Koala Luke's 20K To Become Houston's Next Half Marathon?

I just found out last week from a pretty reliable source that Houston's 20K race may be getting a face lift and becoming a half marathon. The 20K for years has been a part of the Houston Marathon warm up series and in my opinion the best run race in town. The Houston Striders have made this a race that Houstonians can be proud of. It makes all the sense in the world to jack up the mileage from a 12.4 mile race to a half marathon distance of 13.1. This strategy should draw more out of town runners from around the country who are looking for a half marathon course to test their legs out on before tackling one of the major winter marathons. No word on whether the race will offer a half marathon relay but I would bet on it. Having a half marathon relay (similiar to the 20K relay they had last year) would be a perfect warmup race for those training for the Houston Half Marathon.

This change should put some heat on Houston Marathon officials to improve the quality of the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon. I can see many seasoned runners now training for the new Half Marathon in mid October and then passing on the Houston Marathon and signing up for another competing January race like Disney on January 7th, Phoenix on January 14th (same day as Houston) or Miami (my pick) on January 28th. All three of these races also offer half marathons this year which is an added bonus to all.

Sure the sign ups for the Houston Marathon & Half Marathon were at a record high last year but 2007 will be a key year as race officials will have to improve the quality of the race to keep the numbers up and prevent runners from defecting to other January races. The more I run races and the older I get the more I realize that running a race is all about "the experience" of a race. In other words quality usually wins out over quantity in the "long run". With a little fine-tuning and learning some lessons from some of the best managed races in the country like the Rock n Roll series (Elite Racing), I am confident that Houston can improve the Marathon and Half Marathon this year.