Texas' Fastest Marathon Courses

Late yesterday afternoon (originally December 10, 2015) at work, I was listening to a podcast and a certain race director self-rated his course second behind Houston and in front of Austin and Dallas as the fastest in Texas.

(UPDATE:  Before the marathons run on the weekend of December 12-13, 2015, the above statement was NOT true.  However, things changed and that statement is now true.)

I live my life trying to flush out hype.

Think of it as running's equivalent of  FactCheck.Org.

Actually, it is a debate - who has the fastest course - that you can never really settle. 

Because even if the same person ran two different courses, it is impossible for them to enter the race under the exact same conditions.

So I went to the place that has a lot of this data already calculated when they load up a race's results:  MarathonGuide.com.

Granted, we've had races having to cancel because of weather conditions in the last year (think Cowtown and Frankenthon Monster Marathon) and some that are still yet to happen in 2015.

Therefore, these are the average times by races within the same groups of numbers of finishers using the data from their last completed race:

1,000 finishers and over
4:30:29 - Houston Marathon (2015; 7,132 finishers)
4:37:28 - Austin Marathon (2015; 3,137 finishers)
4:38:03 - Dallas Marathon (2015; 2,747 finishers)
4:52:37 - Cowtown Marathon (2014; 1,995 finishers)
5:01:43 - Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio Marathon (2015; 2,494 finishers)

500-999 finishers
4:26:01 - The Woodlands Marathon (2015; 894 finishers)
4:37:02 - Bryan-College Station BCS Marathon (2015; 639 finishers)
4:54:18 - Big-D Texas Marathon (2015; 663 finishers)

250-499 finishers
4:26:42 - El Paso Marathon (2015; 365 finishers)
4:31:43 - Fort Worth Marathon (2015; 284 finishers)
4:34:52 - Irving Marathon (2015; 415 finishers)
4:49:48 - The Army Marathon (2015; 419 finishers)

Under 250 finishers
4:13:57 - Marathon 2 Marathon (2015; 101 finishers)
4:29:13 - Galveston Mardi Gras Marathon (2015; 128 finishers)
4:38:24 - HITS Running Festival - Austin (2014; 33 finishers)
4:40:47 - Gusher Marathon - Beaumont (2015; 111 finishers)
4:43:30 - Tyler Rose Marathon (2015; 164 finishers)
4:51:45 - McAllen Marathon (2015; 183 finishers)
4:51:47 - Chosen Marathon for Adoption - New Braunfels (2015; 163 finishers)
4:58:52 - Hill Country Marathon - Marble Falls (2015; 57 finishers)
4:59:36 - New Year's Eve Marathon (2014; 140 finishers)
5:00:52 - Seabrook Lucky Trail Marathon (2015; 176 finishers)
5:09:10 - Surfside Beach Marathon (2015; 92 finishers)
5:12:57 - Love. Run. Marathon. - Huntsville (2015; 51 finishers)
5:13:18 - Miracle Match Marathon - Waco (2015; 140 finishers)
5:13:33 - Davy Crockett Bear Chase - Groveton (2015; 64 finishers)
5:15:10 - Frankenthon Monster Marathon - Cedar Park (2014; 129 finishers)
5:22:46 - USA Fit Marathon - Sugar Land (2015; 220 finishers)
5:24:16 - New Year's Day Marathon - Allen (2015; 84 finishers)
5:47:16 - Grasslands Trail Run Marathon (2015; 65 finishers)
6:12:46 - Dust Bowl Series - Dalhart (2015; 43 finishers)

And then if you merged them altogether, this is what it would look like:

Overall
4:13:57 - Marathon 2 Marathon (2015; 101 finishers)
4:26:01 - The Woodlands Marathon (2015; 894 finishers)
4:26:42 - El Paso Marathon (2015; 365 finishers)
4:29:13 - Galveston Mardi Gras Marathon (2015; 128 finishers)
4:30:29 - Houston Marathon (2015; 7,132 finishers)
4:31:43 - Fort Worth Marathon (2015; 284 finishers)
4:34:52 - Irving Marathon (2015; 415 finishers)
4:37:02 - Bryan-College Station BCS Marathon (2015; 639 finishers)
4:37:28 - Austin Marathon (2015; 3,137 finishers)
4:38:24 - HITS Running Festival - Austin (2014; 33 finishers)
4:38:03 - Dallas Marathon (2015; 2,747 finishers)
4:40:47 - Gusher Marathon - Beaumont (2015; 111 finishers)
4:43:30 - Tyler Rose Marathon (2015; 164 finishers)
4:49:48 - The Army Marathon (2015; 419 finishers)
4:51:45 - McAllen Marathon (2015; 183 finishers)
4:51:47 - Chosen Marathon for Adoption - New Braunfels (2015; 163 finishers)
4:52:37 - Cowtown Marathon (2014; 1,995 finishers)
4:54:18 - Big-D Texas Marathon (2015; 663 finishers)
4:58:52 - Hill Country Marathon - Marble Falls (2015; 57 finishers)
4:59:36 - New Year's Eve Marathon (2014; 140 finishers)
5:00:52 - Seabrook Lucky Trail Marathon (2015; 176 finishers)
5:01:43 - Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio Marathon (2015; 2,494 finishers)
5:09:10 - Surfside Beach Marathon (2015; 92 finishers)
5:12:57 - Love. Run. Marathon. - Huntsville (2015; 51 finishers)
5:13:18 - Miracle Match Marathon - Waco (2015; 140 finishers)
5:13:33 - Davy Crockett Bear Chase - Groveton (2015; 64 finishers)
5:15:10 - Frankenthon Monster Marathon - Cedar Park (2014; 129 finishers)
5:22:46 - USA Fit Marathon - Sugar Land (2015; 220 finishers)
5:24:16 - New Year's Day Marathon - Allen (2015; 84 finishers)
5:47:16 - Grasslands Trail Run Marathon (2015; 65 finishers)
6:12:46 - Dust Bowl Series - Dalhart (2015; 43 finishers)

Twist it how you wish because some already are.