Chevron Houston Marathon & Aramco Half

Two things to know depending on which side of the barrier you are on.

If you want to run it, entry is not first-come-first-served. Houston fills through a drawing that opens the previous spring, and the marathon and half are separate entries. Missing that window means waiting a year or going through a charity place, so the date to care about is in May, not January.

If you want to watch, this is one of the best free mornings in the city and almost nobody treats it that way. The course is flat and loops through Montrose, the Heights and Memorial, so you can see runners two or three times on foot without moving far. The Heights stretch has the best crowd, and the downtown finish has the most emotion.

Either way, plan around street closures: the course cuts across the middle of the city on a Sunday morning and getting from one side to the other is genuinely difficult for several hours.

The 2027 date and the drawing dates are confirmed on their site.