Rock 'n' Roll St. Pete Expo

I am such a sucker for a good expo. Actually, I'm a sucker for any expo. Tim gets nervous when he heard I'm headed for one, because he knows it means trouble. Luckily, I've reached the point where I've seen more of the shiny new toys, so the only thing that tempts me are the apparel tents. I didn't do a lot of shopping today; today was more about socializing!
The Rock 'n' Roll St. Pete Expo is at Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays play. It's actually on the field.

I am really so excited about this race for so many reasons. I'll explain in a bit.

When I first arrived, I started texting and tweeting to meet up with people I knew were going to be there are the same time. I was excited to meet Kelly for the first time! Kelly is down here for a work conference with her husband, and she signed up to run the 5k tomorrow. I'm so glad it worked out!

I borrowed this from her Instagram, and it made me laugh, because Crystal said that this picture made her realize that either Kelly was taller than she thought, or I was shorter. Upon stating that I was 5'5", Crystal said it was me that was shorter. Ha! Meeting bloggers in real life is so much fun!

After that, I also met up with Mary, another blogger in Tampa that I'd never met before! I actually met her because she ran Ragnar Florida Keys with Rachel, who I've been blogger friends with for a while now. They were tweeting about St. Pete and we were excited that we lived nearby! It was so fun to meet Mary, and we've already discussed her coming to blogger events and figuring out a way to run together sometime! She's a speedster who didn't really train for this but is still hoping to run close to a PR! 

And of course, I met up with Tori and Beka, who I'm running the race with tomorrow. We walked around the expo checking out all the goodies and booths. We had to snap a picture at the Rock N Roll St. Pete "finish line". I can tell you, though, that the numbers on that clock do not reflect the goal we're shooting for! 

And then we decided to be silly. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, but I know I was thinking this was my "I won!" pose?

Here's some of what the expo had to offer!

I picked up some Nuun and got a free water bottle because I bought three. I'm a marketers dream. I also grabbed a sample pack of sports beans. I've had them before and like them, and expos are great for freebies!

I of course had to stop by the Florida Road Races booth and say hi to Chris Lauber, local race director extraordinaire. I ran the Halloween Halfathon and the Holiday Halfathon, and I'm doing the Florida Beach Halfathon in March at Fort de Soto. I'm actually hoping for a PR there! These races are fantastic, and the medals are so nice as well. Chris does a fantastic job, and we're lucky to have this race series here in the area.

More freebies. These bars were actually really tasty. I'm going to have to look into buying them. I was in a rush to meetup with people, so I didn't find out the pricing there.

After the expo Beka, her boyfriend Mike, Tori, her fiance Patrick, and I went over to Lucky Dill for lunch. I didn't take any pictures because I was in a lost credit card panic (it was mysteriously found by the deli while we were in the middle of eating...with no charges on it), but it was a lot of fun to hang out and talk racing, running, and life in general.

When I got home I checked out the swag, bib, and tshirt. There was a lot of paper filling the bag, but the shirt was a lot nicer than last years!

Even the back of the shirt has a logo!

I'm so excited for tomorrow for quite a few reasons:

1. I'm just ready to go and enjoy time with friends! Races are always great when there are so many people there to hang out with.

2. I'm excited to run with Tori for her first sub2. It's going to happen; she's put in the work.

3. This will be the first half marathon that I've done since March 2012 where I didn't have to run more miles before or after the race! That in itself is a reason to celebrate! I ran one mile after the Halloween Half, four miles before the Women's Half, and six miles before and one after the Holiday Half. Oh marathon training! How I do not miss you right now.

What a fun day! I love expos, friends, running, and mixing them all together! There are so many other people I know running and spectating tomorrow, so the finish line party should be a blast. Today I'm getting a little cleaning done, carbo loading, and getting to bed early to be in St. Pete by 6:00 am tomorrow!

Have you gone to a race with an expo? What's your favorite part?