Houston Running: Houston Marathon Title Sponsor Announcement Coming Soon

Houston Running

One of the leading sources for the discussion of Houston-area (and Texas as well) road racing. Focus and attention will be given to Houston-area runners, specifically HARRA members, that compete in outside-of-the-area events as well as those who do interesting things that aren't captured in the various media outlets, such as Inside Texas Running, Runner Triathlete News and Roberta MacInnis' Running Notebook in the Houston Chronicle (all fine publications and columns but with limitations too).

About Me

Name: WalkSports.com

Location: Spring, Texas, United States

I'm a mid-to-the back of the pack runner who probably enjoys promoting runners more than I do running myself ... I've completed 21 marathons (with a 4:47:32 PR! in Austin) and 52 half marathons (with a 2:09:58 PR! in Oregon) since November 2003 ... I've done a marathon in 12 states, half marathon in 23 and an event in 30 states and one Canadian province ... I have a 13-year-old daughter, Waverly Nicole, who completed her first half marathon in January 2006, made only two B's each of the last two years, was the only sixth grader to sing a solo (Carrie Underwood's Don't Forget To Remember Me) in their choir program (adding Taylor Swift's Tim McGraw in '08) and scored a 19 on the ACT in December 2007 as a seventh grader ... Waverly and I are members of the following clubs -- the Seven Hills Running Club, HARRA and The Woodlands Running Club ... I'm Marathon Maniac #308 ... I edit HARRA's Footprints in Inside Texas Running and write a column for Runner Triathlete News called, "Talking the Talk" ... I'm also the running columnist for the Courier of Montgomery County ... I'm a three-time winner of TAPPS' Sportswriter of the Year Award as well as TABC's Golden Hoops Award.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Houston Marathon Title Sponsor Announcement Coming Soon

WalkSports.com has learned this evening that the "Houston Marathon" registered at least one (1) domain name with register.com on Thursday, August 4th as a potential title sponsor for the 2006 event.

Houston Chronicle running journalist Roberta MacInnis reported in her Thursday, August 11th column quoted managing director Steven Karpas as saying, "We're very encouraged with how our search is going and look to make an announcement shortly."

Just last month (July 19th) Jim Hill Media.com reported that the Walt Disney Company had registered the following domain names on July 7th for a potential 2006 event:

Disneylandmarathon.com

Happiestrace.com

Happiestraceonearth.com

The website also reported that the entertainment conglomerate registered on June 26th the domain name of disneylandhalfmarathon.com.

And because I still want to run in it in 2006, I will just sit with a funny grin on my face and let everyone go look it up later on to confirm that I was right!

8 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Are you planning to run the full or tha half marathon in Florida?

Holden; 9:15 AM
WalkSports.com said...: Holden,

I'm going to run Houston full again this January.

I just used the Disneyland item as an example of being able to see domain names that have been registered before the formal announcement.

Jon; 1:35 PM
Anonymous said...: Bah, another oil-company sponsored event.; 6:05 AM
Tiggs said...: i must be dumb b/c I can't figure out how to find it.; 11:12 AM
WalkSports.com said...: If they can keep the price where it is at and not get into the Marine Corps and New York City price ranges, I don't care who sponsors it.

There are many things that the marathon pays for that people don't realize (i.e. the coverage on channel 13). KTRK doesn't just cover it because it is one of the biggest sporting events in Houston.

White Rock's title sponsorship price is $250K. Have no idea what Houston's asking price was.

There's always one way of protesting the sponsorship: don't run it.; 12:24 PM
WalkSports.com said...: Cassie, e-mail me and I show you how to find it.; 12:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Jon, yes it's good that the marathon has another sponsor. And at least it isn't Halliburton ;-)

I liked the clean and healthy image that the Compaq/HP name brought to the event, and thus the city.; 1:32 PM
WalkSports.com said...: Bob,

I have to do a little checking; however, I think at one point in time the new sponsor had many of their employees as active volunteers. I have to do a little bit of checking on that.

And you have to wonder how much preparation the marathon committee is taking to make sure that there is no backlash given the state of affairs in that industry.

Thanks for reading and posting.

Jon; 1:37 PM