My first half marathon is complete! Yesterday was an incredible day, but before we go there let's talk about the rest of the weekend's festivities. Pittsburgh doesn't go small when it comes to its marathon weekend.
Friday was the first day of the race expo. Mike and I agreed to meet up and go down together and pick up packets, browse the goodies, and eat lots of free samples. He'd originally planned to run the full (but ended up dropping to the half) and had skipped signing up for the 5K, but I was all-in on the Steel Challenge, which would award runners who did the 5K + one of Sunday's races a third medal.
Traffic was kind of icky getting in, but that's not particularly unusual. I was stressed out because we were getting to the expo after 5, it only went until 8, and we weren't planning on going back Saturday in an attempt to keep off our feet and stay fresh for Sunday. But we arrived with minimal difficulty and as always, it was great to feel the energy of all the excited runners picking up bibs and browsing the booths.
I found myself pretty easily at the This is What a Runner Looks Like display, which was in the entrance area - it was pretty cool though I'm still a little bummed that I didn't get to be one of the full social media profiles. Awesome nonetheless to see all the other runners who were featured, and to see lots of people taking their own pictures with the display.
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| Yep, that's me! |
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| There's also a shot of the back of my head in the middle column, second one down. |
I'd noticed a couple days earlier that somehow I'd managed to put two different shirt sizes down (due to registering at different times/weights most likely) so I was pretty sure I was going to have to swap one of my two shirts (5K or Half). After a quick bathroom visit to try them on, the 5K shirt was definitely too small. I think they may have changed shirt brands this year as the ones from the past couple years seemed to have some stretch to them, and these definitely don't, which is unfortunate. Because of my own particular proportions (broad shoulders and wide hips, but a relatively small waist) I tend to swim in shirts that fit my larger areas and prefer a little stretch so I can size down and not feel like I'm being strangled. Oh well, there's a shirt swap booth, so no worries, right? Wrong... the swap booth volunteer told me they wouldn't have 5K shirts until Saturday. :( Bummer!
Was pretty happy with the rest of the expo. Got to eat french toast and actually bought a couple loaves of the Jenny's bread that is always one of my favorite booths. Didn't find any great deals on shoes, but did pick up this shirt, which I had been eyeing online and couldn't resist once I saw it in person. Ate a bunch of free samples as planned, but was keeping some room for dinner. We signed the wall, and I took my Shoe Selfie, and saw an adorable pygmy owl at one of the animal rescue charity booths. On our way out we stopped at the GNC booth that was doing green screen photos, mostly as a laugh, and it turned out even better than expected because I was wearing my green SCRR shirt.
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| Her name is Melisandre |
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| Yeah, we're children... |
I generally like to have pre-race pizza so once we left we headed to Proper to grab a bite. Downtown was really hopping! I knew that the race brought in a lot of people and business to downtown Pittsburgh, but it was really impressive to be down there in the middle of all of it when I've been on a lot of other occasions when even a busy night is kind of quiet.
Thankfully the restaurant hadn't gotten too busy yet, and they were able to seat us right away at the 'pizza bar' which overlooked the pizza prep station and the brick oven where the pizzas get cooked! We kept it pretty traditional and got a pepperoni bread appetizer and the carnivore pizza. Mike got a glass of sangria that I snuck a sip of which was pretty good! Service was a little slow but they were busy and getting busier, and we took the time to look over the race brochure while we waited. Everything was absolutely delicious, though our pizza was maybe a little undercooked in the middle. Still super tasty.
I'd promised myself Ben & Jerry's as a last treat, and since it was on the way back to the car, we were able to squeeze in just before they closed. Finally tried the Coconut 7 Layer Bar (which is similar to the Magic Cookie Bars I always make at Christmas) and it was as amazing as I expected - this is a child size cup!
Then it was time to turn in for an early morning. Mike was still going to come down and support me for the 5K, and we agreed we might swing by the expo again and try to hit up shirt swap, plus I realized that I forgot to stop at the SCRR booth and get a wristband for Evan, since he was going to help us get out of town on Sunday and it would be the easiest place for him to meet us without standing around forever somewhere else (insert foreshadowing here).
I laid out my expo haul before heading to bed - not bad!
To be continued...
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