Houston Half Marathon 2010, More than 26,000 runners will take to the streets of Houston Sunday to participate in the Chevron Houston Marathon 2010, Aramco Houston Half Marathon 2010, El Paso Corporation 5K (EP5K) and Texas Children’s Hospital Kids’ Fun Run.

Chevron Houston Marathon Weekend 2010 will get under way with packet pickup Friday at the Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine Institute EXPO. The EXPO – featuring more than 100 exhibitors, along with seminars on health, fitness and running – will be open Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the George R. Brown Convention Center, Hall A3, third level. The EXPO is free and open to the public. Packet pickup is not available on race day.

The race action will begin Sunday at 6:45 a.m. with the marathon and half marathon wheelchair start. The first of two waves in both races will begin at 7 a.m., followed by the second wave at 7:10 a.m. The EP5K will start at 7:30 a.m.

The Chevron Houston Marathon, a Running USA founding member, is the nation’s premier winter marathon, annually attracting participants from nearly all 50 U.S. states and many foreign countries. In 2009, more than 26,000 runners participated in four marathon weekend events (marathon,half marathon, 5K run and children’s run). The Houston Marathon has been ranked among the top five in the nation by the Ultimate Guide to Marathons for fastest course, organization and crowd support. More than 5,000 volunteers organize the race, which is Houston’s largest single-day sporting event.

Fort Hood Memorial Service, Obama salutes Fort Hood victims, promises justice, Somberly reciting 13 names and 13 stories, US President Barack Obama saluted the Americans killed at Fort Hood, Texas Army post as heroes who died for their country — and promised a nation demanding answers that “the killer will be met with justice.”

Addressing a hushed crowd of thousands of soldiers Tuesday at  Fort Hood Memorial Service, the president spoke forcefully if indirectly of the alleged shooter’s motives in last week’s massacre. “It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy,” Obama said. “But this much we do know: No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts.” The president’s remarks at a memorial service were personal, more about how the victims lived than how they died. The president spent more time meeting privately with the wounded and with loved ones of those killed than speaking in public. His tone stern, Obama pledged to the crowd that “the killer will be met with justice — in this world, and the next.”

Even as Obama honored the dead, there was fingerpointing back in Washington about what the military knew of Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, before the shooting rampage. Two US officials said a Washington-based joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI was notified of communications between Hasan and a radical imam overseas and the information was turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the group. But a military official denied prior knowledge of the Army psychiatrist’s contacts with any Muslim extremists. All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the case on the record.

Obama, in his public remarks, spoke of the tranquility and liberty enjoyed by most Americans, and said the 13 fallen gave their lives for it. “That is their legacy,” he said. As much as the president made the moment about the gunman’s victims, the ceremony also was about him. Presidents inevitably must take the lead in times of tragedy, and this was Obama’s moment to offer himself as consoler in chief. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama devoted considerable time to three private meetings with those affected by the shooting rampage, meeting first with families of those killed, then with some of those wounded and their families, and later with those still hospitalized. more updates soon about Fort Hood Memorial Service

Kerry Vera vs Kim couture video updates, Kerry Vera and Kim Couture meet in a 135-pound women’s bout at Strikeforce Challengers 5 this Friday at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.

Vera, who trains at Alliance MMA in San Diego, Calif. may be a familiar face as the winner of the 2007 season of “Fight Girls” on the Oxygen channel.