Seattle Rock and Roll Expo Madness!!

I went to the expo today to pick up my race packet and it got me even more excited to race on Saturday.

Despite the fact that it is sort of a giant pain to drive to downtown Seattle, find parking, and navigate the entire expo on your lunch break I feel confident I saw every booth and got everything that was free (not that much BTW). 

Here are my 5 tips for navigating the Rock and Roll expo in under an hour:

1. Head straight to the packet pickup area, do not get distracted by the shiny headbands and cute t-shirts lingering all about (they will be there when you are done).  Pick up your shirt and analyze it to decide if spending over $100 was worth it.  Verdict: I like the shirt and it's different then the colors they have had in the past years, so sure worth it!

2. Sign up for next years race! I made the mistake the past two years not doing this because I thought "oh, I don't know if I will run next year, I don't want to commit".  JUST DO IT, you save $40 on registration bringing the total for the half marathon to $55.  Plus, if you don't end up running you can sell your bib on the black market since people are willing to give up their first born to run this race.

3. Buy your mid run fuel so you don't forget on Friday night and try to find a sports store open selling sports beans or Gu.  I'm a sports bean gal ALL THE WAY and I picked up a flavor that is new to me...watermelon.  The guy that sold them to me said the Watermelon flavor has 1/2 cup of coffee worth of caffeine in a packet so I plan on eating this before the race instead of drinking actual coffee to avoid any stomach issues (I'll spare you details).

4. Find something fun to wear on race day.  I've heard millions of bloggers comment on how wonderful Bondi bands are and when I saw this Rock and Run one I knew it was perfect.  I also picked up an "Eat, Sleep, Run" one that will be perfect for the Ragnar Relay.  Pretty cheap too...$15 for both.

I'll be wearing this bondi band so please say HI if you see me! I promise I won't look as creepy as I do in the above photo.

5. Most of all use this time to pump yourself up for the race. Nearly everyone at the expo is running the race and striking up conversations with strangers about where they are coming from, if this is their first race, etc. etc. is fun.

Less than 48 hours until race time.  Between now and then I plan on having some great carbo loading dinners starting with Mamma Melinas tonight with my friend Kath and then a bloggy meetup at the Old Spaghetti Factory tomorrow night.  I'm stoked to carpool with MyMarathonDiaries (visit her blog and send some marathon love her way) since we seem to have lots in common and she can help keep my stress level to a minimum while navigating Friday afternoon traffic to the south end!