Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great start to the week yesterday! Mine was pretty uneventful, I had breakfast with my parents before they headed out and then I basically hung around and did… nothing (aka blog reading and netflix watching) until Girls On The Run practice and then did… nothing after that! Haha, but I did walk to and from practice so I covered about 4 miles of walking. That might seem like a lot post-marathon but it really shook out my legs and made them a little less stiff.
Other than sore legs, I’m doing great! I know I gave you all a recap of the race yesterday, but I still wanted to share the rest of the weekend with you!
On Friday morning I headed to the expo and I was definitely overwhelmed, everything was huge! Haha. They did a nice job setting it all up.
At the front they were playing video of the marathon, plus a video of the entire course. I’d seen it on youtube but it was 9 minutes long a little daunting… I had to watch it in 2 parts to keep from getting overwhelmed!
The first thing I did was pick up my bib number, with my d-tag on the back (the tag you put on your shoe so they can time you). This was the most exciting part! At first the volunteer helping me seemed to have a lot of trouble finding my number… I freaked out a bit! But she found it and I was ready to go!
After getting my number I headed to the back to get my race bag and t-shirt (they so cleverly place everything so you HAVE to walk through the expo… And then I made my way up and down all the aisles to see everything!
The Nike booth was pretty cool because they had a big wall of everyone’s name who had registered for the race! They were clearly a hug sponsor of the marathon because #OwnChicago (their slogan) was everywhere and their booth was about 20 times bigger than the others.
Obviously I had to find my name! After fighting a few people off, I finally did! (p.s. that’s the cool way to spell Kathryn, just FYI)
I even asked a stranger to take my picture again! That’s the thing I loved about the expo – everyone was taking pictures of themselves! Haha I didn’t feel like a crazy blogger!
I also got my picture underneath the countdown sign! I couldn’t believe it at the time – less than 2 days!
And then on the way out I bothered one more person for a final picture! I was so overwhelmed as I left – I was a part of something HUGE! And the expo definitely showed me that; just how many people were involved in this one event, including little old me!
When I left the expo I decided to use their shuttle service since the L was almost a mile walk. They had school buses set up to take people to 3 different locations downtown. I hopped on one and before I knew it I was in the Gold Coast! It was very convenient. I transferred to a CTA bus and headed north to Bountiful Eatery to meet up with Chelsey and Tina for lunch!
Lindsay had sent me an article about the restaurant and since it was all gluten free, I had to check it out! We all got pita wraps and they were delicious! I’m definitely going back. It was also so great to meet Tina! I’ve been reading her blog forever and was so excited to spend some time with her while she was in town!
After that it was straight to Girls On the Run practice, dinner with my parents and then home to bed!
Saturday was pretty calm, as I’d hoped it would be! I went to the farmers market with my parents, had lunch with them as well as my Aunt Marty and her friend, and then spent the whole afternoon relaxing before dinner at Mia Francesca with my parents, my cousin Allie, who was also running, and her parents and finance. We love going to Mia Francesca because 1) Allie loves it and 2) they have gluten free pasta so obviously I love it!
I had such a wonderful time with my family in town (can’t you tell? I didn’t even think to take pictures!). I was so thankful that they came out to support me! Although it made me feel a little more pressure before they arrived, once they were there it was just all supportive! It meant so much to have them there to cheer me on!
Have you ever been to a big expo before?
Where is your favorite place to eat when you’re celebrating or you have people visiting? (Or you need to carbo load!?)