RunRace USA › Texas › Houston Marathon
The complete, course-first guide
Houston Marathon
Sunday, January 17, 2027 · 6:55 a.m.
Downtown Houston, near Daikin Park
The race in 60 seconds
First run in 1972, Houston Marathon has had time to become part of the city's running calendar. The route forms an open loop, finishing in the same part of the city without returning to the exact start point. The modeled line carries about 360 feet of total climb and ranges from roughly 21 to 84 feet above sea level. Look for Rice Stadium, Williams Tower, Heritage Plaza, Wells Fargo Plaza in the flyover, with recognizable forms modeled from architectural records.
Fly the course
The whole course, built from the best available published route trace and an extruded model of Houston. Scrub it, change the camera, or let it play. Nothing here is a video: it is drawing the city live.
Route statusCurrent community course trace cross-checked against the published route. 2026 race GPX; start/finish match the official start-line map PDFs
The route line uses the best published course trace available. Public-domain USGS and USDA aerial photography plus USGS 3DEP elevation are baked into RunRace USA, so the flyover makes no paid map API or third-party runtime requests. Buildings, roads, parks and water use OpenStreetMap, ODbL. This is photographic terrain with modeled architecture, not photogrammetry. Bridge approaches, elevations and facade details are approximations; the organizer's published route remains the reference.
The elevation profile
This Marathon profile covers 26.2 miles, ranges from roughly 21 to 84 feet, and contains about 360 feet of modeled climb.
The route at a glance
Gold is the selected modeled course; route provenance is stated beside the flyover.
Race-week weather, measured
At the start line, January 13-21 averaged a low of 45°F and a high of 61°F across 2016-2025. The same window reached 79°F at its warmest and 19°F at its coldest. Measurable rain appeared on about 37% of sampled days. Treat the range, not just the average, as the packing list.
Pace it by effort
The profile and grade strip come from the same route currently loaded in the flyover. Use even pace as a baseline, then protect effort on the highlighted climbs and exposed sections.
| Finish | Even pace | Halfway |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00 | 6:52 /mi | 1:30 |
| 3:30 | 8:01 /mi | 1:45 |
| 4:00 | 9:09 /mi | 2:00 |
| 4:30 | 10:18 /mi | 2:15 |
| 5:00 | 11:27 /mi | 2:30 |
| Published course limit, 6:00 | 13:44 /mi | 3:00 |
Build your race weekend
The course
Live 3D flyover, synchronized elevation, route map, mile-by-mile shape and local landmarks.
Where to stay
29 mapped places to stay, compared by the endpoint that matters.
Expo and logistics
Packet pickup, the published weekend schedule, transit, parking and current entry tiers.
Spectators
Route-aware viewing anchors and a plan that respects the actual course geography.
The weekend
A city guide built around the places modeled beside the course.
Official race site
The organizer's current dates, entry details and late course notices.
Common questions
How does entry work, and does it sell out?
Entry is first-come open registration, not a lottery, and the site says there is no waitlist. For 2027 it opened Jan. 11, 2026 at 4 p.m. CT with five escalating price tiers (marathon $160, $170, $180, $195, $210). The race warns that all pricing schedules depend on registration still being available before reaching capacity, so Tier 1 pricing is not guaranteed.
Is there a qualifying time?
No qualifier is needed to enter, but there is one for front corral seeding: 3:29:59 marathon, 1:44:59 half, 1:14:34 ten-miler, or 45:38 10K, open standard for all ages and genders. It must be a chip time from a USATF-certified road course with online results. The 2026 FAQ requires a race on or after Jan. 1, 2024 with a Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025 deadline; the registration page for 2027 says on or after Jan. 1, 2025 with a Monday, Nov. 30, 2026 deadline.
Are corrals and waves enforced?
The marathon and half share one start line with six corrals, A through F. Corrals C, D, E and F follow A and B on a pulsed start with time intervals between them to cut congestion. Assignments come from the predicted finish time you enter at registration, and Corral A seeding is by request only. You may move back to a friend's later corral but never forward.
What time does it actually start?
The site gives two readings. The FAQ says wheelchair and handcycle fields go at 6:35 a.m., the half elite field at 6:45 a.m., and the marathon elite field at 6:55 a.m. followed immediately by both open fields. The Course Info page instead says the first corrals start at 6:55 a.m. with C through F pulsed behind. Course clocks are set to 6:55 a.m.
What are the cutoffs, and what happens if I miss one?
Marathon limit is six hours chip time, half marathon four hours. Above that you get no official result regardless of when streets reopen. Required pace is 13:45 per mile for the marathon and 18:18 for the half. Fixed cutoffs: the Mile 7.6 course split at 9:40 a.m. for the marathon and 10:15 a.m. for the half, and Mile 20 at 12:20 p.m.
What happens if I fall off the pace?
Houston Police direct slow runners onto the final SAG vans as roads reopen under the city permit. Miss marathon pace before the Mile 7.6 split and you are redirected onto the half marathon course; miss it after the split and you board a SAG van back to the George R. Brown. A Stay Safe Pace Team runs the slowest legal pace, but cutoffs are enforced regardless of it.
What are the bag check and gear rules?
You get a clear gear check bag in your packet at the EXPO, and that is the only bag you may check. No other bags are accepted, and clear bags containing other bags are refused. Gear Check is in Halls C and D of the George R. Brown. The claim tag is attached to the top of your bib and a second claim ticket to the bottom.
Can I transfer, defer or refund my bib?
No on all three. Entries are non-refundable and non-transferable, deferrals to future years are not offered, and giving your bib to someone else disqualifies both of you and bans you from Houston Marathon events for at least two years. The only escape is refundable registration through Protecht Group, a 16% service fee bought during registration or within 5 days after.
What does the weather actually do?
The race publishes averages rather than forecasts: average low 45F, average high 63F, mean 54F for mid-January in Houston. The race goes on regardless of precipitation and will only be cancelled if conditions pose imminent danger. The course surface is a 50/50 mix of concrete and asphalt, so it is a harder ride underfoot than the flat profile suggests.
What catches first-timers out?
There is no race-morning packet pick-up for the marathon or half; miss the EXPO on Friday or Saturday and you cannot run, and packets are never mailed. Strollers, baby joggers, bicycles, skates, animals, running backward and running without a bib are all barred. Starting before the official gun is an automatic disqualification. Streets around downtown begin closing at 5:30 a.m.
Register for the 2027 Houston Marathon →on the official race site
Course geometry provenance is stated beside the player; elevation profiles always use the same route loaded there. City geometry is OpenStreetMap, ODbL. Aerial imagery is from USGS and USDA; other images carry their own source credits. Weather figures use Open-Meteo reanalysis for January 13-21 across 2016-2025 at the start line. Schedule, prices and expo hours were checked in 2026-08-27 and are the fields most likely to move: confirm them on www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com before you book anything. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it fast.