hp Houston Marathon Expo

Waverly and I went downtown to pick up our race packets Friday afternoon at about 4 p.m. We parked close to Minute Maid Park and walked past the new finish line area, which was being constructed on the north end of the George R. Brown Convention Center. (It is where a good friend of mine will be seated for much of the race, public address announcer J. Fred Duckett.)

First things first once we got inside -- pick up our race packets and bib numbers. I let her take of her confirmation card (she's 9), walk up to the booth and get all of her information. (I took care of Barry Shevchuk's, who will be running with her.) We walked over, took the electronic timing chips to a computer to make sure they would register the time to the right person and then went to get the race T-shirts. (I think the Houston Press 5K are actually the better looking of the three!)

Then, I went and got mine. Ahh, the blue bib this year! #382!
I had desired this day for a long time and the realization will come full circle on Sunday.

We walked around the Expo for about 45 minutes. I spoke with Gina Marchese Paris, the co-director of the Little Rock Marathon. She had talked me into coming to their event last year, where I PR'd in the half (three minutes faster than Houston). She had a pink T-shirt on that said "Size Matters!", relating to the size of their finisher's medals (for both the full marathon and the half marathon). This event is on my calendar, but may be a late confirmation for me. I want to do more half marathons in 2005 not sure about the travel there though.

I had a chance to visit at length with Nancy Kelchin, the publisher of Health and Fitness Sports Magazine, who was manning their booth.

There were all kinds of races there promoting their events. As I pointed out to Waverly, I rarely pick up any of the pamphlets because I know where everything is online. I should have made a list but the marathons included: Dallas White Rock, Marine Corps, Little Rock, Country Music, the Rock 'N' Roll series, Freescale Austin and a few others (Seattle, Durango, Vancouver and one from Charleston, South Carolina). The folks with Mellew Racing in Dallas where there to promote their events, including CCCD's White Rock Half in November. The Texas Round-Up 10K folks were there.

You could make all kinds of clothing and shoe purchases, aside from the official merchandise of the marathon (which just really isn't that appealing this year -- all pastel colors!). I would buy a nice technical shirt with the marathon on it ... but they didn't have anything. Brooks had a really nice teal shirt that had a Texas or Houston-like logo with a red, white and blue star that they were selling for $28. I may take some of my birthday money and get it on Saturday (after the Striders carbo loading feast at noon).

I picked up a couple of packets of Gu at the Luke's Locker booth (I meant to pick them up when I was in their Woodlands store this week). I'll probably take these at the 3-hour and 4-hour points. When I did a training run on the course three weeks ago, I had one at mile 16 and unless it was all mental, I did experience a pick me up after mile 18 all the way to mile 20 (and crossing Loop 610 into Memorial Park).

All in all, I'm pretty much set for race day.

We'll be leaving our house in Spring at 4:30 a.m. to pick up Barry Shevchuk at 4:50 a.m. The plan will be to be parked near Minute Maid Park by 5:30 a.m. That will give me some time to go inside the GRB, go by the Striders tent, attend the pre-race church service at 6 a.m. and then go on over to the Toyota Center to meet with the folks from our PIM Fitness group for a group picture at 6:25 a.m. (I saw Christina Rodriguez, a PIMster and fellow Strider, in line to get her chip scanned yesterday. She had had a rough week at nursing school at HBU this week.)

As far as running is concerned, the goal is to stay as close to 11 minute miles as possible. If I can do this, I can pull in a 4:48 time!

Miscellaneous: Waverly's computer teacher at Abercrombie Academy, Sandra Belmore, will be running the Houston Press 5K as will Houston-area race photographer Karen Thibodeaux. Karen is a long-time member of the Al Lawrence Running Club and she told me that she'll be running the 5K then going out to shoot pictures of her club's members as well as some of her clients and customers ..... Noticing a number of the Run The Woodlands 5K Series participants will be running this weekend. Ann Leoni (44,f) and Lou Wilson (68,m) will be doing the full marathon after running Steve Boone's Texas Marathon in Kingwood two weeks ago. Denise Van Kuiken (46,f) will be running the Houston Press 5K. It looks as if her husband, Gary, is sitting this weekend out after running the Texas Marathon and the Mason Legg First Light Marathon in Mobile on back-to-back days two weeks ago ..... Real estate agent Paula Hagerman and organizer of the Klein HS Bearkat Bash (Waverly's debut 5K) is running the Aramco Half Marathon ..... Seven Hills Running Club president Ken Johnson got signed up before I did. He'll be wearing bib #226. Other Seven Hills members running this weekend include: Armando Ayala (full), Melissa Broussard (full), Marvin Dittfurth (full), J.C. Guzman (full) and Ben Harvie (full).