Houston Marathon Saturday Lunch

Less than six weeks away, now, the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon Saturday Lunch will be on Saturday(!), January 12 at noon, again at Mia Bella Trattoria restaurant, as the likely location. It's located at 1204 Caroline, next door to the House of Blues at Caroline and Dallas. This is about 5 blocks from the George R. Brown Convention Center (also known as the GRB), which is ground zero for everything related to the marathon.

This will be the 3rd year for our lunch at Mia Bella, as they always have good food. I haven't been there since last year's lunch, so I'll venture over there in a couple of weeks to make sure the place is still there and the food is still scrumptious. There are two Mia Bellas downtown, so be sure to put in 1204 Caroline to guide you to the right spot. http://miabellarestaurants.com/index.html

I would like to get an idea of how many people will be coming to the lunch this year, so if you could post your intentions (subject to change), then the week of the lunch, I will make reservations for us.

Packet pick up on Saturday for the Sunday races closes at 6 p.m. at the GRB, so after lunch you'll just have to walk 5 blocks to get to the facility.

Who knows, Jerry might even show up! Thanks much.

Attendees: Oz, Jerry, Joel

Every time, I went, I PR'd big. I am in for 1.

I went to Mia Bella on Sunday and the food was still just as good as last year.

One thing about race weekend...the Texans will be playing the Divisional playoff on the same weekend. No idea whether it will be the early or late, Saturday or Sunday game, yet.

If the game is on Saturday, there will be more people downtown and more cars, especially if the football game is the noon game. If you're staying downtown and not have to drive your car, you should be fine. If you're not staying downtown and need to get downtown, let me know where you're coming from and I'll help you out. If you're flying in on Saturday, there shouldn't be much problem, other than extra traffic on the freeways because you're getting off the freeway long before Reliant Park. I highly recommend taking US 59 South from IAH.

If the game is on Sunday, this will affect marathoners the most because miles 9 - 15 either are some preferred roads to get to Reliant Park (Studemont, Montrose, South Main) or cross preferred roads (University Blvd crosses 4 of them). Before the race, it shouldn't be a problem getting downtown. After the race, it shouldn't be a problem unless you're going south towards Reliant Park.

Here's a link to our traffic map that's pretty reliable. http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/

Holler with questions.

Nah, no worries. Nobody is coming. I might not either cause I may have a sub 3 marathoner gathering to attend. Just kidding.

Hey Ounce,

Not sure I'm going to be able to make it. My wife now has to work in California the week before and she's flying into Houston on Saturday afternoon, meaning I have to pick her up from the airport. Also, the friend I'm staying with has twin baby girls so the car situation is a little inflexible. I'll finalize my plans this week but it's not looking good.

Also, sorry about the Texans losing out on the home field advantage....hey, at least they still made the playoffs, unlike a certain Chicago team!

Dave-O wrote:Hey Ounce,

Not sure I'm going to be able to make it. My wife now has to work in California the week before and she's flying into Houston on Saturday afternoon, meaning I have to pick her up from the airport. Also, the friend I'm staying with has twin baby girls so the car situation is a little inflexible. I'll finalize my plans this week but it's not looking good.

Also, sorry about the Texans losing out on the home field advantage....hey, at least they still made the playoffs, unlike a certain Chicago team!

Senor Dave,

No worries. Thanks for letting me know. I'm free until about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, so if getting you fed, we drive out to the airport, pick up your bride and get you back to your friend's house by 3:30 could work, then I'll be your Huckleberry.

Yeah, sucks about the Texans, but maybe they'll stop reading the paper and think they're a 8-8 team again.

ounce wrote:

Dave-O wrote:Hey Ounce,

Not sure I'm going to be able to make it. My wife now has to work in California the week before and she's flying into Houston on Saturday afternoon, meaning I have to pick her up from the airport. Also, the friend I'm staying with has twin baby girls so the car situation is a little inflexible. I'll finalize my plans this week but it's not looking good.

Also, sorry about the Texans losing out on the home field advantage....hey, at least they still made the playoffs, unlike a certain Chicago team!

Senor Dave,

No worries. Thanks for letting me know. I'm free until about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, so if getting you fed, we drive out to the airport, pick up your bride and get you back to your friend's house by 3:30 could work, then I'll be your Huckleberry.

Yeah, sucks about the Texans, but maybe they'll stop reading the paper and think they're a 8-8 team again.

Cowboys sucks. Never heard of Texans.

Jerry wrote:

ounce wrote:

Dave-O wrote:Hey Ounce,

Not sure I'm going to be able to make it. My wife now has to work in California the week before and she's flying into Houston on Saturday afternoon, meaning I have to pick her up from the airport. Also, the friend I'm staying with has twin baby girls so the car situation is a little inflexible. I'll finalize my plans this week but it's not looking good.

Also, sorry about the Texans losing out on the home field advantage....hey, at least they still made the playoffs, unlike a certain Chicago team!

Senor Dave,

No worries. Thanks for letting me know. I'm free until about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, so if getting you fed, we drive out to the airport, pick up your bride and get you back to your friend's house by 3:30 could work, then I'll be your Huckleberry.

Yeah, sucks about the Texans, but maybe they'll stop reading the paper and think they're a 8-8 team again.

Cowboys sucks. Never heard of Texans.

Actually, the Texans were originally the Dallas Texans of the American Football League. Lamar Hunt moved them and they became the Kansas City Chiefs. The Hunt family let Bob McNair use 'Texans' for the Houston franchise about 11 years ago.

I have confirmed that Joel shall be there.

Right now, subject to change, we should have Spring-like weather Friday and Saturday with highs in the 70s. A cold front should come through Saturday night/Sunday morning dropping highs into the 50's with a chance of rain. Timing isn't set yet on frontal passage.

Jerry doesn't like cold rain. Had enough last year in Dallas.

Jerry wrote:Jerry doesn't like cold rain. Had enough last year in Dallas.

Then I would recommend damming up the rain before it gets this far south.

I'd pack some rain gear. Sunday will be north winds 10-15, possible showers and highs in the mid-50's or so. I would expect Saturday late afternoon for the rain, then the cold front (for us, Dave ), then overcast and sometimes rainy skies on Sunday. Saturday's high will still be in the low 70's.

My usual sources haven't divulged what would probably happen Sunday due to the rain event we're getting today.

If you remember, Doug, it rained like that last year days before the races (trials and people's race on Sat), so I'm hoping the same thing happens and the weather changes bringing cooler temps, clearing, and fast times!

Quite right, Michele. I rather like overcast skies during a marathon, now, as long as there's limited dripping from said skies. The sun won't have a chance to sap me.

Saturday at noon for the lunch still looks fine and in the 70's. Sunday looks to be in the 50's during the race with a 10 mph NNW wind. The serious rain will preceed the front.

The wind will affect all runners at mile 0-1.5, then will affect Dave for mile 10, with a left-to-right crosswind afterwards to downtown and a short headwind to the finish line. For Jerry to a lesser degree (because there just ain't much of him) and myself, after mile 1 the wind doesn't really affect us until mile 13-16, and a little 16-18 when houses deflect some of the wind. If the wind is more NW, we'll get a tailwind from 18 on to the finish line.

Looking forward to seeing Jerry and Joel again at Mia Bella. PM me if you want my cell phone number.

If the rain somehow stops during the race, that will be ideal of cause. Otherwise, I prefer no rain or at least no cold rain, and just slow down for wind and warm. We will see.

Ounce: I think I can make lunch, or at least a good part of it. I need to pick up my wife from the airport (Hobby) at 2:00 pm. Will I have time to eat and then shoot over to the airport?

Dave-O wrote:Ounce: I think I can make lunch, or at least a good part of it. I need to pick up my wife from the airport (Hobby) at 2:00 pm. Will I have time to eat and then shoot over to the airport?

I think downtown is very close to the airport, but will wait for Ounce to confirm. Besides, I assume you drive way faster than the rest of us too.

Jerry wrote:

Dave-O wrote:Ounce: I think I can make lunch, or at least a good part of it. I need to pick up my wife from the airport (Hobby) at 2:00 pm. Will I have time to eat and then shoot over to the airport?

I think downtown is very close to the airport, but will wait for Ounce to confirm. Besides, I assume you drive way faster than the rest of us too.

If you leave downtown by 1:15, that should give you enough time to get to Hobby. If her plane actually is to arrive at 2 p.m., then you could leave downtown by 1:30, taking in to account the time to deplane.

If you are arriving at Hobby, you'll have a leg up on the terrain and journey for Saturday.

Here's a link to the Houston traffice website. Hobby is in the lower right quadrant shown as "HOU". http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/

Great to hear you're probably coming!

Sweet. I'll be there.

Groovy. Rather windy, today. Temps to drop around 30 degrees in 24 hours.