This year the race was the weekend after Princess Half Marathon weekend! I had just gotten home from Disney on Monday and then I left for New Orleans on Friday. My family wasn't too thrilled. And I will admit that I wasn't too thrilled either. I wanted to run this race but I had missed my family so much and wasn't ready to leave them again. But of course it turned out to be an amazing weekend that was so much fun!
It started out a little rocky though. I was driving my van to New Orleans. I knew that my van had some things wrong with it but my hubby assured me that it was ok to drive it. Well y'all...it turns out that it gave us quite the ride. The van started shaking really badly about 30 minutes into our drive. I'm talking really bad shaking that was making me super nervous and also a little car sick. Everything we read said it probably needed an alignment. After multiple calls and texts to all our husbands we were assured by them that the van would make it to New Orleans. It just wasn't going to be a fun ride. I can tell you that it was the LONGEST 2.5 hours ever!!!! I was soooo happy when we made it to our hotel!
And of course by that time we were all starving! It was way past dinner time! We headed to eat at the Cheesecake Factory which was right near our hotel. I got a super yummy cheeseburger with sweet potato fries! Yum yum!!!
And look at all that cheesecake y'all!!!
I got a slice of the Red Velvet cheesecake which I ate on all weekend long and still didn't finish! But it was amazingly delicious!!!
We played a few hands of Phase 10 at the hotel and then it was bedtime!
The next morning I needed to get in a run for my run streak. I ran around the hotel. Donna came with me for safety reasons! She was my bodyguard!!! :-)
We got showered and then enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel. Then we headed to the expo!
When we arrived there was a line to get in! I'd never seen a line for the expo before! Luckily it was a very fast moving line!
We made it to check in where we received our race bibs.
And then we picked up our race shirts.
The race countdown was on!!!
Next you go through the official merchandise area!
I didn't see anything I had to have. Plus I was a little poor since I had just gotten back from Disney lol! I DID win a free t-shirt from Brooks though! I was pretty happy about that!!!
Then Jenny and I got a text from our Instagram friend Heather! We were super excited to all meet in person. She was at the expo and was super amazing and precious in person!!!
Then it was time to head to the actual expo part.
We played a few games, did a little shopping, and even got our picture made with the Geico gecko!
My friends also registered for next year's race. And they got a new tank for registering! I was a little jealous and said something to Megan Miller, one of the workers. I told her I was a Rock 'n' Blogger and that's why I wasn't registering since I would be able to run it with my Tour Pass. I told her I loved that tank though. She was super sweet and asked me my size...and brought me a tank!!! Thanks so much Megan!!!!
I was a little disappointed with the expo this year. It seemed much smaller than in year's past. It didn't take us long to go through all of it.
We were all starving at that point and made our way out. By this time there wasn't a line to get in anymore.
We decided to head to the mall for some lunch. We also wanted to shop at Lululemon!!! I had never been to an actual Lululemon store before! I always just buy online. So yes...a new skirt was bought!!!
After more shopping it was time for a coffee break. We headed to a New Orleans coffee chain called PJ's. They had King Cake Coffee y'all!!!! I got their King Cake Velvet Ice and it was amazing!!!
We did a little bit more shopping and then headed back to the hotel for some down time. Before we knew it it was time for dinner!
We all wanted pizza (of course) so we headed to my favorite...Mellow Mushroom! They were super busy and we had a little bit of a wait but it was totally worth it when the pizza arrived! So yummy!
After eating we headed to K-Mart (did y'all know these stores even existed anymore?) to get throw away clothes for the next morning. It was going to be chilly and we didn't want to freeze.
I saw Peeps pillows y'all! I had to take a picture for my sister-in-law who loves Peeps!!
We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the race the next morning! I posted my Flat Road Runner Girl!
We played a few more hands of Phase 10 and then it was lights out! We had an early wake up call!
Stay tuned for my recap of the Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon!
QOTD: Do you buy lots of things from race expos?
