On Friday, after we dropped off our bags at the hotel, we headed over to Georgetown to get our official race merchandise and to visit the tents that the Expotique was located in.
We stopped by the store first to get our merchandise because we were afraid our sizes might sell out. As soon as we stepped into Nike Georgetown, I felt like I was in heaven! There was Nike apparel galore, We Run DC signs, and the staff was really upbeat and friendly. They told us to head upstairs to look at the race merchandise, so we sprinted upstairs to get our hands on the merchandise we had been oggling at online.
For some reason, I felt like I was on Super Market Sweep, and I felt anxious and frantic to get all of the things I wanted! (We went at a good time though and there was plenty of merchandise so there was really no need to be in such a rush! haha) So, I went over to one section of the store and grabbed a white aluminum water bottle with the race logo on it, a black running tank, headband, and the cutest socks made especially for the race. I looked around the store a bit more, and decided that I also wanted to buy the bright neon-yellow tank to wear for race day. I had brought a black Nike running tank to wear, but I thought this one would better match my leggings and wouldn’t be as hot.
Kathleen and Phu also browsed around the store and picked up their loot. Kathleen got the Nike bag, socks, and zip-up hoodie, while Phu got the socks, headband, quarter-zip long-sleeve running shirt, and the same black tank that I got. I think we all wanted to get a lot more, but we had to put some sort of limit on our spending!
The lines at the store were quick and we really didn’t have to wait at all. This was surprising (in a good way) because Kathleen had read that people had to wait in long lines last year to buy their merchandise, but we had no problems at all.
After spending too much money, we headed over to the Expotique. I had been looking forward to the Expotique because I had heard that it would be quite different from any race expo I had been to. And it was different for sure, just not sure that it was different in a good way.
There were many different tents that made up the Expotique. The first one we went to was where we got to pick up our packet and race bibs. This had no lines at all, and I walked right up to a computer, showed my ID and confirmation code, and quickly received my packet and bib number.
Next, we headed over to the main Expotique tent. When you walked in there were giant screens and names with inspirational messages were popping up all over. When I first saw it I thought that it must just be randomly putting up names of people that are in the race. But no! It was much cooler than this. Somehow, when you stepped on the mat in front of the screen there was a sensor that read your name based on your race bib. So the names that were popping up on the screen were the actual names of the people standing around the screens! It would only be for a few seconds that your name would be up there, but this was definitely an awesome part of the Expo!
Then we walked over to the Nuun bar, which I found out is pronounced “noon” and not “nun” like I had previously thought it was! I’m not a huge fan of Nuun, I think the taste is just ok, but I am not an aficionado or anything! But I did enjoy sampling the different flavors, and I was surprised to discover that I actually really enjoyed the Nuun energy flavors! They had a stronger flavor than the regular Nuun, and the taste reminded me of Gatorade. I will definitely be buying the Nuun energy tablets in the future!
After the Nuun bar, there was an area sponsored by Luna Bar where you could make race signs. We all decided to skip that part because we were obviously running in the race and wouldn’t be able to hold up a sign during it! I did enjoy the Luna Bar samples though (I got two!) that were being passed around, especially since I have been eating them pretty regularly along with my training. I really can’t tell you enough how much I love the regular Luna Bars, and I also love the Luna protein bars which really taste as good as a candy bar!
Past the Luna station was the Paul Mitchell Hair station. They had a poster with 4 different types of hairdo’s that you could get at this station free of charge. The one problem was, there was a waiting list to actually get your hair done. The next appointment wasn’t available until about 1.5 hours later, so we decided to skip this. It didn’t really even matter because race day wasn’t until 2 days later, so it’s not like we would have kept our hair style in until then.
The next part of the Expotique was a giant wall where you could sign your name or write messages on. We all signed our names, and then was surprised to see that the Expotique was all over! There were no other stations, and we really went through the whole thing quite quickly. We all left feeling underwhelmed and it definitely did not live up to all the hype! While some things in the Expotique were different and interesting, all in all there just wasn’t much to it so we were disappointed. I felt bad for Kathleen’s friend Brandon who is a fellow runner and wanted to come check out the expo, because there was really nothing for him to do at the Expo.
When we got out of the Expotique, we went to get our picture in front of the “We Run DC” sign. Then we headed to the We Run DC wall and found our names (this wall has the names of all the people participating in the race).
Tomorrow Kathleen will be discussing the awesome Blogger Brunch we went to on Saturday, and then on Friday comes our highly anticipated (lol! 🙂 ) race recaps!
Lauren
Sister to Sister Running Blog 