The Huntsville Half Marathon returns to – uh, Huntsville, obviously

It's baaaack – and you didn't even know it had left.

Huntsville's signature road race, the Huntsville Half Marathon, returns to the Hilly City on Sunday, October 18. Featuring a 10K run as well, the event starts and finishes in front of Bowers Stadium on the Sam Houston State University campus. The course winds around the university and the Walls Unit, with a detour through downtown.

It marks the resurrection of one of Huntsville's largest events of any type – one that had fallen on hard times in recent years before disappearing altogether. The story of the Huntsville Half Marathon is a long and winding road in itself.

First steps

The Huntsville Half Marathon has long been associated with Seven Hills Running Club, which has been Huntsville's running club for over 40 years. But the race was actually started in 1978 by another, earlier running club, the Pine Tree Running Club, which included longtime residents Jim Carter and Gene Pipes.

It then became a hot potato, put on by the Sam Houston State University women's basketball team and then its track team. By 1996 attendance had dropped precipitously and in 1997 the university decided to cut bait.

"The track coach, I ran into him at Kate Barr Ross on the 4th of July [1997], and he told me they weren't going to do the run anymore," said local runner Ken Johnson, who directed the race for many years.

Ironically, Seven Hills had closed up shop at this point. The desire of Johnson and other former club officers to take over the race led to the club's re-formation.

Entries tripled that year, to 356 runners in three distances: a half marathon (13.1 miles), a quarter marathon (6.55 miles), and a 5K (3.1 miles). There were 80 more runners the next year and another 140 the year after that, making the race one of the largest in the region. There were 400-500 runners for many years thereafter.

"The Huntsville Half used to be the primary training race for the Houston Marathon [which is held each January]. In later years there have been a lot more long distance training runs in the fall in the Houston area," Johnson said. Eventually, this would spell trouble for Seven Hills.

Hitting the wall

The race was still achieving those numbers fifteen years ago. From 2010 to 2014, it averaged 416 participants and gave over $10,000 in surplus proceeds to local charities, the Good Shepherd Mission and SAAFE House especially.

That began to change in 2015, when the numbers started to taper, and accelerated a few years later when the race moved to the Walker County Fairgrounds because of construction at SHSU. Much of the new course lay along the shoulder of Hwy. 30, which did not appeal to runners.

Covid set things back further, and by 2022 there were fewer than 100 entries and the race was losing money. The Seven Hills Running Club made the difficult decision to discontinue the event late that year.

That decision left Huntsville without a competitive long distance race of any kind. The Texas 10 Series, which hosted a competitive 5K, 5 mile, and 10 mile race around the SHSU campus, had pulled out of Huntsville the previous March.

At that point, the only remaining runs in town were noncompetitive: the Storybook and Rowdy Inman 5Ks in November, and the Pineapple Run and Run with Your Imagination in the spring.

The Run with Your Imagination was discontinued in 2025, giving that year the lightest race schedule in recent memory, with just the Pineapple, Storybook, and Rowdy Inman runs topping 100 participants. These were supplemented by a few smaller events and Seven Hills' monthly "club runs," which typically have a few dozen runners.

Another hill to climb

This makes the revival of the Huntsville Half Marathon all the more welcome. Race director George Roffe of Willis was motivated to resuscitate it from a genuine love of the event.

"Soon after it [got cancelled], I started talking with my coach [Bill Dwyer, a well-known running coach in The Woodlands], saying 'somebody should bring this race back.' Eventually that somebody became me," he said.

A runner for over twenty years, Roffe knew the old Huntsville Half well.

"I ran [it] five times and it's always been an exceptionally fun race to do. And when it left campus, I lamented that fact, and never ran it from then on," he said.

Roffe has now fixed that problem, bringing the race back into town. The new route closely overlaps the original course. "There is a country flavor [going out on Bearkat Blvd.], but you also get into the city itself," he said. The course goes down 12th St. and University Ave. downtown.

Still, as a first-time race director, the learning curve has been steep. Course design, permitting, and marketing all take time long before you get to race day. "I went through thirteen iterations of the course," Roffe said, working with stakeholders including the city, the university, and TDCJ.

Prices are mid-range, with 10K entry $45 through this Sunday and $69 afterwards, and the Half Marathon at $69 through Sunday and $99 thereafter. Entries have been modest so far, but the race marketing is just kicking in and interest has been picking up.

For every race that disappears, something new eventually pops up in its place. The Huntsville Half is one of two runs coming to town this October, and Madisonville has a new 5K coming up soon. Walker County's running scene is in flux, but the race calendar will always be full.

Learn more about the Huntsville Half Marathon and 10K Run and sign up here. Learn more about September 19th's fun run and ruck march at the Walker County Storm Shelter here. Learn more about the Seven Hills Running Club and their schedule of inexpensive, friendly club runs here.

The web site for the Storybook 5K and Fun Run is here (with last year's information); that for the Pineapple Run is here. Learn about next month's Lasso Your Imagination, the more lucrative (and equally enjoyable) successor to Run with Your Imagination, here.

This article omitted mention of the Rocky Raccoon, a 100 mile ultramarathon that takes place at Huntsville State Park every February. Its entrants come from throughout the country. Should you ever feel the need to run a 100 mile race, seek professional help immediately.