Recap Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon Expo

We headed into Downtown Seattle on Thursday for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon Expo. It was almost lunch time when we got there so we decided to eat lunch beforehand so we would not have to rush at the expo. One thing you don't want is hungry kiddos or the visit will be real short.

We went down to the waterfront for lunch and decided on Ivars. If you love seafood you have to eat at Ivars in Seattle. They've got the best fish and chips, along with clam chowder. We skipped on the clam chowder this time but got their fish and chips along with their fried clams. Yummy!

We ate outside and it was fun to see all the seagulls around us. They were a bit loud, but the boys loved to feed them some french fries. :)

After lunch, we took some time to walk around the Seattle Waterfront and took pictures by the Great Wheel.

Then we headed to the expo which was at CenturyLink Field Event Center. It was a great space for the expo as there was lots of room. When we got there, my sister and I were right away, greeted by someone that told us where we needed to go to pick up our numbers. Packet pick up was fast and smooth. I wanted to change my corral number to the same one as my sister and that was taken care of very easily. The shirts we got are cool! I love the design.

The first thing we did after picking up our numbers and shirt was we visited the Brooks happy island area. Pretty neat as there was a customs area to register for a passport, where after you then went to the market to pick up a free prize (I got a free shirt and the kiddos got stickers and frisbees), and if you so chose, could then visit three areas to get a stamp, where you would then get another prize. We chose to visit the three areas which were 1) to ride the Brooks shoe, 2) get a gait analysis, and 3) race others by standing on a pad. 

 Riding the Brooks shoe!

Racing against the hubby and kiddo. 

The gait analysis went well too. I had done it before and it consisted of running on a treadmill without shoes and they record you, and then analyze your style of running and recommend the type of shoe you should try and wear. I definitely recommend it as it helps you get a shoe that fits your style of running.

After going to the three different areas, I scored a cool Brooks cooler bag. Here are all the goodies we got from Brooks.

From there we ventured out to a bunch of other booths. Geico, Nuun, Westin hotel, and Team Chocolate milk were the other big ones that come to mind that we visited. There were so many booths ranging from Organic bread, Garmin, Sports Authority, Bondiband, beef jerky, Altra shoes etc.. that if I mentioned all of them, my blog post would be too long. ;)

Another cool thing that happened at the expo, was I met up with some fellow tweeters. I got to meet up with two, Martin aka @marathonpitstop and Diana aka @runninrocker. Twitter has got a great running community and these two are very active in it. It was really cool meeting up, or I should say tweeting up at the expo. :)

Martin even gave me a shirt for me to wear on runs. It's pretty cool and I will definitely wear it!

It was a fun day at the expo! I remember leaving and feeling ready for Saturday's race. :)