The Olympic Marathon Trials are Saturday in Houston. I believe this is the first time the same city has hosted both men's and women's trials. The top three finishers qualify for the 2012 London Olympic team. I've been eagerly awaiting this event ever since it was announced (a couple years ago?). I hope to break away from Chicago and make it to Houston to watch the elite athletes compete in this once-every-four-years event.

Of course the top elites will be there which I look forward to seeing ... the likes of Ryan Hall, Kara Goucher, Dathan Ritzehein, and Shalane Flanigan.

However my two "favorites" are Paul Petersen and Ariana Hilborn. I've followed their running exploits for about 5 years. I "met" Paul on fastrunning.blog.com. He competed in New York at the last Trials and had a fantastic marathon. Since then, he has had some serious health issues which called into question his running future. But he's back and running strong. He hopes for a Top 25 finish in what has been called the fastest US marathon field ever.

I met Ariana on www.dailymile.com. We even exchanged messages of training and race encouragement over the years. She started out as a "ordinary" runner but quickly developed into extraordinary. She's always positive and upbeat in her approach to training and expects a lot from herself. She has had some very fast races with impressive finishes over the past several months leading up to the Trials.

So while everyone else is cheering for Ryan and Kara, I'll be looking for Ariana and Paul. Two amazing athletes running in Saturday's Trials.

*** Weather forecast looks really good for running on Saturday. However, I don't expect record times. The course has been set to somewhat emulate the London Olympic course which means there are a bunch of turns. The course is flat but technical. It also happens to be in the same location as most of my Saturday runs over the past 5 years. ***

RACE WELL, ARIANA AND PAUL!!!