Rock ‘n’ Roll DC – The Expo

Representing #RunnersUnitedNYC in DC even though I live in CT lol

Yikes! I haven’t blogged in two weeks. I’ve been crazy busy so sorry about that..but I’m back! I arrived home earlier this afternoon after a whirlwind weekend in Washington, DC. I was in DC for the Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Half Marathon on Saturday. The weather was definitely less than ideal but I tried to make the best of it. It was my first Rock ‘n’ Roll race. The race didn’t exactly go how I imagined, but more on that in my race recap post coming tomorrow.

Today I want to discuss the kick-ass expo. After checking in to the hotel on Friday afternoon, I made me way over to the Walter E. Washington Convention center to visit some companies and pick up my bib and shirt. As soon as you walk into the convention center, there are signs to direct you to the expo – very clear and easy to read. Once walking into the expo, I found the sign for my corral and picked up my bib.

The sign right before entering the Expo

Representing for all the turtles out there, corral 24! lol

After picking up my bib, I went to get get my shirt. As soon as I saw it I knew it was too small. I usually wear a women’s small but this shirt looked like a kid’s small! Luckily they also had a t-shirt exchange booth at the expo, so I quickly exchanged the small for a medium. This is the first time I have seen this option! It was nice to walk away with a shirt that I actually knew was fit (and it’s a cute shirt).

Love this sign

Just hanging out with my new buddy 🙂

After the photo, I took out my expo map that I had printed out earlier in the week. Rock ‘n’ Roll had a great interactive map on their website that had a detailed layout of all the vendors at the expo. I was able to go through the list and mark down which vendors I wanted to see which made navigating the expo so much easier. Also I’m a very type A personality so this was perfect for me.

Toni from BGR!

I first went to visit Toni Carey, co-founder of Black Girls Run. I just love the organization and what she has done to help get an entire community of women moving and active. The mission of BGR is to be a leading resource of information and inspiration for African-American women who want to lead a healthy lifestyle. This is so important because obesity and obesity related illnesses affect the African-American community more than other communities. Of course she was an absolute sweetheart and I had so much fun talking to her. Hi Toni!

Jason from RaceDots!

Next I was off to to see Jason from RaceDots. On Monday I was lucky enough to win a package of 5 RaceDots through a giveaway from Chelsea. As luck would have it, RaceDots would be at the expo so I was able to pick them up on Friday to try them for the race on Saturday! First impression – I am never using safety pins again! The RaceDots were amazing and my bib stayed in place the entire time during the race – even with all of the rain 🙂 I have 2 more races this month and will do a proper review on the blog once those races are over.

MammaChia!

Next up was MammaChia. I’ve seen so many pictures and posts on social media about this product, but I have never personally tried it. As soon as I saw that they were at the expo, I knew I would have to stop by to try their products. I tried the blackberry vitality beverage and it was so good! It’s definitely not like a regular drink because of the chia seeds, but the flavor was great. I’ll be looking for these drinks in my local supermarket. I also stopped by the Honey Stinger booth. I wanted to show some love now that I’m a member of the #HSHive, but they were crazy busy! I didn’t get to say “Hi” but it was great to see that so many people were interested in their products 🙂

The three magazines

After hitting up a few more vendors it was time to go. I spotted free magazines near the exit (score! reading material for the train ride back home). I thought this was very nice and the magazines were great – all full of useful information for runners.

All in all I would give the Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Expo a 9 out of 10. I thought it was extremely well organized and the mixture of vendors was great. I went around 3 p.m. on Friday and it was not crowded at all – much to my surprise. I left the expo feeling great and ready to tackle the race the following day. Come back tomorrow for my race re-cap (warning – it wasn’t pretty!)