Plan to Bundle Up for the Houston Marathon

Jeff Balke January 10, 2018 4:00AM

Photo by Marco Torres

In 2017, Houston Marathon runners were all comfortable in shirts and tank tops. They might want a jacket this year.

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Houston has enjoyed a slightly more mild weekend and start to the work week despite a cool front that moved through Sunday night bringing with it some occasionally heavy storms including hail and an abundance of lightning. Raise your hand if your dog was freaked out.

While we won't actually call it a "warm up," highs in the low to mid 60s with lows in the upper 40s feels quite a bit more pleasant than it did when we barely made it above freezing last week. Expect the rather dreary and cool weather to continue through Thursday ahead of another approaching front. This one should pack a little more punch in terms of cold air and will probably bring a few isolated showers Thursday afternoon.

We aren't going to get back to several days of hard freezes, but Thursday evening into the weekend, which includes the annual Houston Marathon, is going to be downright chilly, but beautiful.

After the arrival of the first (yes, first) front on Thursday, expect temperatures to plummet back into the 30s overnight into Friday. Friday and Saturday look absolutely stunning with highs in the mid 50s under sunny skies. A reinforcing cold front will move through late Saturday. It's a dry front so no rain should be associated with it, but it is going chill things down even further.

Most of the city will have a light freeze overnight Saturday, which means the Houston Marathon will likely begin with quite cold and dry conditions, probably just above freezing. Since the mercury is unlikely to climb above the upper 40s, it will stay cold throughout the competition.

For runners, we have heard this is somewhat of a blessing as compared to say rainy or humid warm conditions. For volunteers and those cheering, it means you need to get your layers on and, honestly, no one will criticize you if you add a little something extra to your coffee to warm up the blood on a chilly winter morning. Just saying.

And you runners, good luck. We are struggling to imagine what running 20-plus miles in near-freezing temperatures will be like. We applaud your monumental efforts, though our clapping may be muted by our insulated gloves.