[Sly Fox]

The Olympic Trials Marathon is this Saturday here in Houston and a couple of LU alumni are running ... Carol Jefferson and our very own FlameFan Josh Cox!

I recognize that marathoning is not the most popular sport on the planet. I can't even run at all because of bad knees. But in my two decades in covering sports on television, marathoners were some of my favorite people because they typically are exceptionally intuitive and humble.

Weather & schedule permitting, I hope to be have my kids out there Saturday morning cheering on Josh with FlameFans signs. It is supposed to cool off later this week with a low around 40 Saturday working its way up to around 60 (Hey, its been around 80 this past week here).

Ryan Hall won the Trials in 2008 and is one of the clear favorites this time as well. He's a very outspoken believer and one of Josh's buddies as is Meb Keflezighi.

[01LUGrad]

Didn't see the Trials Marathon thread coming here...

NBC's coverage will be delayed (3-5pm), which sucks, but it is better than nothing. I acutally got to watch the previous
Trials race in Central Park in 2007. It was an unreal experience for a running nerd like myself. Unfortunately, Josh had to drop out due to a foot injury. He was sitting in 5th or 6th place when the injury occured. He is defininetly a long shot in this one, but I'll be rooting for him all the way! It's not often that one of your former teammates makes an Olympic team!

BTW, Josh is running in his 4th marathon Trials, which ties a record.

[Sly Fox]

If we could ever get Peter Parker back on the site, this thread could get interesting. Otherwise it will be the two of us talking back & forth.

The plan is for Sly Jr. & I to get down there early with a sign since our Upward game isn't until 1pm.

[01LUGrad]

Pretty cool radio interview with Josh about his time leading up to the race this weekend.

http://content.blubrry.com/competitor_r ... sh_Cox.MP3

[Sly Fox]

JCox made the news here in Houston after a scare at IAH. They were the lead story on the local news for all of the wrong reasons ...

Olympic hopeful gets scare leaving Bush Airport
Updated at 07:47 AM today

By Christine Dobbyn

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A runner who just arrived in Houston to try out for the Olympics and his wife may have become the victim of an attempted carjacking. It all happened Wednesday evening at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The course is all set for Saturday's Olympic Marathon trials, and a lot of those elite runners are arriving, but it wasn't a warm welcome for one of them and his family.

Josh Cox, his wife Carrie and their 10-month-old son had just arrived in Houston when it happened. As they were driving away in their rental car, the couple says a man approached them. Josh says his wife was driving and he was navigating.

"The entire time, he was walking up to the car. He had his hand in his jacket and I said, 'No, no, no, go, go, go' and then she just punched it and we went through, went across the road," Josh said. "We thought it was done, but then the guy came up in his car and was waving his arms and turned on his light inside and he was waving something. It looked like a badge or something but we don't know what it was."

Click Here for Full Story with Video

[01LUGrad]

I've got a race of my own on Saturday morning that starts at the same time as the Trials. That, combined with the fact that NBC will not be providing live coverage of the event (a complete and utter joke), means that I will be going off the grid for a few hours until I can watch the race "live" at 3:00.
I guess if I get bored, I could watch a high school track meet that is being streamed live from Maryland in the early afternoon to keep me occupied since a network has made such accomodations impossible for the Super Bowl of American distance running.

/rant

[01LUGrad]

Josh finished in 14th place at about 2:13:49...a new PR (personal record).

Not what he had in mind, but congrats anyway! I wish I could say that there are only 13 people faster than me in the United States.

[Sly Fox]

I'll post pics later. It was a fun morning.

[Sly Fox]

As promised, here are some pics I snapped this morning. We begin with our own Josh Cox on streets of Downtown Houston early in the race...



And here is Sly Jr. holding up a sign for FlameFans' own Josh Cox as he runs by us ...




We almost had a crazy incident occur right in front of us as the leaders passed by. 2nd place finisher Ryan Hall gets his feet caught up in Abdi Abdirahman's feet and Abdi nearly goes down. But he catches his balance and Ryan goes up to apologize. You'll notice race champion and friend of Josh's Meb Keflezighi (in blue stocking cap) prefers to run by himself and this is a big reason why ...



And as 01LUGrad mentioned, Josh finished 4:42 behind Meb in 2:13:50 and here he is making his final approach through Downtown Houston en route to the finish line. We couldn't get the the ending due to the massive crowd and the fact we had an Upward hoops game.




And not to be forgotten is the other LU alum who ran this morning ...



Carol Jefferson finished in 2:48:59 for 113th place among the women.

[flamehunter]

Sly - just saw you taking those pictures - nice sweatshirt!

[Sly Fox]

Awesome! I should have been watching! If somebody is DVRing it, please shoot me a framegrab.

[vastrightwinger]

Really nice article about Ryan Hall in my local paper today.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/26/2 ... -path.html