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Houston Marathon weekend: Last weekend was crazy busy here in Houston. Imagine the city’s biggest sporting event that reaches across the city and spreads out over 2 days. Marathon fever was here and it was great weather for running.
My friend Shelley and I usually run on Sundays but we decided that neither of us would be able to get to the park because of the Marathon. Even though the ABB 5k (part of the marathon weekend) was on Saturday and we weren’t running the ABB, we decided to run on Saturday at Memorial Park. With most runners at the ABB or tapering for the marathon, the running trail was empty. The weather also kept some runners away. I think Saturday was the coldest day yet this season that I’ve been out running.
But marathon fever and the cold must have helped me – because it was my fastest run EVER AGAIN!! Yes, my TomTom recorded a record pace and gave me a trophy! And everyone knows how much I LOVE TROPHIES!! It was my fastest short run with a pace of 11:48 over 2.87 miles! WOO HOO! I was dying near the end of the run but thankfully my friend Shelley has tons of energy. She sang to me and encouraged me and I made it! Whew!
The Houston Marathon Expo: On Saturday afternoon, I headed over to the Houston Marathon Expo. I wanted a new pair of running shoes and I was also hoping to get new socks. The place was packed. I had to park blocks away from the convention center and even once I was there, I had to walk across the entire convention center to get in and then I was shuffled upstairs to the Expo location! Then even though I wasn’t picking up a race big, they made me go through the race bib pick-up area to get into the Expo. It was really cumbersome. I think I walked a mile or more just to get into the Expo!
The Expo had quite a few good vendors. Skechers sold the official race merchandise and it looked really cool. They had black jackets, shorts, lots of t-shirts and other things. But since I didn’t run the race, I didn’t buy any of it….someday….maybe. Dick’s Sporting Goods and Finish Strong Sports had large stores with good merchandise. My Balega Hidden Comfort Socks were “Buy 1 get 1 50% off” at Dick’s and I purchased new Saucony Ride 10 shoes at Finish Strong Sports (over $20- cheaper than what it wouldn’t have cost from Amazon!) I tasted new flavors of Clif bars – Caramel Chocolate peanut butter and blueberry almond butter. They were yummy! Then I also tried a Clif Blok Energy Chew – salted watermelon – also yummy!
(Note that these opinions are mine and I’m not being paid to advertise or promote these items. Just sayin’. I don’t earn any money if you follow one of these links to the product.)
Other vendors had medal displays, massage tools and the regular stuff that you see at running expos. I was surprised that there weren’t more headband or running skirt vendors like I saw at the Disney Expo, but all in all, there were plenty of products for everyone. One of the cool things that I found out about after the weekend was that Dick’s sporting goods store offered free medal engraving at one of their stores for marathoners. It was, of course, limited to a particular date and time – but how cool would that be?? To have your medal engraved!!
Watching the Houston Marathon
Marathon Day:
On Sunday, I went out to cheer for the marathon runners. The marathon stretches west from Downtown towards my neighborhood and I don’t have to go too far to see the runners. I didn’t get out early enough to see the elites, but I did see lots of determined runners of all ages. Some runners had Legacy bibs with over 10 years of running this marathon!
I participate in a Facebook community called, “Slow Runners Community”. Two runners from the group were running the marathon. I used the Runner tracking app to see when they would pass by my location and watched for them. It was really great to cheer them on as they ran by and I updated the FB page telling everyone how great they were doing! I’ve found that runners, in general, are such a supportive community. This particular FB page is all about support, motivation and building people up. I’m lucky to be a part of it!
My favorite thing while cheering was to read someone’s name on their bib and then give them a shout-out. Go – Steve! Go – Alicia! Go – whatever their names were! When I saw a few girls running in orange shirts – I would yell “Go Orange Shirt girls!!” It was very motivating to see everyone working so hard and doing so well. I just hope that if I ever run a half or full marathon, that there will be lots of people helping me achieve my goal. I know that it really helps!
