The Houston Half

Things are finally settling down after an absolutely crazy start to 2012 for me. I spent most of the past two weeks over in Europe, but as soon as I got home I turned around and left for the Houston Aramco Half Marathon. On top of that, I was also a spectator to the Olympic Trials Marathon on Saturday!

Being able to go to the Trials was a fantastic experience as I got to catch up with a lot of old friends that I had not seen in a long time. I was constantly talking to old friends and meeting new ones. The Olympic Trials race itself was really incredible. Watching Hall, Abdi, Meb, and Ritz fight it out shows how far distance running has improved over the last few years. My teammate Andrew Carlson ran 2:11:24 for sixth place in his debut marathon.

But as much as I was a fan this weekend at the Trials, I still had a tough race ahead of me. I ran a 1:02:25 Debut and it was the hard way. I was on 62:00 flat pace or under until the final 5k when the previous week of travelling caught up with me. Those last 2 miles were horrible and my legs were toast.



(Dustin Whitlow Photo http://dwhitphoto.com/)

 Now I get a little bit of down time as we adjusted the race schedule for the next few months. US XC is no longer in the picture, and the US 15k Championships will be my one tune-up race before I start my track season and see if I can make a run at the trials. Things are definitely aiming towards a great spring!

One final note, I got a link to my race in Edinburgh - http://www.greatrun.org/tv/ Even on the video you can not see how rough and muddy the course is!

Hope everyone is training hard and staying warm, it seems the Lifetime Fitness treadmills will be seeing a lot of me this winter!