My first Half Marathon recap!

What a weekend and what a race. This post will have lots of pictures from pre race. I will do another post of just the race day.

Saturday morning I got up early and went to help set up for an auction. I stayed until Kathy showed up and really the only reason I went to help that morning was to see her before I left to head to my friends house in Illinois. I left my pink tongs for her to use in case she wanted to help cook. The drive to Lesley's wasn't to bad there was quite a bit of traffic but I was excited and just ready to be there. After arriving at her house we went to a running store that was close by. I had never been to a real running store before (joys of small town life) They watched me walk barefoot and told me what kind of shoe I needed. In total me fashion I picked out a pink pair and of course they weren't the "right" ones for my feet but we found a pink and grey pair of Nikes and as soon as I put them on I was in heaven! Who knew shoes could be so great, so I wore them out of the store.

My new shoes :) 

Got to have my first ever real Starbucks experience and while it was great I don't think I could for see myself spending that much on cappuccino daily.

 

We went on over to St. Louis to Americas Center to the Expo for the race. It was so awesome walking in getting your bib number then going in to see all the booths. We found matching purple brooks running shirts that had the St. Louis Rock N' Roll logo on the bottom. We shopped and looked at all the cool stuff. Found lots of products that I had heard about on other blogs so it was nice to see them in person. My friend was surprised knew so much about how the expo worked and all the vendors etc. I was like well I have been reading lots of running blogs for the past several months. Guess it paid off.

I think seeing this clock made it very real that the race was close! 

After we went thru the expo we walked a couple blocks to a fancy pizza place called Pi. I am far from a city person but was willing to give this new place a try. Wish I would have took pictures of the inside it was pretty cool. Our appetizer was great but I wasn't to impressed with the pizza. My friend loved it but I ate it but doubt I will have it again. It was called East Loop and had onions, mushrooms chicken and cheese all of that I was fine with. But they had pesto on the top and well it looked gross and I realized I am NOT a fan of pesto.... I had two slices and 3 glasses of water. While sitting there several fire trucks kept pulling up right across the street. I counted 8 in all so I was fascinated in watching them and probably the only one in the place that noticed it. We went outside and I made her walk an extra block so I could look at the trucks and see what they were doing yep I think I am crazy.

On our way back to her house we decided to stop and buy hair color and do each other's hair. I hadn't had anything done to mine since June and I was ready to go back all brown for the winter. She had tried doing hers a while back but wanted to go a bit darker and make it more even. So we spent the evening coloring each other's hair and both turned out great. Her little girl was so cute she kept coming in the bathroom watching us and then run back out. We went to bed around 9 since we had to be up by 4 to get ready for the race. I slept fair between nerves and hearing all the city life.. dogs barking next door, neighbors talking at 2 am and traffic.