2020 Chevron Houston Marathon Driving Tips

On Sunday, January 19, 2020 the annual Chevron Houston Marathon will take place. The street closures will make your head spin, but here are a few tips.

First of all, let me just start out by saying that driving around this Marathon is not the best experience. Street closures are about, and you end up traveling quite a bit to get to your riders, if they are located within the street closures.

If any riders are reading this, please, make sure you are not within a street closure when you request a ride. We simply won’t be able to get to you.

On the other hand, there has been some luck of surge in the past. For me personally, it just isn’t worth it. The city is big and there are rides outside of this zone to be had. (although, if surge comes on you will be enticed to head to that area.) The reality is, the runners use Uber and Lyft as sort of a support vehicle. They can basically drop out of the race, and be picked up anywhere along the route. So, yes, there is more demand than usual.

With that said, if you plan on driving, there are a couple of things you need to do.

1) Study the map, but do not stress about every little detail. You can either print this before hand, or bookmark this page and have it on a secondary device. When that ping comes on Uber and Lyft, you should be able to determine by comparing the maps, if you are able to access the street easily or not.
2) Overpasses are your friend – Use the freeways to hop over closed streets in order to get where you are going.
3) Google Maps is your best friend. – I use Google Maps, and can confirm that the street closures are listed on here, so it is a great tool to circle around the street closures.

Finally, lets look a the map times. The first streets to close are at 6:15 am, and while the majority will open up before 2pm, the last ones open up by 2pm. Basically, the last of the runners. As stated before, these street closures annoy me, so I avoid the area as best as possible, during these time.

While most of us wait for a surge to climb at the end of a large event, this will be an event that is pointless to wait. Why? Everyone runs at different speeds. There will be a constant stream of runners finishing, and yes, maybe some surge long the way. However, there will not be a “Grand Finale of Surge” so to speak.

If you have any tips you want to share, please feel free to comment below!