The Houston Marathon course

The gun goes at 6:55 in the dark downtown, and Congress and Franklin are tight with bodies before Washington Avenue finally opens up. The ground tilts up a fraction here, which is the only honest reason this mile should feel like work.

All of two is Washington Avenue, wide and straight and still shoulder to shoulder. The road gives you nothing to react to, so pick the pace you intend to hold and stop renegotiating it.

Washington hands off to South Heights Boulevard and then Waugh Drive, the first real bend of the morning. The ground gives back a little of what the opening mile took, and the field spreads enough to run your own line.

Waugh runs south into West Gray Street and the edge of River Oaks. Barely a rise, but note how easy it feels in the cool dark: mid January mornings here start near 45 and do not stay there.

West Gray and Inwood Drive deliver you onto Kirby Drive, and the road goes level and stays level. Kirby is wide and fast, which is exactly the kind of street a marathon slips away on.

A full mile of Kirby Drive running south, dead flat, nothing to think about. That makes it the right place to take your first gel and let the effort settle into something boring.

Kirby ends at Bissonnet Street and the course swings east toward Rice. Flat ground and a narrower road, so mind your elbows through the turn.

Early in this mile the half marathon peels away at the 7.6 split, and that split carries a fixed clock cutoff, so know your number before you get there. Mandell Street and Sunset Boulevard are quieter and tighter, and the road under you barely moves.

Sunset Boulevard runs the south edge of Rice before the course turns onto Main Street. Level the whole way, and much thinner now that the half is gone; quiet fields are where pace quietly drifts.

Main Street bends onto University Boulevard and you are into West University. Flat, tree lined and residential, the kind of mile you can finish without remembering any of it.

Eleven is University Boulevard end to end, straight and unchanging. Roughly half of this course is concrete rather than asphalt, and it is on repetitive miles like this one that your legs start filing the complaint.

University runs out at Weslayan Street and the course turns north. First real change of direction in a while, and a good moment to check what your pace did while the road was straight.

Weslayan crosses over to Westpark Drive with the ground still level. This is where the half marathoners would be finishing; you are not, so keep the effort deliberately dull.

Halfway lands out on the Southwest Freeway frontage road before Newcastle Drive and Richmond Avenue. Open, exposed pavement through here, and if the sun is up the day is heading toward the low sixties.

Richmond feeds you onto Post Oak Boulevard with Williams Tower standing over the entire mile. Post Oak is a boulevard in the full sense of the word, and grand wide roads talk runners into pace they did not plan.

Post Oak crosses San Felipe Street before the course ducks onto Tanglewood Boulevard. Flat ground, sharper turns, and a real drop in road width after the boulevard.

Tanglewood winds through to Chimney Rock Road, still flat and still quiet. Seventeen is the mile to do the arithmetic on the mile 20 cutoff, while there is time left to do something about the answer.

Chimney Rock delivers you onto Memorial Drive, and Memorial is essentially the rest of your race. Level, curving and long enough that it deserves a plan of its own.

Memorial Drive alone, running east through the park. Gentle curves and no landmarks mean nothing tells you how far you have come, so run by feel and let the markers do the arguing.

Twenty carries the second fixed clock cutoff, and it arrives on a stretch of Memorial that offers nothing to push against. The road eases downward a touch here; take it, because the last six miles will want everything.

An arch bridge crossing finally breaks up Memorial after miles of the same view. More a change of scenery than of terrain, but at twenty one you take what the course offers.

Still Memorial, still tipped very slightly toward downtown. The skyline begins showing through the trees, and it will look a great deal closer than it actually is.

Memorial hands off at Shepherd Drive and the road drops toward the bayou, the largest downward tilt on the whole course, which on this course is not saying much. Let your legs turn over instead of braking against it.

Allen Parkway along Buffalo Bayou, easing downward and genuinely quick. Twenty four is where this race gets decided, because the road is about to turn on you.

Out of the bayou and up toward downtown: this is the one place all day the road pushes back. Shorten the stride, hold the cadence, and expect it to feel far steeper than any elevation chart suggests.

Lamar Street takes over as the buildings close in, Heritage Plaza overhead, then Dallas Street for the run to the convention center. The ground is still tipped up a hair, so this finish is earned rather than handed over.