Houston Half Marathon Guide (2027)

The 2027 race is the 26th Aramco Houston Half Marathon, held with the 55th Chevron Houston Marathon. Registration opened at 4 p.m. on January 11, 2026, the day of the 2026 race, and general entry sold out in early August. ABC13 called it the fastest sell-out since the pandemic, with about 40,000 participants expected across race weekend.

Still want in? The Run for a Reason charity program had entries left after the sell-out. ABC13 reported it takes a $350 donation to one of 68 charities, and some charities had already filled. If you’d rather not fundraise, see where to run instead this winter.

The fine print. Houston entries are non-refundable and non-transferable, and deferrals to a future year aren’t offered. You can switch distance in your participant account: $20 through October 31, 2026, then $40 until noon on January 6, 2027, plus the price difference if you move up to the marathon. Run a distance you didn’t register for and your result won’t be scored.

Front corral seeding. Half marathoners who have run 1:44:59 or faster since January 1, 2025 on a certified course can request Corral A by November 30, 2026. A 10K in 45:38 or a 10-miler in 1:14:34 also qualifies.

Houston Double. Finish the We Are Houston 5K on Saturday and the half on Sunday and you get three finisher medals. The 5K add-on is $40 when you buy it with your half entry.

The half and full share one start line downtown at Congress and Fannin and run the same course until mile 7.6, where the half course splits off. Both finish at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The route is flat, and both courses are certified by USA Track & Field. The half carries a World Athletics Gold Label, and it hosted the USA Half Marathon Championships nine times, from 2005 to 2011 and in 2014 and 2015. The official course page has the map and elevation chart, and the organizer notes the route can change.

Cutoffs. You have four hours of chip time, an average of 18:18 per mile. Streets reopen on a rolling schedule behind the race, and half marathoners need to reach the split at mile 7.6 by about 10:15 a.m. A Stay Safe Pace Team runs near the slowest allowed pace, carrying balloons. If you fall behind, Houston police will direct you onto a SAG van back to the convention center.

Aid. Water and Gatorade Endurance are every 1.5 miles from mile 2, with medical aid just before each station and portable toilets just after. The first tables at each stop are the most crowded, so grab your drink from a later one. Course clocks are at every 5K, and mile markers are at every mile.

Build with the Warm-Up Series. The Houston Marathon Warm-Up Series, run with the Houston Area Road Runners Association, is a set of longer and longer races about a month apart, leading into January. Schedules and bundles are on our Houston race series page.

Add a tune-up half. A fall half tests your pacing and fueling with time left to fix both. Sugar Land (October 11), Huntsville (October 18) and the UTHealth Houston Half (October 25) fall 12 to 14 weeks before Houston.

Train for the weather you get. Houston in January can be anything from frigid, as in 2025, to warm and muggy, and fall long runs are usually humid. Practice drinking on the run in training, and be ready to adjust your goal pace on race morning.

Walk breaks are allowed. Four hours is a generous limit. If you’re new to 13.1, our run-walk method guide shows how to plan intervals, and the 3:00 and 3:30 pace groups finish well inside the cutoff.