Love that Dirty Water....Boston Marathon '09 Race Report Part 4

It’s all about the expo, baby.

Friday I met the Ohana at our hotel lobby. Fresh off the airplane, they were desperate for food. I was ready and rearing to hit up the expo and soak up some debt-filled Boston goodness. After a quick lunch at the hotel, we headed into town.

As we took the escalator up to the convention floor, I began to get goosebumps. I was surrounded by bulging quads and defined calves everywhere.

I walked into the packet pickup entrance and was blinded by the array of yellow drop bags.

I went to my appropriate pickup line and started shaking as I pulled out my card. I asked the volunteer if anyone had cried when they picked up their packet. “Not yet” he said with a wary eye. I must admit I did get a little choked up as I grabbed my packet. I stared at my bib wide-eyed: the moment I had been waiting for. I am running the Boston Marathon.

After making sure I got the right size race shirt, I headed into the Adidas tent to buy my celebration jacket (plus some sandals, a hat, a sweatshirt, and a water bottle). I proceeded to check out the other booths. I was wearing my Runners Lounge shirt that Tom and Amy gave me, and heard “yay, Runners Lounge” as I turned a corner. It was the Running Divas booth! Have you heard of them? If not, check out their site at runningdivas.com.

Marc and Aeron Genet have quite an awesome company. They sell hilarious goods for us running chicks. I got a shirt that said “high mileage” and since we chatted about the lounge for a bit they threw in a free pair of undies that say “She runs Boston” on them. The funniest thing they had at the booth was a thong printed with “Marathong” on the front. Way too cute.

Still fresh from the glow of running into fellow friends of the lounge, I turn a corner to hear a booming voice yell out my name. Instinctively I turn around, but quickly realize none of the Ohana sound like that. As I turn back around to walk away I see a face staring right at me. Again, he yells out my name. I tentatively approach, and he introduces himself as John Ellis, my former online running advisor! I do the typical girly OHMIGOSH NO WAY! SHUT UP! And we have a warm hug. He said he saw the RL shirt and figured it could be only one person. We began to talk a bit and then I realized that right next to him was the one and only Steve Runner! We all talked shop for a bit and then snapped a photo.

A few minutes later I ran into one of the Ohana who informed me that Recovery Socks had a booth in the other room. For those of you who are new to my blog, Recovery Socks has been very kind to me, and I swear by their socks. A few months ago I had a giveaway, and from what I hear everyone is pleased with the socks as well! I went over to the booth expecting just to leave my well wishes for my friend Marco at the company, but imagine my surprise when I found out he was there!

We had a great discussion about how the company is growing and of course I raved on and on about how much I love them. Marco introduced me to the crew as the blogger, and we all hung out for a bit. While I was talking with them athletes were lining up to buy the socks. It seems that Recovery Socks are becoming quite popular now, which of course makes me happy! I chatted it up with a top Ironman athlete who said he wore the recovery socks in his last Ironman. I always thought the socks were a bit thick to wear, and got some blisters when I wore them in a road ultra I did in February, but I think I may experiment with them if I do any long runs or marathons in cold weather throughout my business travels this year.

Saturday I headed to the expo first thing in order to see Josh Cox. I must admit I have a total athletecrush on him and was completely tongue tied around him. He gave a talk about strategies to employ 24 hours before a marathon. None of it was new to me, but I certainly enjoyed staring at him for an hour. (My apologies to his wife). I probably stared at him with the silliest grin the whole time. I acted like a bumbling fool when I asked for a pic, but at least I have proof of our “meeting”.

Afterwards I headed to the Brooks tent for THE show of the expo. I heard rumors of the running superfan show, and had to see it. Have you seen their videos online? If not, go there NOW. Wait, scratch that. Go to it after you finish reading my post and leaving me a comment. Check out their website at runningsuperfans.com. It’s put together by some pretty famous comedians (fans of I love the 90’s will recognize these guys). They had an amazing, over the top 15 minute musical about running. The set in and of itself was awesome. It was set up to be a shrine to running: there were sneaker chandeliers, running artwork on the wall representing the stations of the cross, and an effigy of Brian Sell made completely out of macaroni. Genius. Pure genius.

I took quite a bit of video, so here’s some clips.

In this clip, when they ask for an injured soul I shoot my hand up, and their reaction is pretty funny.

Afterwards, I told the guys how awesome their show was, and how I think they totally rock the casbah. Then I got my celebu-pic:

Still glowing from the show, I turned a corner to see Ryan Hall signing posters!

Not much of an autograph fan, I took a quick photo and headed over to see the course video. They set up a bunch of bleachers in the middle of the expo and had a video screen set up to look like the starting line.

Hundreds of nervous runners huddles around the video, and you could literally see people mapping out their mental strategies for the course. I had simply one: survive. As if on cue, my piriformis began acting up again. Fortunately, I had been scoping out the Trigger Point tent (I ended up buying a kit)and headed straight to it.

I asked the man to show me how to use it on my piriformis, and explained him my saga. When he found out he was from Hawaii, he lowered his voice and leaned in really close: “Okay, listen, I’m not really supposed to do this, but I feel sorry for you. I am a sports therapist who does a lot of ART and if you can find a table somewhere I will do a quick session on you.” I looked at him incredulously and verified he was serious. He practices in the Boston area on many athletes. You can check out his site here. Once he showed me his card I was a woman on a mission. Thankfully I found a table unoccupied at a booth and he went to town. My face was turned away from people, but I knew people were gathering around staring at my butt. A few people thought he was doing this as a service to everyone, so I felt guilty as he turned people away. Eventually our session was cut short when a security person told us it wasn’t safe to be on the table. She asked him what booth he was at, and I thought he may get in trouble, so I quickly blurted out: he’s not affiliated with a booth right now, he’s just my friend. A true friend, indeed. Thanks Pete!

After the session I felt much better and set out to find the Running Laminator. We met up, grabbed some carbiliciousness courtesy Trader Joes, and began our nervous banter about the race. I had sort of hid how bad my injury was from him, so when he saw me walking he was very concerned about me. I told him I was okay, but honestly I was starting to get very concerned about me as well. What the heck am I thinking? Am I about to make a very big mistake?