The training is over. The work has been put in. Now it’s time for thousands of Houstonians to get their run on in Sunday’s Chevron Houston Marathon.
And by thousands, Race Director Brant Kotch tells KTRH he literally means thousands.
“What we ultimately end up with is 17,000 in the half marathon and 10,000 in the marathon,” Kotch said, adding those numbers don’t include the 6,000 runners that will take part in tomorrow’s We Are Houston 5K.
The big thing runners like Eric Berger are going to be preparing for is the weather. Berger, who also runs the website Space City Weather, told KTRH News that it won’t be as frigid as some predictions were talking about earlier this week. Temperatures will be in the thirties when the race gets underway Sunday morning. And that’s just fine with Berger.
“Most runners want it cold. Maybe they don’t want it at 35 degrees, but it’s much better than warmer temperatures. I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait," Berger explained.
Speaking of warmer temperatures, the race two years ago was run in the 60’s. Berger says that was not optimal for a distance runner.
“The biggest fear I always have before running a marathon is the prospect of running in warm weather,” Berger stated.
While he won’t have warm weather to worry about, and while it won’t be as cold as forecasts earlier in the week were predicting, Kotch says there is another factor runners will have to take into account; the wind.
“The wind is looking like it may be the biggest concern. It will drop the wind chill down quite a bit,” Kotch explained.
So if you’re going to run on Sunday, make sure you layer up.