Houston Marathon Weather
After making it home, being here in the "home" office, trying to get out the door to head to the gym and cleaning out some e-mail boxes, I thought I would share a recap of the Houston Marathon weather the past 12 years from the Striders' Steve Shepard. (Steve was responding to Strider Aimee Solway's e-mail about trying to convince her sister to come run the Houston Marathon instead of doing one in San Diego the same day under what, of course, should be pristine conditions.)
Here was Steve's response:
She should be concerned about the volatility of Houston marathon weather, although it's been very good to excellent the last five years running (and sucked 5 years previous to that).
1994 - warm and humid
1995 - perfect!
1996 - 59 at the start with so much fog the TV helicopters couldn't get off the ground
1997 - the famous sleet bowl - 32 degrees all the way with sleet; this is the one everybody remembers
1998 - ugly yet again, very warm and humid
1999 - same as 1998; the crappy weather was getting old
2000 - more of the same; both my training partners bailed before half way
2001 - neutral weather, first decent Houston marathon since 1995
2002 - perfect!
2003 - perfect!
2004 - very nice, a little humid, no complaints
2005 - perfect!
For me, perfect for a marathon is crisp and clear, no humidity, high 30's to high 40's.
I only did the 4-mile run in 2003, but I remember it being cold enough that I had on sweatpants, a mock turtleneck covered by a XXL Houston Texans t-shirt ... oh, and a baseball cap! (I've said before. I was a sight to behold. I even had a stopwatch dangling around my neck ... who did I think I was? Bill Rodgers?)
I agree that 2005 was perfect. I ditched my "socks as gloves" in front of the school in mile 5 and wish I would have kept them on! I wore my Marine Corps Marathon race jacket the entire way as I remember, even at noon, the winds being pretty cold coming through downtown.
In 2004, I remember it being cold. I wore my The Half windshirt that I got in November of 2003, but on the mile 9-to-11 stretch (that I think will be a big mental challenge for Waverly this year), my feet were freezing as the wind blew across the tops of my Brooks Beast shoes.
Here was Steve's response:
She should be concerned about the volatility of Houston marathon weather, although it's been very good to excellent the last five years running (and sucked 5 years previous to that).
1994 - warm and humid
1995 - perfect!
1996 - 59 at the start with so much fog the TV helicopters couldn't get off the ground
1997 - the famous sleet bowl - 32 degrees all the way with sleet; this is the one everybody remembers
1998 - ugly yet again, very warm and humid
1999 - same as 1998; the crappy weather was getting old
2000 - more of the same; both my training partners bailed before half way
2001 - neutral weather, first decent Houston marathon since 1995
2002 - perfect!
2003 - perfect!
2004 - very nice, a little humid, no complaints
2005 - perfect!
For me, perfect for a marathon is crisp and clear, no humidity, high 30's to high 40's.
I only did the 4-mile run in 2003, but I remember it being cold enough that I had on sweatpants, a mock turtleneck covered by a XXL Houston Texans t-shirt ... oh, and a baseball cap! (I've said before. I was a sight to behold. I even had a stopwatch dangling around my neck ... who did I think I was? Bill Rodgers?)
I agree that 2005 was perfect. I ditched my "socks as gloves" in front of the school in mile 5 and wish I would have kept them on! I wore my Marine Corps Marathon race jacket the entire way as I remember, even at noon, the winds being pretty cold coming through downtown.
In 2004, I remember it being cold. I wore my The Half windshirt that I got in November of 2003, but on the mile 9-to-11 stretch (that I think will be a big mental challenge for Waverly this year), my feet were freezing as the wind blew across the tops of my Brooks Beast shoes.
posted by WalkSports.com | 10:01 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the info. The weather is something that I've been worried about. It would be really tough for me to run in sub-30 degree weather. Add sleet and my thin blood couldn't take it.
I'm coming around to colder temperatures, the 30k was perfect afer about a mile! I could handle that weather!
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