marathon experience. | |
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Jeff Wang from Houston, Texas
(1/17/2005)
"Another Spectacular Marathon in Houston" (about: 2005)
6-10 previous marathons
| 4-5 Houston Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I hate to say it, but Houston, being the fattest city in US, puts up a hell of great marathon. We Texans are proud of this marathon, and many of us support it every year. We have been lucky to be blessed with great weather years after years, and this year, it was wonderful - high 30's to low 40's at the start, getting up to upper 40's and low 50's at the end. It also had low humidity and light breeze. For those of you who were concerned about the Texas heat, this was not a problem. I think that Houston Marathon organizers do a great job in the organization, from the registration to the website to the expo (which is always a fun event). They also do a great job on the day of the marathon. The start of the marathon is in downtown Houston. The thing I love about our start is that you can pretty much hide in the warm George R. Brown Convention Center for a couple of hours to warm up and get ready, then head out to the starting line in the cold about 10 minutes before the start. Not many other marathons have a huge building to shelter the runners from cold or rain. One main complaint from everyone is the road condition. I say it year after year: this is Texas, and we have concrete/ashphalt, which cracks. Definitely not the best condition, but honestly it really doesn't bother me that much. In fact, this is a rather flat and fast course, and I beat my PR time by 5 minutes and beat my last year's Houston time by 8 minutes. The other thing I complain about year after year is the shrinking medal. This year, the medal is a bit bigger than last year, but it is still small. In fact, it is smaller than the half marathon medal I got the week before at Phoenix. It is not even a third of the size of the Little Rock Marathon medal. However, the finisher sweat shirt is very nice, as well as the finisher's mug. The warm breakfast also helped a lot. Despite of the shortcomings, I still love this marathon, especially after running marathons elsewhere. In my opinion, I still think Houston Marathon is the best marathon I have ever run. I can't wait until 2006. | |
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D. S. from USA
(1/16/2005)
"not as flat as some would have you believe" (about: 2005)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Houston Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The course was great, crowd support awesome, organization great. The couse started with a slight and long overpass. It goes through a lot of flat and downhill sections. Around the 8th mile is an underpass. Around 13-14 mile is an overpass, which is significant. Around mile 20 is another underpass and also an incline around mile 23. It's not an entirely flat course but most of it is. Austin has more descents than ascents as well as flat sections. It has a woosy towards the end. Some people paint a flat course in Houston and that does nothing for folks' mental preparation in the months ahead. They would not make good reporters, is all. | |
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D. H. from USA
(7/2/2004)
"Flat course, enthusiastic crowd, superior support" (about: 2004)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Houston Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The course was flat, super flat. There were just two 'hills' in the course, which were overpasses, not even steep, of 10-20 feet tall. That's it. While the course was flat, the crowd was absolutely lively. They were there right from the race start (7:00 am) and lined the course cheering all the way through finish line. There was just no place along the course where you couldn?t see spectators. Cheering they did, with words, signs, dances, music, bands, and belly dancers. (Maybe the belly dancers were not a good idea. I could have run a little faster. NOT!!) The most helpful thing I got from the spectators was not bananas, oranges, cookies, or candies, but tissue paper (for my runny nose). It was just a lot of fun. I remember that the crowd perked me up at two places when I felt absolutely miserable. I cannot imagine a more exciting and inspiring crowd. Thank you, Houstonians! The support was also great. You could use their website to send you and your friends your times, via email or cell phone text messaging. Seconds after my chip registered my times, at 10K, halfway, 30K, 37K, and final, my friends got them in email. My family was able to track my progress, and whereabouts, with text messaging and was able anticipate my approach and take pictures of me. Not only the high-tech support was great, the low-tech support was also excellent. When I finished, there were plenty of food, real food, not just bananas and oranges, to immediately refuel. And to my surprise, I even got a free massage after the meal. Everything was just wonderful. | |
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R. H. from Texas, United States
(6/8/2004)
"Great first marathon!" (about: 2004)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Houston Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was a great first marathon experience for me, the miles went by without me really noticing because of the scenery and all of the crowd support, there were radio stations calling out everyone's name and where they were from, and residents of the neighborhoods passing out food and cheering you on. The weather was great, overcast and like 52 degrees with no real wind. The expo was good and I got out of there with my chip and bib pretty fast. The start is not all jammed up and everyone was so friendly and made it one of the most memorable moments of my life so far. | |
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R. M. from College Station, TX
(5/18/2004)
"Weak course, but all else great" (about: 2004)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 Houston Marathons
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Exceptionally good expo, organization, etc. Started on time and runners were taken care of. However, the course wasn't too great -- we ran through a trashy neighborhood at about mile 2, complete with stray cats, a couch in a muddy ditch, the smell of urine, a grocery cart upside down by a broken down fence, and a toothless drooling wino laying on a porch. Other than those few blocks, it was great. Weather was great, but I'll never forget that wino. Not what I thought I'd see... | |
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R. M. from Minneapolis, MN
(5/17/2004)
"Only Twin Cities is better..." (about: 2004)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Houston Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This marathon is EXTREMELY well organized; the expo is big, people are friendly, and it's run very professionally. If the course were a little prettier, it would equal the Twin Cities Marathon, but this is definitely 2nd of the 20 or so marathons I've run. |
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