The Houston marathon and half marathon went to a lottery system this year for entry. This angered thousands of people, including yours truly — but somehow I got lucky and my entry into the half marathon was selected. They claim that 90% of marathoners and 63% of half marathoners got in, but I seem to know a LOT of people who were left out, which makes me feel both very lucky and even more annoyed by the entire concept of the lottery. It’s absurd to me that the HOUSTON event didn’t have a better way of ensuring that HOUSTON runners could do their own hometown event.
I could go on, but instead, I’ll get to the point, which is: I want to really train for the event this year. My half marathon PR is 2:15, set at the first half marathon I ever ran in 2004. All the half marathons I’ve run since then have been on less-than-ideal training because, frankly, it’s easier to be a lazy bum than it is to train. I’ve become an expert at completing half marathons on little-to-no dedicated training. I fully recognize that this is stupid, and yet I have done it at least a half dozen times.
But this year I’d love to set a new PR. And since I was lucky enough to get an entry when so many others didn’t, I don’t want to crap on my luck by not taking the race seriously.
So I’m looking into a variety of half marathon training plans — some are online and could be followed on my own, and others are local groups. There are benefits to each. I usually like running solo since I don’t have to worry about slowing anyone down, or getting caught up in someone else’s goal for the day, and I have the freedom to run whenever it fits into my schedule. But there is definitely something to be said for running with a group of people who will hold you accountable for being there and training well.
I’ll make a decision soon.
i know houston isnt new york, but VERY few ny’ers get to run their own race unless they participate in a certain number of sanctioned races and volunteer. which is what houston ended up doing for HARRA.
its fair in that respect. imho anyway. thankfully i racked up enough points to insure my guaranteed entry into the marathon.
until they up the limit on the field its going to be unfortunate for many.
i dont know why everyone thinks that if you are from here you should automatically get in? i just dont get that AT ALL.
I’m ok if every single person who lives in Houston and wants to run doesn’t automatically get in — but I do think people who live in Houston should have a great chance/be favored/etc. The agreement they worked out with HARRA was a really good way to do that. It’s good for the marathon, and has the potential to be REALLY good for HARRA in the future.
So my complaint is really directed more towards the half marathon. It does bother me that they didn’t do something similar for the half. If they’re only going to do it for one race, I’m ok with it being the marathon. (And if I’d wanted to do the marathon this year, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten in via HARRA.) But why can’t they do it for both races? They know the half has the demand. What’s the harm is doing a “HARRA 500” type of system for both races?
This isn’t to say that I think the half is more important than the full — it’s not. If anything, I’d favor separating the events so that the marathon gets its own day to shine (plus the half could have a larger field).
There are a lot of other Half marathons all year including the Houston Half that struggles to even get enough people. That should be the half marathon in my opinion. its part of the warm up series, just like the NYC Half is every year … as is Chicago … Boston … etc. If Houston wants to play like the big dogs then act like them is what i say. They wont give up that money though…
And not that I think the half is less or more than the full, but i agree that the spots for HARRA should be only for the full. i believe that the overwhelming majority of the HARRA members (at least prior to this announcement) were full marathon runners. of course membership SKYROCKETED upon the announcement of the possibility of getting a spot and bypassing the lottery.
I suspect that next year there will be some tweaks to the overall situation. some are even saying that all of this the past 2 years was to create more demand, and that in 2012 they were going to finally implement corrals and deepen the field of allowed runners. We’ll see how true any of that comes about.
and again…NYC weeds out a LOT of home town/home state applicants in their lottery. they want the tourist dollars. i think houston could benefit from the fact that if they want to be mainstream they need to have in place a system where out of state runners actually have a shot at getting in. and the city wins too with increased revenue on hotels/attractions and restaurants/bars.
oh and by the way CONGRATS on getting in and you know i loooooove seeing that you are going to train for a possible PR! no offense but the no training for so many folks really gets under my skin ;o)
True, there are many half marathons in the area, and more are added each year. I’m thinking of running one or two of those this fall as well. But nothing in the area that I know of matches the intangibles of the January race. To me, and I think to a lot of others, part of the appeal of the Aramco Half specifically are the “extras” that go along with it since it’s associated with the full marathon — huge crowds, major streets shut down for racing, big pre-race expo, lots of club training programs that target it, all your running buddies out there doing one of the two events, etc.
I’d be interested to see what the breakdown is of HARRA members who run the full vs. half. I have no idea what it would look like. I do think that membership skyrocketing, regardless of the reason, is good for HARRA, so that’s cool. 🙂
yeah now i just hope they do something worthwhile with all the extra cash. i wish HARRA was more like NYRR. NYRR has sooooooooooooo many races!!! fun races you know? not just for ‘competition’.