Philadelphia (Half) Marathon Expo

Yesterday after work I drove into Philly for packet pick up.  I love seeing the city sky line, it was especially pretty at sunset.

Kudos to the Philadelphia Marathon folks for having a giant banner outside the convention center which made it very clear where to enter for the expo.  The convention center is pretty big and I remember walking around inside the convention center for a while to get to the Rock n' Roll half expo, both this year and last. 

This banner is inside; I didn't take a picture of the outside one.

I have never run THIS Philadelphia half marathon before, but coming to the expo Friday night was much better than going during the rush on Saturday like I have done previously for the RnR half marathons.  There was no line at all to pick up my race number.  It was broken down by bib number into 1,000s.  Shirt pick up was by marathon or half marathon, and then by size and there were only a few people in my line for the shirts.

Long sleeve shirt: the front

The back

I like the design and style of the shirt, but thumbs down for unisex sizing.  I have previously whined enough about this, so I won't go on.  This size small doesn't seem too ridiculously big, but it's still a looser fit than I would choose for myself to wear while running.  

The bags/backpacks are pretty sweet.  Seriously.  I don't actually do gear check.  I hear it works seamlessly at these things but I still fear losing good running clothing or my car keys, so I only wear what I plan to keep with me for the whole run and I run with my car keys.  But I will use the bag for other things.

Not only do I like the red, but the side that would be worn against your back is mesh. AND it has a little zipper pocket.  My husband and I have used similar bags on bike rides before, so I appreciate the mesh for a cooler back and the pocket to keep tiny things separate.

All of these goodies were in the red bag, along with cards for some races and some coupons for restaurants in the area.  I like the mini clif bar size, hopefully I like that flavor.  I've never used Arctic Ease or tried the Dark Chocolate Acai with Blueberries.  I have had Naked coconut water before and it was just ok compared to some other brands.  I'll try it again though.  The blue things with the VW logo are wrist sweat bands.

What was most exciting is that Kristy and I happened to be going to the expo at  the same time, so we were able to meet and chat for a little bit!  She is the first blogger friend I have ever met in person.

We saw THE Hal Higdon talking with runners and signing some books at the Runner's World table.  Maybe I should have told him that his half marathon plans were very helpful to me this past spring, but I wouldn't really describe myself as outgoing.

After Kristy and I parted ways, I also came across Bart Yasso giving a talk:

After exchanging some emails with Kristen at ifitness, I also swung by the ifitness booth regarding their newer hydration add-ons. More on that later.

source

That's all I did at the expo.  I realize as I type this that I should have kept my eyes peeled for the new Peanut Butter flavored Gu, but I completely forgot.  I saw an email about it this week, and I want to try it.

Because I like to obsess over weather, here's the current forecast for the crack of dawn Sunday.  I'm leaning toward wearing shorts.  I've never raced in capris and haven't had enough colder running days this fall where I've worn capris, so I'm sticking with what I know, and that's shorts.

Good luck to Kara and Alyssa running their 50 mile races today!

And good luck to anyone else running the Philadelphia half or full on Sunday.

PS: Have you entered my Road ID giveaway?  

You've got until tonight at 11:59 PST (I'm giving west coasters equal opportunity).