Nike Women's Half Marathon Weekend

I'll have a race report up later this week. I'll give you a hint how I did though. I PR'd in a big way!

This entire weekend was absolutely amazing. On Friday my mom and I headed down to DC to go to the expo and pick up my packet. We met at my apartment and then drove down to the New Carrolltown metro station. Once we made it to DC we walked over to Georgetown to go to the expo. It was an absolutely beautiful day, which made walking around so much nicer.

The expo consisted of three tents. One where you picked up my packet, one which was where the "expotique" was, and one selling race day gear such as Nuun, foam rollers, and gels. I had heard really good things about the expo for the San Francisco race but was pretty disappointed with the expo this weekend. The Nuun bar was awesome but besides that there wasn't much to do or buy. I did finally get my hands on the new Nuun flavors and bought the last watermelon they had!

After doing a pretty quick walk-through of the expo, we headed up the street to Nike Georgetown where they were selling the official race gear. We looked around for a bit but everything just seemed way overpriced and I didn't love any of it anyway. Why spend so much money on something you aren't crazy about? Somewhat frustrated, we left Niketown.

My mom wanted to go to the DC Cupcakes store so we walked over there and stopped in a few shops on the way. For the first time ever I went into a Lululemon store but I wasn't very impressed either. I'm really picky with my running clothes and a lot of their fabrics seemed stiff and scratchy. It did seem like they had more yoga stuff than running clothes though. Sadly, we struck out again.

On Saturday I returned to DC with both of my parents this time since we were staying over night before the race. Once we got to out hotel we got a quick lunch and then hung out outside before I headed over to an Ellie Goulding concert that Nike invited me to. Although the club was in a somewhat sketchy area, the concert was great. There were only a few hundred people there and it was only for Nike runners.

I cannot say enough good things about Ellie Goulding's performance. She was incredible. After the concert was over, along with 9 other extremely lucky girls, got to go backstage and meet Ellie Goulding. Since she was also running the race the meet & greet was pretty quick but it was still so awesome. She is the sweetest girl and my obsession with her is only continuing to grow.

After the concert it was back to the hotel for a quick dinner and then to bed. I can honestly not remember the last time I was in bed before 10 pm! Before I knew it it was race morning. I took the metro and got to the start of the race around 6 am. I was lucky enough to receive a VIP bracelet that granted me access to the VIP tent both before and after the race.

I've never had access to the VIP tent before so I had no idea how AWESOME it is! Both before and after the race the tent was stocked with water bottles, food, coffee and there were even private bathrooms with at most a 2 person wait. This was the same VIP tent that Ellie Goulding, Shalane Flanagan, and Joan Benoit Samuelson went to after they were finished the race. I was only able to get a picture with Joan but I did get a few minutes to chat with both Shalane and Ellie.

Race aside (the race went better than I could have imagined!), the entire weekend was incredible. I felt like I was treated like royalty by Nike.

Baltimore Running Festival: The Expo

Today I went to my first expo. It was insane but I loved every minute of it. I couldn't have been happier to pick up my bib and swag bag. I knew going into it that I wanted some official race gear but other than that I had no idea what I wanted to do while there.

My mom met me down at my apartment at around 11:15 and we left almost immediately to catch the 11:50 light rail into Baltimore. We arrived at the expo and I was able to pick up my bib and swag bag with no problem. I was so happy to see that it wasn't very crowded there. After picking everything up we decided to wander around to see what was there.

We walked around a few times since it wasn't crowded before I decided what I wanted to get. I got an Under Armour light weight long sleeved tech shirt with the Baltimore logos and info on it. I wanted to get the capris too but they only had extra small and extra large yet.

As we were walking around I found a stand selling car magnets. I have always told myself that I would buy a 13.1 car magnet when I finally ran a half marathon. So I got my magnet and can't help me get excited every time I look at my car.

I also decided to invest in a nice pair of sunglasses. I have tried a few pairs of cheap sunglasses from target but I have hated all of them. But I thought it was worth getting a nice pair that I could both run and bike with. I am honestly so happy I got them.

We didn't want to spend too much time there so after I got what I needed we decided to head out. Overall I would say that the expo was really well run and had some great vendors there. It really got me excited for what is to come tomorrow!