Jason Homorody's Staging Area

I came to this race because I hear the course was flat and the weather was usually ideal for a PR. The year I ran it the humidity decided to show up but the course was very flat.

There is a lot to like about this race. I stayed at the Embassy Suites in downtown Houston which was two blocks from packet pickup and where the race starts and finishes, so very convenient. I love that you didn’t get your race shirt until AFTER you finished instead of before so you actually had to earn it. I also liked the mug you got after finished, that was a nice touch. The post race food wasn’t great but at least they had a decent amount of it. The pre-race bag drop was a bit confusing and signs could have been a bit better there.

The bad parts-the area where the marathon starts and finishes isn’t great. It is like a really dead part of downtown where no one went. The course didn’t have a ton of people cheering on runners even though we were in the 4th biggest city in the US. There were some potholes on the course that if you ran in a crowded section could cause trouble.

Overall it was a very easy marathon as far as logistics and one I might do again sometime for that reason alone. The expo was a decent size and had lots of great clothes. I was sad that the race shirt didn’t have a space shuttle on it but I did find a shirt with the Houston Marathon logo on it online that I purchased later. The official race shirt said race finisher on it which I hate when races do that. If I have the shirt on, I finished the race, otherwise I wouldn’t wear it (I know others who do that though). All in all, a great PR course.

I have run the Boston and NYC Marathons. I have run a ton of other races in my life. Nothing was as much fun as this race. It is hard to explain unless you do the race, but somehow staying in a van with your friends for almost an entire day and doing three separate runs is an amazing experience.

I was lucky enough to be in van #1 for my team which meant that I got to be at the start at Mount Hood. I would recommend that even if you don’t have any of the first six legs, everyone on the team should meet at the start. The views were amazing. The trees and mountain views were so pretty. I was the infamous leg #5 for my team. This is rated as the hardest of the legs. The thing I loved about the race was the variety of crazy things that happened in the van with my teammates and getting to see so many amazing sights and sounds of the race. We met up with so many other cool race teams as well.

The good-so many things. The race shirts were great and I wear it all the time. Our team also got cool water bottles with our names on them since we were considered one of the elite teams. The views throughout the race were fantastic. The start and finish line experience at Mt. Hood and the beach was beautiful. And the post race party at the beach was fun. Live bands and food were there too and the town where you finish is a nice beach town. The support from the communities you ran through was fun too.

The bad- sometimes the signs for where you needed to drive were lacking. You don’t get any signal on your phone so you hope you are driving the right direction. That part definitely needs to be improved and was the only bad experience I had on the race.

If you are looking for a race to get a PR in the winter, this could be the race for you. If you are looking for a course where your family and friends could see you 13 to 26 times (depending on half or full distance), this could be the race for you. But if you are looking for an exciting race with great swag and lots of people cheering, look elsewhere. This race is the same loop over and over. The good part, it is flat. The bad part, you will have a couple of sharp turns in the race and early on, you will have trouble passing people who are hugging the turns. Sometimes the course is very slender and people will run 4 people across making it difficult to pass. All that being said, I have PR’ed my half marathon here three times because you can get in a pretty good rhythm. The course isn’t glamorous or exciting, but it might be the place you need to get your PR. The other good thing is the cost is pretty low for a half or full marathon.

I ran this while my wife was on a business trip. This was a great race and lots of fun. I lucked out in the fact that the race wasn’t hot or humid. This enabled me to PR my half marathon (I have since beaten it). This race is famous for great finisher medals and this year was no different. It was a very unique turtle and very large with a magnet on it that enabled it to fold up a bit.

The race started at 6am so that was a little different than normal. You run through a cute little downtown area and then towards the beach. The worst part of the course though was an almost completely pitch black mile in a state park. Once you emerge from that, you run towards the A1A (beach front avenue) and go back and forth until you finish on the beach. The course was scenic, we got to see a beautiful sunrise on the beach. We finished on the beach as well and there was a very nice after race party. The only complaint is the race shirt was hideous. I was really hoping for a south Floridian theme shirt and it was an ugly army green shirt that I gave away when I got home.

I came to Erie in 2019 because I had heard all about the flat course and because you can sometimes use this race for two years worth of BQs. I was not disappointed. Even though the race production is small, it was very well organized. When I picked up my race number, they take your picture with it so you can’t cheat which I liked. The course itself was surprisingly beautiful. It runs on a peninsula from Erie and even though it is near the water, it was very protected from any wind. The course was a double loop and is pancake flat. The only rise is a small footbridge near the end of the race. The water stops have a competition to see who does the best job so they are all about providing great service. The post race food box wasn’t bad. I did get a PR and a BQ here (my PR has dropped since this race) so I highly recommend the race if you are looking for a fast race!

This course has a double loop that has some repeat sections on it. There are so many beautiful things to see that sometimes it was hard to focus on running. There were castles, amazing churches, and so many other things on the course. I was there for a marathon exchange program from the US so I had never run overseas before. Comparitively speaking, there wasn’t a lot of swag (you have to buy your own race shirt) but I didn’t care about any of that because the people were amazing and the course more than made up for it. It was a very flat and fast course. I ended up shaving 5 minutes off my PR for my first sub 3 hour marathon. Even if I hadn’t run fast, it would have been worth it for the experience.