The Woodlands Marathon (and Half Marathon) will take place Saturday, 4th of March 2023.
The Woodlands Marathon has multiple events, and Amateur Radio Operators are asked to assist with the Full (26.5 mile) and Half (13.1 mile) events.
The course for 2023 is the same as was for 2022.
Full Marathon Course (2022):
Half Marathon Course (2022):
Essential Information
Requirements for your participation in this support of this event:
- Your being an FCC Licensed Amateur Radio Operator
- Marathon provides safety vests, and they can be left at the station for recovery along with the aid station.
- Mobile or Handheld Transceiver on 2m or 70cm. (equipment may be available on loan if needed - mention it in the comments area when you register)
Date: Saturday, 4th of March, 2023.
COVID accommodations:
The impact of COVID on how the involvement of amateur radio operators supporting the event has not been fully determined, but, it's safe to say that reasonable precautions will be taken to minimize the risks. This includes: volunteers wearing face coverings, participants wearing face coverings when not actively involved in competing, staying distanced, and disinfecting regularly if applicable. The organizers are planning for and want it to be safe, but, ultimately, it is each individual being careful that will make it safe.
Start Time: While the start time is posted as being 7:00AM, in the past, the 'elite' runners are typically released ahead of the rest by around 15 minutes prior to the non-Elite runners. In order to accommodate this, we will be looking to be on-station and checked-in no later than 6:30AM.
Pre Event Meet Up: We typically meet from around 4:30AM until around 6AM at the Denny's located at I-45 and Research, both to allow a social gathering and provide last minute assistance with equipment, obtaining marathon provided safety vests and to check-in. The social gathering aspect may have to be altered due to covid. While Denny's is a food establishment, and eating there is allowed without mask (pretty hard to eat with a mask on), we still need to keep our exposure opportunities low. This may mean that only those that are eating are inside, and everyone else is outside. Updates will be provided as this is addressed more fully.
Assignments: Our primary assignment overall is to help ensure participants receive aid as quickly as possible, whether that's being at an Aid Station or other fixed location, and reporting a need, or, being in a SAG (Service and Gear) vehicle to ferry people and/or supplies, or one of the other roles. A secondary role is that of providing management and SAG dispatch with an awareness as to the location of participants, so that resources can be directed to best advantage.
- Aid Station Communicator / Course Monitor - from a fixed location, watch out for participants on the course
- SAG - be in a provided vehicle that will be used during the event for transportation as needed.
- Turtle - follow the last participant around the course.
- Net Control - be at Net Control, helping with the 'behind the scenes' aspects of the event.
- Equipment Configuration Assistant - be present at the pre-event gathering to help others with transceiver configuration.
If you can help, please register: use the right hand side-bar for registration.
For those that register:
When registering, provide unique callsigns, name, email address and phone number. The system will consider you to be updating your registration if a match is found on any of these items of information.
Callsigns: If you do not have an fcc issued amateur radio callsign, please consult with the licensed radio operator you are likely asking to pair up with, and add a suffix to their callsign (eg: their callsign being AB2DE, add the suffix of '-2', resulting in: AB2DE-2). If you are registering with no connection to a licensed radio operator, please populate the callsign field with the last 7 digits of your cell phone number.
Phone numbers: Please supply your personal cell phone number. This may be used to contact you prior to the event, but, most importantly, during the event if we are unable to contact you via radio.
Email Address: Please supply your personal email address. You will be sent a confirmation email, to which you will be asked to send a reply, so that we can know that you are receiving emails. Further emails will be withheld until the confirmation email is recieved back. Having a functional email delivery method is important as email will be used to provide you with information as we get closer to the event.
If you are unable to help all day, please indicate whether you need to be released earlier rather than later, or, whether you can only start after a given time.
Your assistance is very much appreciated!