Who wants to join a team?
Marathon adds group competition to next year's race


By ROBERTA MacINNIS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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Completing a marathon is an individual triumph. But participants in the Chevron Houston Marathon will be able to make it a group effort when officials debut a team competition at the Jan. 18 race.

"It's just another element that we think will add to the excitement of our event. We certainly have received requests from running clubs, corporations and charity groups to facilitate a team competition, with a charity platform attached to it," said Steven Karpas, director of race marketing and development.

Anyone may organize a team, he said. The charity component will be the $100 fee required to register for the competition.

"We want to be clear that this is a charity-based program," Karpas said. "The $100 will go to charity."

The competition is similar to one offered by the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, Karpas said. ABB, a Zurich, Switzerland-based industrial engineering company with offices in Houston, has signed on as the title sponsor to underwrite the additional costs associated with the new component.

Participants in the Aramco Houston Half Marathon and EP 5K also may enter the ABB Team Challenge, as it will be called, since in this first year, the divisions will be defined by event: marathon runners only, half-marathon runners only and mixed — as in mixed races — with at least one team member competing in the marathon, half-marathon and EP 5K.

Points will be awarded based on individuals' placement within their age groups. Teams can consist of three to six people, but only the best three times of each team will be scored.

"The scoring really allows different age groups, different genders and different speeds of participants to compete against each other," Karpas said.

The divisions may be changed at future events to include age groups as well as men's and women's competitions.

Some details for this year's competition, such as what the awards will be and which charities will benefit, remain undecided, Karpas said.

"We're still working with ABB on the exact mechanics of how we're going to distribute the funds," he said.

Karpas said plans are for the team competition to be incorporated into the marathon's Run for a Reason charity program, in which runners may raise funds or donate to a nonprofit organization approved by the marathon.

For the 2008 event, runners raised a record $1.2 million for 45 nonprofit organizations through the program, almost 50 percent more than the $852,000 raised in 2007.

The program has raised nearly $8 million since its inception 14 years ago.

Team registration will be available online June 1, Karpas said. He anticipates about 50 teams for the first year.

"We expect our current participant base to support the program," he said. "There are always those folks who like to compete against other teams, especially in our local running club groups."

The marathon and half-marathon fields are about 30 percent full, Karpas said. Registration for the marathon and half-marathon, available at www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com, will increase by $10 on May 16, to $100 and $75, respectively.

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Becky Ryder
hryder29@comcast.net
Hattiesburg, MS