USA Track & Field and the Houston Marathon Committee will host the men's and women's Olympic Trials Marathon Saturday, starting at 7:00 a.m. central time. The top three finishers in today's men's and women's 26.2-mile race will earn a spot to represent the United States at the 2012 Olympics this summer in London.
The course start and finish lines are located on Avenida de las Americas in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center. The runners will run counterclockwise completing a 2.2-mile loop and then north on Avenida de las Americas back toward the start line.
Here is a course map:
Weather is always a concern for runners, but the forecast in Houston is expected to be sunny and cool.
One of the more intriguing runners in Saturday's race is Mo Trafeh. Trafeh has never finished a marathon has a lofty goal of finishing under 2 hours and 10 minutes in today's race. He told Runners World in a pre-race interview of his goals:
I'd like it to go out in 1:03-1:04 in the first half. That's the pace I've been training for. That's a pace that I know I can handle for a long time. If no one else wants to run that pace, I might take it myself. Why not? If I'm feeling good and the others are just playing around, I'll throw in some surges. I've got nothing to lose.
For more coverage on the Olympic Trials Marathon and all things running go check out SB Nation's running blog Stride Nation.
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