Houston Marathon
- By Doug Kurtis
Free Press Columnist

The HP Houston Marathon knows how to put on a show. Using the George R. Brown Convention Center as the main venue, nearly 100 staff members and 5,000 volunteers were perfect stage managers for one of the top 10 marathons, half-marathons and running expos in the country.

Free Press Marathon start and finish line coordinator Bob Smith and I flew down to Houston to observe one of the nation's best-organized marathons. We weren't disappointed.

The expo was in full swing when we arrived. Almost 200 exhibitors were peddling their wares or promoting other events. Title sponsor HP had a huge tent inside the hall showing how it adds technology to the marathon, including online live video of runners at the finish.

On the same level of the monstrous convention center, event organizers were feverishly putting together the finish area staging. Outside, finish line coordinators were erecting one of the most elaborate structures you will see at the end of a marathon. Who hasn't heard that Texans do things big?

Behind the finish stage, an equally large media structure was built, as was another bridge that enabled runners to enter the convention center while spectators crossed over.

The newly built Hilton, attached by walkway to the convention center, catered to almost 800 runners and their friends at the pasta dinner Friday night. Runners listened to Elvis impersonators between guest speakers and tasted four types of pasta while downing free beer. On race day last Sunday, runners stretched out on the carpet below giant blown-glass flowers designed by Barovier and Toso.

The marathon has come a long way from its beginning 33 years ago, when more than 100 runners ran a five-mile loop that used parked station wagons to mark the turns. Almost 20,000 runners now participate in three events that include a kids 5K.

The course had a number of highlights. In the first six miles, runners went through Woodland Heights, one of Houston's oldest historic neighborhoods. The half-marathon course turned back to the finish before the full marathoners arrived at Rice University and the museum district.

The area is also home to the Texas Medical Center, which employs more than 61,000 people, making it the largest of its kind in America. Before the halfway point, patriotic residents of West University Place gave runners the most visual highlight on the course. American flags spanning one solid mile were uniformly planted on their front lawns.

Post Oak's wide sidewalks enabled residents to pitch lawn chairs and set out coolers as they cheered runners. As a backdrop, exclusive shops and restaurants, distinctive sculpture and fountains caught your eye at the Galleria retail district. Mile 24 is known as the Elvis Mile. A four-foot-tall Graceland gate marked the beginning of impersonators who dazzled the crowd in flashy costumes.

Houston's marathon committee boasts about its hoopla brigade, and it should. Nineteen radio stations and eight jam vans kicked out the tunes. Eighteen bands provided live music. Sixty other hoopla groups, everything from the Geico Gecko and belly dancers to cloggers, gave tired runners something else to think about.

If this marathon is not on your itinerary, make some plans to two-step in Texas next January.

Contact Doug Kurtis at Detroit Free Press, 600 W. Fort St. Detroit, 48226