The Austin Marathon is the highlight of Austin's winter running season. The race starts downtown on Congress Avenue in front of the state capitol building and then heads south across Lady Bird Lake down South Congress, up South First Street, and then out Cesar Chavez along the lake to Lake Austin Drive. From there, the course gets hilly in Tarrytown and the half marathon splits off from the full marathon to head back downtown. The full marathoners keep going past Camp Mabry over Mopac on 38th Street and up into Allandale along Great Northern, which can feel like forever. The runners then turn east and head through the lively neighborhoods of Crestview and Hyde Park down through the University of Texas and around the Capitol to finish where they started.
Austin's marathon is extremely well organized and is the field good size for the race. The race is known for its great schwag, with runners getting nice technical finishers shirts at the end, in addition to a top-notch medal. February can be surprisingly hot or icy cold, so like all Texas winter marathons, you have to be prepared for anything.
Austin Marathon is a lot of fun
I did this race in 2008, and you get a great tour of the city with the Austin Marathon. The race is well organized, and it doesn't sell out as fast as other big city marathons like Houston, Chicago, or New York. Sure, it's not as big as those, but the Austin Marathon has a lot of crowd support, and the city supports the race.