Boston Marathon: The Race Expo (Part 2)

Sunday, 26 April 2015  |  Race Reports

GREATESTRUN

I’ve been to quite a number of race expos already, with New York City Marathon’s expo being my all time favorite, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the immensity of Boston Marathon’s expo at John Hynes Convention Center. I was like a little girl lost in a giant candy store… and boy did I love it! (more…)

Part 2: Chicago Marathon – Race Expo

Wednesday, 22 October 2014  |  Race Reports

4OwnChicago

After our morning run through Navy Pier and Lakeshore, we excitedly headed for the Chicago Marathon Race Expo to claim our race kits and, of course, to go shopping! (more…)

Part 1: Berlin Marathon – The Race Expo

Saturday, 29 September 2012  |  Bullish Insights

After a flight that felt like forever (10 hour layover in Doha, baby!), Team Berlin from the Philippines—that’s Lit, Ton, Angel, Miriam, and myself—arrived in Berlin last Thursday. As soon as we landed, we checked into our hotel, washed up, and headed straight for the Berlin Marathon expo to claim our race packs.

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– Lost in the subway with the boys hauling our luggage. Thanks Ton and Lit! –

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– Bromance in Berlin. Roomies Ton and Lit –

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– Outside the race expo at Flughafen Tempelholf (say what?!) –

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– Balloons (and German boys) to welcome runners! –

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– Friendly staff welcomed me as I claimed my kit –

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– We’re all in for Berlin! Ton, Lit, me, Angel, and Miriam. Behind us is the 42k course we run on Sunday! Woohoo! –

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– That is exactly how the race will look on Sep. 30 with the assembly at Brandenburg Gate! Of course, I’ll be in running clothes and lost in the huge crowd of 40,000 runners –

The Berlin Marathon Expo was huge with booths of most running brands represented. There were a lot of official marathon merchandise from adidas, but I couldn’t find anything that interested me. Absent as well from the expo were the brands that I usually go crazy over: Cliff Blocks, Gatorade for pre-race fuel, GU or Hammer gels, and other items that I don’t normally find in Manila.

I ended up buying only one thing: Phiten discs which work very well for me to alleviate minor aches and pains. (Some friends used to make fun of me over this, but they freaked themselves out when, after trying, it worked for them too!) I usually buy the plain ones, but there were limited edition Berlin discs this time! Cool!

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– Limited edition Berlin phiten discs. Pretzels and beer on my toes!  (Yes, I know my bunions are big!)

When we got home, I checked out all the loot in the bag.  First thing I always do is keep the important race items safe and secure.

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– My check in bag, reusable BMW timing chip (It’s that tiny BMW chip on the left of the bib. So sosyal!), and personalized race bib –

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– Official Finisher’s Shirt of the Berlin Marathon. Love it! –

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– Most of the items in the kit. A box of pasta, Powerbar sample, chocolate. Most of these were marathon flyers I collected as well during the expo –

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– adidas provided a mi time wristband which you can engrave with your finish time after the race –

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– Anyone who trains and finishes a marathon has every right to receive this in the race kit. Yum! –

Next article: Our pre-race run through Berlin roads

Thank you to Unilab Active Health for sponsoring my Berlin Marathon adventure!