Houston Half Marathon Recap Part 2: The Expo

Incase you missed it: Olympic Trials – Houston Half Marathon Recap Part 1

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I collected my parents/husband and we walked into the George Brown Convention Center (aka GRB) for the Expo!

I love expos!

 

Funny thing was, I had to go to BOTH lines for packet pick up…yeah!

We loved walking around seeing everything! The Cliff tasting bar was fun!

Look who I ran in to at the Saucony booth! My fellow Claim Your Journey blogger Brandon! He was there doing media coverage of the trials!

These “models” cracked me up!!!

Had to stop at the Run Disney booth, of course!

This is how I felt at the beginning of December…YAY Houston Marathon…woohooo!

And this is how I felt the day before the race….sad times for the Houston Marathon…. :0(

I needed all the luck I could get! Hah!

 

After finishing up at the Expo, we walked out to the Olympic Green area.

It was fun to look around!

We also found a random Subway for lunch! Yum!

For dinner, I met up with Heather and her husband and a few other fellow runners for dinner!

 

We were very disappointed with dinner. Heather’s husband’s running group has always eaten at this restaurant before the race which had a special Marathon menu and awesome bread pudding. Heather talked about the bread pudding so much during training that I just knew I had to go with her! Well, we got to the restaurant, were told that they were not doing the Marathon menu anymore, AND they did not have bread pudding. WHAT? Instead, we were told that there was a different similar dessert. After we ate, I ordered the bread pudding replacement, only to discover that they didn’t have it, either. I was NOT a happy camper. Because of this restaurant, we also missed our running group meeting. Lovely. Definitely not going back. The restaurant was McCormick & Schmick's by the way.

On our way back to the hotel, we took a few pictures!

I hoped I wouldn’t fall and injure myself even more! Hah!

My parent’s/husband went to eat at a Chinese Restaurant not too far from our hotel. They didn’t go to Mccormick and Schmicks because the Saints game was still going on.

Since I didn’t get dessert at the poopy restaurant, I attempted to order it here. Of course, the first thing I ordered, they didn’t have.

 

I ended up with this banana split something or another. It really wasn’t very good. Oh well.

I thought this was funny because we were all playing on our iPhones! Hah!

We got back to the room and I set my gear out for the next day!

Up next: The race…dun dun dun….

Houston Half Marathon Recap Part 1: Olympic Trials

So, I know it’s been like 5 weeks since the Houston Marathon, but that race was so traumatic for me that I couldn’t even think about it much less write about it. (Incase you don’t remember, I became injured just a few short weeks before Houston.)

Now that I can think back on my Houston experience without having the urge to vomit, I’ll give you a recap!

Race weekend began EARLY Saturday morning with one of the highlights of my trip….THE OLYMPIC TRIALS!!!!

We stayed in a hotel downtown so we were in walking distance to the start line!

Olympic Trials signs were everywhere and you could feel the excitement in the air! It was electric!!

Start/Finish line

Two of my GoRun friends! :0)

We scoped out a spot not too far from the finish line. We couldn’t actually get up to the finish line because it was reserved for VIP’s, which I obviously was not!

We sang the National Anthem, then Amanda and I walked around to take a few pictures!

I LOVED this sign!!! Made me sad that I couldn’t also run 26.2 miles the following day. Ah well.

My friend Amanda and I!

The men warming up on their way to the start line.

The race began with a 2 mile loop. Before we knew it, the men were headed our way!

 

They were BOOKING IT! It’s crazy how fast these professional runners are!

Ryan Hall in the lead!

Go Ryan Go!

This poor guy in the orange shorts must have pushed himself too hard. He was HURTING at the end…you’ll see later.

The lady in the maroon hat had a family member running this race. I watched her for a while to see if I could figure out who it was!

Found him! He’s the guy in the white hat that I almost cut off the picture! Hah! This moment made me tear up a little. What a dream come true!!!

Girls making their way to the start line!

We knew every time we heard the helicopter, the runners were getting close!

Here come the girls!

Kara was making me SO nervous! She was behind quite a few people….

 

I loved being out here! This truly was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It’s a day I will never forget!

News crew!

 

Running Skirts girl!

This lady kept the crowd pumped! She was awesome!!!

After the first 2 mile loop, the runners completed 3 eight mile loops to finish out the race.

Men’s 2nd loop……they were flying!!!

Women’s 2nd loop! I couldn’t believe how fast they were running! Crazy!

Here come the men again!

Funny how you never know who is going to win!!

 

Cones were set out to distinguish the women’s/men’s sides….

And there’s the women again. Amy Hastings hung on for a LONG time….we weren’t sure which top 3 women would make the team!

Get it, Kara!

Deena Kastor…the legend!

Men’s final loop!!

Here comes Meb! He snatched an American Flag from a spectator and waved it all the way in through the finish!

I know it sounds silly, but at that moment, I was even more proud to be an American.  It was so cool to be a part of history!

When he saluted the solders, I teared up a little…

YAY MEB!!!

Way to go, Meb!!

Here comes Ryan for the 2nd place finish….

And Abdi for 3rd. The 4th place guy broke my heart. He fell to the ground in tears after he crossed the finish line. I can’t imagine being SO CLOSE…yet so far. Makes me sad to think about it.

 

Remember that poor guy I told y’all about at the beginning? He was hurting and it was obvious….but the amazing part – he finished! You wouldn't believe how many DNF’s I witnessed!

The crowd rose to their feet to cheer him in through the finish. It was awesome!!

 

Here come the ladies! Taking it in for the finish!

Shalene in first!!!!!!

Here’s Desi in 2nd!

This girl with the blonde pony tail was at mile 18 at this point, but she stopped to cheer on the winners. It was REALLY cool! She was also the girl at the beginning of the race that kept the crowd pumped. She seemed like she was just happy and grateful to be there. Awesome attitude!

And here comes my girl Kara in 3rd!!

Get it, girl!!!

Anyone remember how I dressed as Kara for Halloween? I was hoping that I didn’t jinx her Olympic dreams….thank goodness I didn’t!

Hahah! Yay Kara!!!

OK back to the trials….

Deena Kastor placed 5th. She also broke my heart. I think she knew that this would be her last shot at the Olympics. She gave it her all and ran an amazing race! 5th place is nothing to be ashamed of!!

I took this photo as I was leaving….see the women with their American flags? Awesome.

I walked around to the back to see if I could spot a winner or two.

There’s Kara!

Meb waving to the crowd!

I even captured Ryan Hall on camera! It was an awesome morning! After I finished walking around, I went back to the room to change and collect my people for the Expo!

Up next: The Houston Marathon Expo!