January 14, 2018
John: 4:06:33 2581/6998
Overall 1818/4317 Male 9/78 in 65-69
Jodi: 4:21:58 3279/6998
Overall 1023/2681 Female 115/358 45-49
(The summary of our trip follows the order of the
pictures on Shutterfly so please see them as you read.)
Jodi
and I headed to Texas on Tuesday and landed right on time in Houston. We
enjoyed a fish dinner at Landry’s on the Kemah Boardwalk with Larry and Rose
Sambrano who had been co-workers with Jodi at Community Hospital and moved to
Houston last year. It was a great start to a memorable Texas Trip!
Wednesday
morning, Jodi and I took the tour of Minute Maid Stadium, home of the World
Series Champion Astros (the team that BEAT the Dodgers and are the major league
affiliate of our Fresno Grizzlies). Did you know that the retractable roof
weighs 90 tons and can be closed in only 15 minutes or that the 440 cushioned
seats behind home plate will set you back about 20 grand a year? Also, the
grass is a hybrid from Africa and is aerated twice a week. The manual
scoreboard in left field is one of only three used in the majors with Wrigley
and Fenway being the other two ballparks that have one. Also, the Jumbo screen in right field is more
than 7,000 square feet!
After the
tour we went to the Johnson Space Center. It was quite fascinating to relive
some of the great and also sad moments in space history from the first man in
space and the moon landing, to the two disasters where we lost astronauts due
to mechanical failures. We even got to sit in the actual command center that
you see in the movie Apollo 13.
We then
headed to Austin to visit my Muir cousins. Gordon and Doug are sons of my mom’s
oldest sister, Lois, and are married to Pam and Sylvia. We stayed with Doug and
Sylvia who helped us find a nice trail run along the Colorado River on Thursday
morning. In the afternoon, Jodi and I took a tour of the state Capitol. Since
this is Texas, the capitol building is the largest of all the 50 state capitols.
As a librarian, I was fascinated reading about the short-story writer, O. Henry
who spent a lot of time in Texas. I also found a Texas collar for Charlotte in
the gift store.
We also saw
statues and pictures of Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, and Stephen F. Austin who
all helped in the founding of Texas. Following the Battle of the Alamo, the
Texans defeated Santa Ana’s Mexican army which outnumbered them 10-1 at the
Battle of San Jacinto in just 38 minutes and allowed Texas to become its own
country which it was for a short time before joining the US. In the evening, Doug
and Sylvia took us to the top of Mount Bonnell which is near their home and is the
highest point in Austin. It presents a panoramic view of Austin and the
Colorado River. We then had dinner at Pam and Gordon’s where we were joined by
Gordie and his family.
Friday we
all visited the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum on the campus of the
University of Texas. It features the remains of the sunken ship La Belle which
the explorer La Salle had used. There are great displays of the Alamo, oil
derricks, and famous Texans. We enjoyed lunch together on campus. There is a
famous bell tower on campus that a shooter used in 1966 to kill 16 people. We
found out that Sylvia was on campus a short distance from there and heard the
shots. It made me think of my hearing the bombs at the Boston Marathon in 2013.
It’s very eerie to think of being so close to a tragedy. That evening we joined
the two couples for their Friday night tradition of dinner together at a local
Tex-Mex restaurant which was pretty spicy for us. Then we headed back to
Houston on Saturday morning stopping along the way, on Sylvia’s advice, at
Hruska’s where we found out about and ate some of their famous Kolaches.
Back in
Houston, we headed to the marathon expo. Walking down the hallway, Jodi spied
Meb and acted like a starstuck teenager so we got our picture taken with him.
We also ran into Mark Yost from the Baltimore area. We had met him at Shawn and
Dorina Young’s wedding and knew he was going to be there. So amazing to happen
to be at the expo at the same moment and run into him. Since Jodi had run into
Meb, it was also fun that I got to see Kara Goucher there, too.
That night
we went to our pasta dinner with Jonathon, who is Doug and Sylvia’s son and
works for the marathon sponsor, Chevron. He was able to come out and cheer for
us at a couple of places during the race and even got some pictures and video
of us running. After the race we got to have some Texas bbq with Jonathon at
the House of Blues and then dessert at the House of Pies.
Oh, yes the
marathon: It was a cold (high 30s, low 40s) day and a flat course, perfect for
a fast race. I was able to shave 2 minutes off my time at Indy in Nov and
qualify for Boston by 3 ½ minutes. Jodi ran into some stomach issues and
half-way through decided it was prudent to save her best effort for Napa in
March and use Houston as a good, long training run. We loved the great
organization of the race including the warm convention center where we went
before and after the race to drop our sweats and then pick them up along with a
hot breakfast. Houston is as well-organized as any marathon I’ve run and is
highly recommended. It runs through neat neighborhoods, past Rice University
and along some beautiful homes before re-entering downtown.
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Photos: View Album https://photos.shutterfly.com/story_invite/bcf0af39-b636-4d52-836a-74fb8e322856/70203298100
This
was Marathon #157; 23 states on 2nd go-round; All 10 Canadian provinces. Next
up: Jodi-Napa 3/4/18; Me-Boston 4/16/18
