Flying Pig Half Marathon: Expo

I arrived late Friday night and after sleeping in, getting a quick run in and breakfast, we headed to the expo.  The expo was at the Convention Center which was literally right across the street from our hotel.

Upon arriving, the first thing we saw was a wall to sign for Boston.  They were also giving out bracelets for donations to the One Fund.  I donated and am proudly sporting my Boston Strong bracelet with a flying pig on it.

Porkopolis to Beantown

After signing the wall, we headed to number pickup.  It was quick and easy, with minimal wait.  The area where number pickup was had these great balloons:

How cute?  There was pig stuff everywhere!

After number pickup, we headed into the expo.  The shirts were the very end of the expo and we had to walk through the entire expo to reach it (great plan for the expo, bad for my wallet).  The first stop was the official merchandise.  I picked up a really cute t-shirt that says "Run the Pig", a wineglass and waterbottle (the waterbottle says 'Oink, oink, oink' which I love).

Love it!

Cute shirt

Following official merchandise, we headed into the beast of the expo.  There were a lot of the usual suspects - local running store, other races, snacks.  I picked up a couple of headbands at the Sweaty Bands booth: a blue and white Boston Strong headband, red sparkle headband (for my Snow White costume) and one with Flying Pigs on it.  They are super cute.

We continued to make our way through the expo, tasting some samples (they had a frozen greek yogurt that was delicious, some yummy cake and others).  There were some weird items (google Period Panteez and you'll know what I am talking about).  We found some ideas for races (Bluegrass Half in KY looked like lots of fun and has a great medal) and generally just enjoyed strolling through the expo (so much we came back later because a couple of the girls wanted to pick something up).

Pig cake

Finally we made it to the t-shirt pickup.  In addition to the t-shirt (which is a nice quality Asics shirt), we also got branded Flying Pig Marathon coolers.  What a nice addition to the usual race shirt.  We also got a poster for the race.  While the poster was cute, I did not bring it home (no room in my suitcase).

Race shirt

Flying Pig cooler

Overall, it was solid expo with lots of vendors and good merchandise.  I was pleased with what we got with our registration fee.

Up next - the race recap!