Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans EXPO!!!

I couldn't believe the weekend was here...my FIRST FULL MARATHON!!!  Aaaghhh!!!  I was so excited!!!  And a little scared lol!  I left on Friday afternoon with Paige...we drove ourselves and her kids to her Mom's house in Luling, LA.  Her mom cooked us an awesome meal of lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and (just for me) her awesome potato salad!  Carbs, carbs lol!  Paige and I spent the rest of the night relaxing and going to bed early.  I knew I needed to sleep good and long on this night because most likely I wouldn't sleep well the night before the race.  I woke up Saturday morning feeling well rested and super excited.  We headed to New Orleans to meet the other girls at the expo.   

Here's the skyline from the parking garage!

And we made it to the expo!!!!

We headed inside to get our race bib and shirt.  Since it's the Rock 'n' Roll series, they make you feel like a rockstar...walking on the red carpet!  :-)

And here it is!  My very first race bib that says "marathon!!!"

And of course Paige and I had to take a few more pictures!

Luckily, we ran into some of the girls!  Here's Christina (this was her first half), Paige, Missy and Leah (Sole2Soul Sisters from Pace, FL), me, and Ann!

After these photo ops we all went inside to check out all the vendors.  I'm telling you...this was a runner's heaven!  I bought a few shirts (yes I bought one that says 26.2 on it), a 26.2 metal hanger to hang from my rear view mirror in my car, and Paige and I bought matching sweaty bands for the race.  And of course, Paige and I had to take THIS picture:

I also learned from a lady in the bathroom (lol) that the race was going to have chocolate milk at the finish line!!!  I was sooo excited!  I always drink chocolate milk as my recovery drink after a long run and was a little worried about how I was going to get my chocolate milk in my body in the peak recovery hour after the run.  This lady lead me and Paige to the Chocolate Milk Refuel tent and we made our own videos about chocolate milk for a chance to be on their Team Refuel!!!  The videos haven't been posted yet but I can't wait to see them!  I would LOVE to be on Team Refuel since I am such an advocate for my chocolate milk!!!  When the videos come out I will post it because I will need your vote to win!!!  :-)

After the expo, Paige and I headed to our hotel to meet Andy.  I was sooo excited that he was coming to share this journey with me!  I LOVE my hubby and he was sooo awesome this weekend!!!



After checking into the hotel, I decided to get off of my feet for awhile.  Because after all, I WAS running 26.2 miles the next day!  I got all of my gear together for the race.  It was awesome to get this done in the afternoon instead of rushing before bedtime to get it all done!

The girls were meeting in the lobby of the hotel at 4:30 to head for dinner.  I opted to not eat with them because during all my training runs I ate Subway the night before and I did NOT want to eat something different and risk upsetting my tummy during the race.  I LOVE to eat so I was a little jealous I wasn't experiencing some of that great New Orleans food but knew I was making the right choice.  We still met them in the lobby to say hi and of course take a picture!

Then Andy and I asked where the nearest Subway was and set out on foot to find it.  But when we got there, they were closed!!!  There was a sign on the door saying they "closed at 4:30 today."  Just my luck!  Thankfully, my iPhone told me where another one was and we set out to find it.  And guess what?  There was NO Subway at the address my phone told us.  So we found another one!  And I guess third time's a charm because the Subway was right where it was supposed to be!  We grabbed our sandwiches, chips, and cookies (hey I was running a marathon the next day!) and walked back to the hotel.  Carbs, carbs!!!  Yummy!

The rest of the night I relaxed which was great since previous nights before races are always rushed.  I went to bed around 9:30 hoping for a good night's sleep.  Of course I was too excited so sleep wasn't that great!  But I was ready to run my first full marathon!!!