EXPO REVIEW
It was set up so much better than Dumbo. Everything flowed much better from the beginning to the end. I love the direct line from the bibs to the shirts( you used to have to wander through the expo to the shirts). It also helped that we were there at 12 noon on Saturday and a majority of people had already picked up their bibs. Somehow I ended up in the longest line to get my bib (4 people versus no one in any other line) but it was still less than 5 minutes.
One thing I do miss from my first expo at the Disneyland half 2010 was they had you test your tag and volunteers said your name and cheered for you. It was simple but also so cute!
That first expo they also had the mile 13 mile marker for you to take pictures with (we did get a pic with it but I will explain later this week!)
By the time I got there, the New Balance queue was already full :/ However I asked and they said since it was the last day, they told me to come back at 3 PM. I loved they had a running list of what they were out of which was mostly the small Goofy and mickey shoes and small sizes of Cinderella and Minnie.
We headed to get our shirts and that was fast as always. The expo seemed a bit crowded but it was still fun!
On my way to the booth, I ran into 3 of my sorority alumni sisters, and one, Sarah, ran her first 10k and LOVED it. she was wants to do the half next year which is so great! My sorority sister Carolyn did the 5k and wants to do the 10k next year. Yay for rundisney goals! :)
We visited the rundisney booth to look at the medals. The pink/purple coast to coast and the Dopey medal had all of my attention! It is sad they did not have pre-registration like they did last year but I understand why. This way Dumbo won't fill up in 30 minutes (yay for AP registration tomorrow though!)
Next was race gear. i did like how they had all of it blocked off and I can just imagine how it was on Thursday. Sadly they were out of coast to coast shirts by the time we got there but I have many more expos to go to get a shirt! But 2 large men's shirts were all they had and I was turned off by the shirt. I am really hoping they will have glass slipper challenge related coast to coast shirts that are Pink but we will see!
I will say there was not much merchandise left by the time we got to the Expo. I think it's weird that the Expos have now become CRAZY and if you arent there waiting when it opens, there is a lot things that you won't get. It's not really fair to expect people to be able to do that as the running weekends are usually 3-4 days so I really hope Disney considers letting you pre-order and do pick up att the Expo. They would make a lot more money and a lot more people would be happy that they could get what they want. However after talking to friends, it turns out they had been putting out merchandise at different times. But still-it makes me sad to see the things I wanted to check out on ebay. I hope people don't buy them!
After that, we wandered around and sampled luna bars, clif shots and other things. I was able to buy my shoe wings and crowns from Sparkle Athletic.
After that, we used the restroom and off we went to eat lunch at Tangeroa Terrace before heading to the parks for a bit. The parks were much more crowded than usual and everything had a long wait. We rode Mater and Francis and walked around and I had to head back to the Expo.
I was able to get the New Balance Cinderella shoes without waiting in line by going back and just asking if they had my size at 3:00, just like they told me to do. I was so happy to get them and not have to worry about searching for them at another Expo. They are just so pretty! Joanne met up with me and was able to get 2 pairs of shoes. She was beyond ecstatic.
I really do think that they need to do pre-orders that you can pick up at the Expo. yes, people will need to try them on but that way the preference would go to runners instead of random ebayers that have the shoes online for 400 dollars!
After that, I went to hang out with Carolyn and Marilynn before meeting Devin and Brian for dinner at 5:30 at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta.
We had dinner (so quick and easy and cheap!) and headed to the hotel to get checked in, showered, unpacked and ready for the run. We laid everything out, rolled and stretched and were in bed around 8:15. yay for 6 hours of sleep before! Brian headed off to write part of his dissertation because who wants to go get bed oat 8:15 on a 3-day weekend?!!?1 oh yeah-us because we are crazy!!
Overall, the Expo was very good and organized. I personally prefer the Disneyland half expo (it's a bit larger with more to do) because I don't really buy that much stuff at the Expo but love all of the freebies you get.
Our day went great! We didn't do much in the parks, my legs felt great and we were able to eat quickly and get ready without feeling rushed. After stretching and putting on compression socks, my legs felt very loose. One thing I did differently was I did 30 minutes of dynamic stretch on friday and saturday morning and did not feel any tightness all day.