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Memories of the Houston Marathon
George Kleeman was race director of the Houston Marathon from 1975 to 1980. He is the meet director for the 2007 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Sacramento, and is Vice Chair for Rules in the USATF’s National Officials Committee.
 Between 1975 and 1978, the marathon course consisted of five loops in and around Memorial Park. It was much the same course originally set up by Pete League. The problem with the five-loop course was it was hard to make sure everyone ran the entire marathon. We had time keepers and recorders at the far end of the course to record times and numbers, but it wasn't always possible to get every number. Thus when someone I didn't know finished in a top spot, I would spend the next week checking their lap times and determining if it was possible for them to have completed the entire race. Each year, we would find 4 or 5 people who had only run 4 laps, but said they had finished.
It was not uncommon in those early days for me shoot the starting gun and then join the race. In 1977, we had a local TV station covering the race and a group of high school students who were running. When the race started, the high school students sprinted to the front in order to be on television. Just a few hundred yards into the race, they took a wrong turn. Afraid that the crowd would follow, I sprinted to the front and yelled to redirect the teenagers down the right road. At one mile I was still among the leaders, several of them 1976 Olympians or Trials athletes. I can remember some of the faster runners passing me and saying "George what are you doing up here?" I quickly explained, but that sprint cost me my attempt to break 3 hours that day.
The September before the 1979 race, we had gone though all of the local sponsors and banks, trying to raise money for the AAU National Championships, with no luck. After a morning run, I was discussing our options with a friend, when a gentleman next to us, who had tagged along on our run that day and who none of us knew, said, “I think I might be able to help.” He was the Treasurer of Tenneco Oil, and with his help the marathon secured Tenneco as the title sponsor. Tenneco not only helped with the marathon’s finances, but also with logistics. When Tom McBrayer was out measuring the course, he was stopped by the Houston Police, who insisted that we couldn’t shut down Allen Parkway for the marathon. Tenneco’s Chief of Security, who happened to be a former chief of police, not only got approval for the course but a police escort for Tom to finish measuring the course.
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Why are you running on January 18, 2009?
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