Women’s Running Magazine Half Marathon Race Recap Part 1: Traveling and The Expo

 

 

WARNING:  I love taking pictures and usually take lots of pictures when I have the opportunity!  As is the case, I had plenty of opportunity on the 6 1/2 hour trip to Nashville, and YES I feel the need to share most of them!  Now that we’ve got that cleared up, lets move on!

Well, I woke up “early” on Friday… about 6:30am lol, which now doesn’t sound early after Saturday morning’s wake up time, and wanted to be out the door by 7:30.  My dad, however, had to work Thursday night and didn’t get home til 7:30am Friday so him, my mom, and me I me, left around 8:30.  We immediately ran into construction not even 5 minutes from my house!  Then, my dad stopped to get the car washed and by 8:44am we were on our way to Nashville, Tennessee for a mini vacation and my FIRST half marathon!

 

The ride was pretty uneventful… I started “Born to Run” and I really like it so far!  I didn’t get very far in the book because I enjoyed looking out the window and seeing all the scenery go by!  Oh yes!  I totally painted my fingernails and toenails “swift blue”  no lie! That’s what the color is actually called!  I was convinced it would make me swift! ;)

We came to Cincinnati and I told my dad that I really had to pee… this is the conversation:

Me: Daddy?
Dad: What?
Me:  I really have to pee!
Dad:  Didn’t you go before we left?
Me:  Yes, but that was 2 1/2 hours ago and I’m hydrating for my race!
Dad:  Jeesh! Can’t take you anywhere!

haha… my dad would then proceed to listen to me whine that I had to go for the next 45 minutes until we stopped in Kentucky!  He’s such a trooper!

This is Cincinnati:

We passed on over into Kentucky and my dad promised that we would stop so I could use the restroom and so we could eat soon.  We ended up stopping at a Pilot gas station that had a Subway in it.  The pilot had fruit for sale so I had a banana with my sub instead of chips. Then we proceeded on with our little adventure… we saw some fun things like a Fruit of the Loom Showroom (or was it hanes?) I can’t remember but it was hilarious because my mom said she wanted to stop there on the way home “to see some hunks”… my dad and I couldn’t stop laughing! We also saw Dinosaur Land, some signs for caves that my dad wanted to go see but we never did because we didn’t have time, a cool circular hotel, and a plane that flew right over us.

This is Kentucky:

Then, we finally got to Tennessee and arrived in Nashville!!

  We found a parking spot and walked a block to the expo.  Since it was my first half marathon, I didn’t really know what to expect.  We first walked in and they had a map of the 5k and half marathon courses very first thing as you walked up the stairs.  Then you walked over to the table to pick up your bib and the timing chip was actually on the back of the bib. Also, if you registered early enough, you got your name put on the bib so people could cheer for you by name!  I actually thought nobody was going to be able to pronounce my name so it really didn’t matter but it was still cool anyways!

They also handed you the “Ultimate Goody bag” which consisted of a reusable bag and a few little samples… It kinda let me down since it was supposed to be “ultimate” but the bag is cool!  Then you walked into the expo and when I got there Friday afternoon it was kinda crowded and slow going.. there were people there from SPIbelt and bondi band and sweaty band and fleet feet and many others…  The shirt that I got was a tech shirt specifically fit for women (it was a women’s race afterall) and I got a small, but it seems just a tad too wide.  I also bought a race specific sweaty band, and chain for the charm in the medal, and a rain/wind resistant jacket from skirt sports.  I forgot to take a picture of all that so I will include it in my next post! :)

After we left the expo with all my goodies, we went and checked in at the hotel near Opryland and unloaded the car.  Once we got situated we headed out for dinner and ended up going to Olive Garden and I got a NEVERENDING PASTA BOWL!!  I filled up twice and took most of the second bowl back to the hotel with me!  I laid everything out for Saturday’s race and double checked that my camera was charged and headed to bed around 9:30pm.  I slept better than I expected, I only woke up maybe 5 times because I was so excited for Saturday to get here already!  The last time I woke up was around 4:30am so I just got up and stayed up…

NEXT:  Women’s Running Magazine Half Marathon Race Recap Part 2: The Race