Runners excited for Houston Marathon sign up

Today, quite a few runners were nervously awaiting the starting gun … of registering for January’s Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon.

“I think the whole Houston community is excited,” Steven Karpas, the race’s general manager, said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re 50 percent full by this time next week.”

The Chevron Houston Marathon, now considered the premier winter marathon in the United States, is scheduled for Jan. 17, as is the accompanying Aramco Half-Marathon and El Paso 5K.

Due to the demand, the marathon and half-marathon have been expanded to accommodate 11,000 runners each, making it Houston’s largest one-day sporting event both in participants and spectators.

Saturday, the marathon is sponsoring the Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine Institute’s 2010 Pre-Race Showcase, a mini-expo of information for runners of all distances.

“We’re bringing all the experts together — nutritionists, trainers, physicians — to answer any questions people might have about training for a marathon,” Karpas said.

The showcase will be held at CityCentre Life Time Athletic Club from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“We’ll also have our marathon staff there promoting our Run for a Reason program, which encourages runners to use the marathon to raise funds for local charities.”

The Run for a Reason program raised more than $1 million for charities in 2009. Officials said they have plans to exceed that amount in 2010.

More than 45 charities, benefiting local, national and global issues, are affiliated with Run for a Reason.

While the marathon course remains the same for 2010, a few things have changed, including the elimination of the transfer policy that enabled entrants to switch places with other runners who had not entered in time.

“We’ve added 4,000 places, and that more than makes up for the transfers,” Karpas said.

Without the chance of obtaining a transferred entry, however, registration becomes more of a now-or-never proposition.

“I think that if people wait too long — and by that I mean about three weeks — they could find themselves shut out for 2010.”

Registration currently is open on the marathon’s Web site, houstonmarathon.com.

The early registration fee for the marathon is $90 and $65 for the half-marathon through July 31.

After that, fees increase by $10, if entry still is available.