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!!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

This the the best marathon in United States. I would recommend this marathon to anyone who wants an easy course. There are tons of spectators.

I really enjoyed running the 2003 and 2004 marathons. The crowd support was awesome. Without the crowd's support, finishing would have been much more difficult. The weather was great. It is a fine winter marathon. The hotel accommodations were excellent at the Hilton. The Houston Marathon is well-organized and a great event. I truly enjoyed it and will be back again. Thank you for a great race.