Back for Chris' birthday in 2010, he told me that one of the only things he wanted was a signed photo of Ryan Hall...Ryan is one of his main running idols. You can read about him here, if you need to...
We went to Houston in time to see the 2011 USA Half Marathon Championships on Saturday, January 29th, and we were very excited because Ryan Hall was going to be running!
At the Houston marathon Expo, we found this great, huge mural of Ryan Hall with the American flag...and had to get a photo of the two Baber runners with it!!
The half marathon race was exciting to watch...it was Ryan's first race of the season, and though he ended up coming in second place, it was an exciting sprint at the end. It was so inspiring to watch this great American runner in action!! The best thing about Ryan is his humble heart and his amazing love for God...that's him below right off the starting line, second from the right with the shaggy blonde hair.
We saw the lead pack again around mile 5, and it was perfect golden lighting to capture them...you would not believe how fast they were running. They were clicking off miles in the 4 minute range...awe inspiring!
And here is he is, running full out at the finish stretch...he pulled out a time around 1:02:20!
Chris, Aspen and I were hooping and hollering and feeling the exciting of having seen Ryan run! And then Chris turned to me with huge eyes and said, "Here he comes!!!" I had the camera turned off, and so I fumbled to get the lens cap off and the camera turned on. He had already passed by us once with the American flag, and Aspen and Chris had both gotten high fives from him!!!! I had had a moment of sheer bafflement on what I should do...slap his hand or get the dang camera ready???? I decided on the camera. And when he came back by, I was able to get a few great shots of him!! He was literally close enough to touch, and both Aspen and Chris got another high five on his way back!! They were mooning and so excited, and claimed to never wash their hands again!!
I love this one below...he was looking RIGHT AT US with that nice smile!!!
So we were happy little campers for sure!! But it doesn't end there!
The next morning was Chris' marathon, and we were all a bit bummed because for some stupid reason, they had Ryan scheduled to sign autographs from 9:00 - 10:30...which is when everyone was running. Very poor planning! At any rate, Aspen and I left mile 23, proceeded to get stuck within the race course line, and missed Chris finish around 10:00. We didn't make it back downtown and find a spot until almost 10:30, and then we headed briskly to the convention center to find Chris in the reunion area. I was searching the crowd for Chris, in case he was walking around. I turned to Aspen and told her we needed to go in a certain door, and she yelled at me, "KELLEY!!!!!! There's Ryan!!!!!!"
I turned to where she was pointing, and he had JUST walked right by us! So she ran over to him and said hello, and I asked him if we could take a photo. He was super nice and posed with Aspen, even put his arm around her. I thought she was going to pass out! But the main thought that kept running through my mind was, "Dang it!!! I wish we would have seen him after we'd found Chris!" I knew he would be so bummed! Aspen, however, was on cloud 9!
Quite a fun experience, I must say! Ryan is the first celebrity/professional athlete I have ever seen in person, and I was very excited to meet him. We are rooting for him to win his first marathon this year...we know can do it!!!
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