Houston Recap: Trials Season Underway and RunningUSA Conference

A few of us from Ludus Tours just returned from a series of events in Houston, Texas: the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon (where the 1^st six USATF athletes qualified for the London Summer Games) and the 9^th annual RunningUSA conference. The energy and passion for the sport we experienced in Houston makes us even MORE ecstatic for this summer’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track and Field in Eugene, Ore., and the 2012 Summer Games in London, UK! By the way running and field fans, we still have room for you on both our Eugene and London tours. For more information:

info@trackandfieldtours.com

(619) 202-0065
www.trackandfieldtours.com

Trials

The trials course in Houston was designed to represent the London Summer Games course both in design and elevation. From a spectator’s point of view, it was awesome! We saw the runners approximately 15 times over the course of their 26.2 miles on Saturday morning because of the narrow loop, flat layout and timeframe between the men and women’s start. Over 40,000 spectators were said to be in attendance. Amazing efforts were shown in both the men and women’s races as Olympic trials marathon course records were shattered and some of those who beat the record unfortunately still did not secure one of the top three spots on the team to go to London. We send our congrats to all the participants over the weekend, but especially to Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, Abdi Abdirahman, Shalane Flanagan, Desi Davila and Kara Goucher, the six named to Team USA. The road to London has begun and we can’t wait for all that is in store this summer!

Conference

After the Trials, we were fortunate to rub elbows with some of the most prominent folks of track and field  at the 9^th annual RunningUSA conference from athletes, to race directors, to top running publication editors, to thought leaders within the sport, to shoe company reps, to agents, etc. On Sunday night, the conference held its Hall of Champions ceremony, where Ludus Tours donated a marathon-focused package to the London Summer Games to the live auction. It was great to watch the rapid bidding and to see 100% of the proceeds go to this year’s Allan Steinfeld Development Award recipient, the Mammoth Track Club.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.