This is a great urban marathon. Superb organization and facilities. The roads are all closed to traffic and you go through some interesting neighborhoods on the west side of downtown. There are one or two inclines but any urban marathon is going to have a few over/underpasses. The roads were all closed to traffic but the surface is pretty hard; not a problem for me during the race but my quads are pretty sore afterwards.

Weather was great although you always take your chances with that. The view was spectacular running alongside the Bayou coming back into downtown for the last few miles of the race.

Pace and elapsed times were called out each mile, water stops every 1.5 miles on both sides of the road with Gatorade first followed by water.

The expo in the convention center was good. The finish line facilities were also in the convention center and there was even hot food.

During the race, family and friends could have split times emailed to their phones and follow along on the website. Check out the race results: some super graphics showing how you finished against other runners.

Houston has such a selection of restaurants that I probably didn?t carbo-load properly and ran out of energy at mile 21. I had a great time anyway.

Thoroughly recommend this one.

This was my first marathon and I loved every minute of it. I am so grateful for the encouragement from the people. You guys made me proud to be a Houstonian.

This is a well organized race on a flat course. Allowing runners in the convention center before the race was great, with the sub-40 degree temps. There were lots of freebees and a variety of food. Only two minor suggestions: they needed someone at the front of the convention center after the race to direct traffic - lots of us were wandering around wondering where to go. Also, the food was interesting. Eggs, sausage and fried hashbrowns with coffee. No fruit. These are really minor though. Overall the race was very well organized and the volunteers were fantastic. Never had a problem with water stops. The crowds weren't huge but were enthusiastic.

Perfect marathon weather; well supported with mile splits, which help you achieve your goals. Fun marathon, fun people, well organized.

I live in the South, so it was a cold day for me - - but perfect weather for some - - start in the 30's finish at 44 degrees. I never broke a sweat.

It is a well organized race with a good expo and support of the city. The main problem is that for the first 9 miles it is congested. My neck hurts from all the looking around to try to pass people. Normally, in these mid-size races the road opens up by at least the 3-mile mark and you can go into auto-pilot. Not so here... I was running an 8:15 to 8:20 pace and it was not until the half-marathoners turned off at Mile 9 that the road opened up.

Also, kudos to the organizers for including a running etiquette sheet with bold reminders in the packet, even if it wasn't followed by many.

Once again, a great marathon. This was my second time to run it, and I loved it. Highly recommended for new marathon runners because of the great crowd and Gatorade and water.

This was a good race. Shawn Colvin sang the national anthem, then two fighter jets did a flyby. Very nice. They use the whole convention center at the start for warm-up purposes. Then after the finish, you go right back into it for medals and refreshments. The course is good, but typical of many big-city marathons. Not always the most scenic right outside of the downtown area. On the plus side, it is very flat with plenty of aid stations, all of which had porta-potties. If you're looking for a fast winter marathon with perfect weather, this is it.

Conditions were near perfect for the HP Houston Marathon on Sunday Jan 16. The start temperature was around 40F and it never got much warmer than 55F or so. There was very little wind, pretty good spectator support and several enthusiastic Elvis impersonators along the way. Not to forget the belly dancers between mile 19 and 20! The Houston Marathon course is as flat as a pancake, the only minor drawback being that most of it is concrete, which takes a heavy toll on the legs. Even so, I managed to slice a big 15 minutes off my most recent marathon time and to finally get back to a sub-4 hour time, for the first time in 12 years. I put in a few more miles per week (than I did last year); and added some strength workouts (hills and Fartlek sessions) as well as weekly speed sessions at Memorial High School track.

A slowish start and a conservative first half (running with a 4-hr pace group) paid off handsomely as I had something left in the tank by Mile 18 plus. I might add that in several previous marathons, I had committed many of the 'cardinal sins' such as starting WAY too fast, experimenting with new tactics & foods on the day of the run, not tapering properly, etc, etc. So being able to run a well-paced race doesn't make me a smart marathon runner, just an experienced one!

I really felt strong over the last 7 miles, pushing the pace to 8:20 and passing dozens of people in the process. So much more fun to be a passer than a passee. To be honest, I did not have much left by the end, except a big grin. I glanced at my heart-rate monitor as I crossed the finish line in just over 3:49 and it was at 175. I think my maximum is 180 so just as well they had a defribillator or two ready...

Would I recommend the Houston Marathon for anybody else? Well yes, and maybe. Yes for some of the reasons mentioned above. It is also very well organized and has one of the best expos of any that I have seen. The air-conditioned George R. Brown Convention Center is a superb facility where runners can take shelter from the elements prior to the start and receive ample sustenance - including a hot breakfast - at the end. The t-shirt designs have lately been lousy, and the medals so-so, but the finisher's beer mugs are worth having.

The 'maybe' part of my recommendation has to do with the weather. The last three years have all been near perfect but sooner or later this marathon will have an unusually warm start, with the minimum around 60F and the max. well into the 70's. If you can handle that, combined with high humidity, then by all means make plans for Houston next year. I doubt that you will regret it.

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!

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.