Happy Tuesday!
I had every intention of getting my Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego posts up last week, but between traveling ALL DAY last Monday (American Airlines cancelled my direct flight back to NYC), coming down with a cold (that made me take off Wednesday afternoon from work) and still dealing with knee issues (had to get it drained again on Wednesday morning, it’s still not 100%), I decided to just delay all my posts until this week. Apologies for the delay!
I’ve basically been looking forward to this race for a year. I started a countdown on my computer back on January 1st (yeah, I was THAT excited). Basically I had heard nothing but good things about this race AND I knew I would have the opportunity to meet so many bloggers and members of the #WeRunSocial crew. I was really excited for what I knew would be a FANTASTIC weekend!
My parents had not visited California since the 1980s and I have NEVER been to Cali, so we decided to make it a mini vacation/racecation. Our flight leaving from JFK was at 8:30 am, but with all the TSA issues, we wanted to get to the airport by 5:30/6:00 am. Well the joke was on us because the security line literally took 20 minutes and then we had a TON of time to kill. Oh well!
A quick selfie before the long flight!
After the 5+ hour flight (Thank God for flying Jet Blue, TVs on each headrest), we landed safely in San Diego. After heading outside the airport, we called the hotel shuttle to come pick us up. Side note – We stayed at the Doubletree Hilton Downtown San Diego and it was awesome. Friendly staff, clean rooms and it was very close to the finish line for the Half Marathon. Also it’s within walking distance of Little Italy.
First selfie in San Diego! #WeRunSocial
Because we arrived around 12:30, it was too early to check-in, so the hotel held our luggage until we could check-in. Around the same time my twin-in-another-life/friend Karla got to the hotel. Karla and I met at the #WeRunSocial meet up in Chicago last year and we have kept in touch ever since. We’re essentially the same person and I was so excited to spend the weekend with her! She also acted as a tour guide since she has done the race before!
We hopped on the San Diego Trolley to go down to the Expo since we had some time to waste. The Expo was at the San Diego Convention Center.
The Convention Center is HUGE! Like legit it spanned more than one block. I have never been to a convention center of that size. Once we found the entrance for the Expo, we picked up our bibs and shirts. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.
These were the shirts for the 5K and Half Marathon and I actually liked them! I really love bright colored shirts so the 5K shirt got a thumbs up from me. I also loved the graphic! The half marathon shirt was a little more subdued (with the dark blue color), but I still liked it!
I liked most of the items that we received in the goodie bags. The products all seemed kind of random, but useful if that makes sense?!
Random mix of items, but I can use most of this stuff!
We walked around the Expo for about two hours. We hit up a lot of vendors and tried a lot of samples. It seemed like almost every booth was giving out something to try which I really appreciated!
I always love the “Run Happy Island” display at the RnR Expos!
Silly photos are ALWAYS the way to go! So much FUN!!
Our last stop was the Pro Compression booth. Karla and I wanted to see Jenn before she had to drive back home to rest up for the Fontana2SD Challenge!
Love these two women!
After the Expo, we grabbed lunch in the Gaslamp District since that was literally across the street from the Expo. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the restaurant, but the burger was huge and delicious!
After lunch we headed back to the hotel and fell asleep pretty early since we were still on East Coast time and exhausted.
Come back to the blog tomorrow to read my recaps for the 5K and Half Marathon!
Oh, and if you couldn’t tell already, I freakin’ love San Diego!!
I love the Rock ‘n’ Roll expos they are always a lot of fun. Plus they have free beer!
The free beer is always a highlight!
So fun that your parents came with you and you got to hang out with Karla. I follow her on Instagram.
Yeah my parents are all about the racecation plus my mom runs too!
Karla is hilarious. I hope you get to meet her IRL!
That’s awesome. I feel like most expos these days don’t give away a lot of freebies in the bags like they used to!
Very true. Rock n Roll is really great about their expos.