Austin Marathon

Austin Marathon decided not to offer prize money to elite runners this year. The change means a local marathoner could be the first across the finish line on Sunday. In the men's field, three former Statesman Capitol 10,000 champions could duke it out. the Cap 10K champ in 2002, has a marathon best of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 7 seconds. He's well-known in Austin as the coach of the Gilbert's Gazelles training group.

"Running the course so far down South Congress is a mistake," said Forrest, an Austinite who ran in the marathon last year and plans to do so again this year. "We leave behind the cool part of SoCo at Amy's Ice Cream across from St. Edward's. The section from Amy's to Highway 71 is ugly and doesn't showcase Austin in a positive way, particularly the cut over to South First.

Austin's marathon has been running strong for 18 years, and the race has had nearly as many course changes during that time. Most of the alterations were small ones, but a major one took place three years ago. That's when race organizers abandoned a point-to-point course for a loop layout downtown. Two runners, two vastly different viewpoints on the downtown-oriented route they will follow for the Austin Marathon on Feb. 15. So it goes anytime race organizers have to tweak the race's 26.2-mile course.