Aaron Yi's Staging Area

I read some complaints about bib pick-up and shirt pick up being in different buildings. I believe everything how Disney designed logistics is to keep people moving. All throughout the process, there are people guiding you where to go and to keep you moving. Disney does a great job at this.

From parking your car, to going through security, to bag drop, and getting to your corral people are there to help you. The one mistake I see people make is right after getting through security, waiting in line for the first set of restrooms. The port-o-potties didn’t have lines at the bag drop, and right outside the corral entrances there is a parking lot with a TON of port-o-potties. One thing that upset some people is that Disney strictly closes the corrals at their scheduled time so if you miss it, you have to go to the next one down. That wasn’t well advertised.

The first half of the race is better in that you run through the park. The second half is mostly highway in between the parks except for the last mile as you head towards the finish.

If you want to take pictures along the course with the Disney characters, you can expect to see long lines. I elected not to wait. Instead I took selfies at the mile markers that had video screens depicting various Disney characters.

This is a race where people race in costumes and come to have fun. Some of the costumes are crazy and I don’t know how people run in them. The most impressive one I saw this year was Darth Vader with an oversized helmet out of Spaceballs!

This was my 2nd year running the Chevron Houston Marathon and unless I decide to run CIM, this will be my go to winter race every year.

I stayed at the Magnolia House Houston which you walk out the front lobby and you’re at the starting corral A. The others are just one block over sequentially. The only downside is that if you want to check a bag for any personal belongings or change of clothes for after the race, the bag drop is near the finish about 15 minutes away. Because of that I did not check a bag which I usually like to have dry clothes to change into for the after race activities.

As I’m sure if you researched this race you know the course is flat and fast. There is one very manageable hill around mile 12.5. The crowd support is the best near the beginning and end of the race. The farther away from downtown the lighter the spectators. The volunteers were wonderful. The aid stations well organized and plentiful.

And lastly the race is one of the best run organizationally. Very well executed. Even the last chance port-o-potties near the start line is a nice touch. Bib pickup and purchasing gear at the expo was great. The only odd thing was this is the only race where I received my race shirt after the finish (probably because it says “Finisher”) so you can’t wear your race shirt for the actual race like I sometimes do. But another nice touch is the shirt size exchange is right next to where you pick up your shirt. FYI, the 5K which I ran the day before as my shakeout run, they do give you the 5K shirt before the race so I was able to wear it for that.