ING New York City Marathon 2011 Expo: Claiming and Shopping Time!

Hello from New York!  The weather is perfect here, a bit nippy but not as freezing as last year.  I arrived yesterday afternoon and woke up this morning feeling fresh and energized. Jetlag is not in this bull’s vocabulary—at least not for this trip!

This morning, a group of us Pinoys running the ING NYC Marathon agreed to meet up at the ING NYCM Expo to claim our race packets. Plan was to do it today, Thursday, the first day of claiming, to avoid the huge crowds on Friday to Sunday. Little did we know that we arrived soon after it had opened, so we had to wait in line which extended to the road outside Javits Center where the expo was held.  Talk about excited!

– myself, TBR Dream Alumni and now NYC Marathoners Rico and Gene, and NY-based Carla on our way to the expo –

– Long line for the early birds! Gene, myself, Karinna –

The lines moved fast though. The staff was welcoming. And I breezed through the claiming of my race kit and went on to my favorite part of every marathon abroad—SHOPPING!

– First we submitted our race registration form and passport for verification –

– Then we claimed our race pack and official shirt (no lines here!) and it was done! –

I spent over an hour shopping at the expo. There were a lot of commemorative shirts to fit, new gear to ponder over, and a lot of samples to taste and drink (for research purposes, you see)…

– Some of the booths at the expo. I stopped at the Gatorade booth for quite a while to taste the pre-race fuel, race drink, and post-race drinks (yes, they have 3 different drinks there!) –

– Met Tri Fil-Am runners, US-based William and Ronald, for the first time –

– Bumped into the Osmenas who I usually see on the road in Manila –

– with Joey Torres of Polo Tri –

– with our flag bearer in the parade of nations tomorrow, Anthony Pangilinan –

–  with the rest of the Pinoys running NYC Marathon!  Pinoy Pride, guys! L to R: Julian, Gene, Rico, Anthony, Joey, myself, Ronald, William, Karinna, Gene, and Jonel –

Then, we had a late but great Japanese lunch before we parted ways…

– Busog na so uwian na! We sorely missed Angel of Gatorade here! –

Back at the apartment, I opened my loot. Oh baby! You know, I really only get this excited about my running purchases…

– The race kit. Official shirt on the right side. Love it. I hope it rains often in Manila just so I can wear this long-sleeved shirt! hah! –

– Got myself NYCM shirts from Asics and Mizuno, beanie, and a cap –

– Glad I found this: tear away jacket and bottom for pre-race chilly wait. You can just rip this off while running when your body warms up. $20 –

– Medal rack to hold my medals. All my medals are currently housed in a humble old ice cream container. So excited to hang them on my home office wall instead. Strictly for 42k medals only though! $48 –

– My favorite find! I’m not into jewelry, but I just had to get this when I saw the pendant. It says “GOTTA RUN” which is the way I end all my emails. It was meant for me, don’t you think? $25 –