Saturday course will prep 2012 Olympic hopefuls

Many of America's best hopes for the 2012 Olympics Marathon — none of them more prominent than Ryan Hall — will check out Houston's U.S. Marathon Trials course Saturday morning while they chase after the $12,000 first prizes that go to the U.S. Half Marathon champions.
In recent years, the elite American half-marathoners have run with the pack in Sunday's Aramco Services Half Marathon, but Houston's organizers and USA Track decided it would be good to set things up logistically this year just as they will be next year.
So 90 men and 50 women are scheduled to head out at 8 a.m. on the same pavement they'll be pounding on Jan. 14, 2012, in hopes of qualifying for London.
In downtown area
The runners will head out Memorial Drive but, before they reach the Montrose underpass — 2.55 miles from the start — they'll make a U-turn back to the GRB, then go through downtown to Allen Parkway and on to Shepherd, with a slight detour over the Montrose bridge. At Shepherd, they cross Buffalo Bayou and return to the convention center via Memorial.

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