Chevron Houston Marathon

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.