#DCimComing
The long awaited Nike
Women’s Half Marathon weekend has already come and gone - way too quickly!
Every aspect of NWHM was awesome and I already cannot wait for next year. Here
is my recap of the before, during, and after. As the hashtags state: #werunDC
and #weranDC
For once in my life I was
actually packed and ready to go the night before traveling (only because I
wanted to blog about our plans pre-travel).
Now that we’re post-race,
it’s funny to see what I thought we would do vs. what we actually did.
We planned on leaving by
7:30 but I underestimated the distance from Newark to Dover, so I was a little
late picking Heather up. This actually worked out because she had time to do a
Dunkin’ Donuts run for us. We started our donut ritual when we went to Florida
and it’s still going strong and we have many more races lined up to do
together!
Getting there was pretty
seamless, Heather is great at navigating and I am pretty okay with driving in
DC, which is good because I do want to live there eventually.
We found the National
Harbour, parked quite easily considering the volume of people at the event, and
were on our way to the Expotique and packet pick-up!
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| When you enter the expo your name appears on the wall!
#Expotique
The Expotique is unlike the
typical expo that runners are accustomed to. Instead of having various brands
with booths or tents set up, the Expotique has things like a Nuun sampling
area, a Paul Mitchell Braid Bar, a place to design and print posters with
LunaBar, a Fleet Feet Sports race essentials shopping area, as well as gait
analysis by Nike and a wall for runners to sign.
#NikeGeorgetown
Over Spring Break I checked
out the Nike Georgetown store and was in awe of their displays. When we arrived
at the store this time, you can imagine my excitement when I saw NWHM and
#werundc had taken over the store, in addition to a DJ playing some of my
favorite Jay-Z songs (I resisted the urge to say every single lyric). It was
the Princess Half Marathon Official Merchandise tent frenzy all over again.
Well somehow I kept myself in line; I kept hearing my mom’s voice in the back
of my mind telling me “you have bills to pay.” Oh to be a poor college student.
After much debate I decided on the white NWHM hat and the turquoise technical
shirt with the Nike Goddess on the front. I had to exhibit some major
self-control to walk past the sneakers and not “accidentally” buy them. I
succeeded, but I’m kinda sad about it. Once we rounded up our gear and checked
out, we headed back to the National Harbour for lunch at Sequoia.
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#NWHMbloggerbrunch
The NWHM Blogger Brunch was
on our agenda thanks to Heather for getting us in last minute. I found the
event via the runDisney facebook group, then Heather contacted Stephanie from
Cat Lady Runs, who was able to squeeze us in when they changed the location
from Founding Farmers to Sequoia. Stephanie (Cat Lady Runs) and Roane (Love
Life Logistics) hosted an awesome brunch for about 20 bloggers, some new like
me and some very well established. It was really exciting to meet the women
behind the blogs that I follow, especially because they were all so sweet and
encouraging. We introduced ourselves around the table and I was slightly unsure
of my blog title at that point in time but I think I’ve found new confidence in
it because of its quirkiness (FYI, I am a hardcore Jay-Z fan if you didn’t
already pick that up.)
Side note: I loved that some
bloggers had business cards for their blogs. I knew this was a thing because of
being a long time reader of a few professional bloggers, but I never actually received
one before. It’s safe to say that I will definitely be investing in a set of my
own, they’re just too cute not to!
Amidst all of the
conversation, I ended up discussing way more than just running and I was given
some pretty great advice when I found myself saying, “I am trying to volunteer
on a local campaign.” I was instantly corrected and was told to repeat my
statement with “going to” instead of “trying to.” At first I didn’t know what
to think and I was somewhat embarrassed, but then I realized that the woman was
actually reaching out to me and trying to help me have more confidence in my plans
for the future.
This blogger meet up was a
great experience and I think it gave me a great deal of encouragement to not
only continue with blogging but to keep moving forward with my education and
future. I took a lot away from this experience.
Not only did I get to meet
an awesome group of bloggers, but I also received a bag full of stuff to try
out along with a few products I chose from the raffle! I will be reviewing and
even giving away a few products so stay posted!
I still have a lot more to say about NWHM but I wanted to finally get a post out about the beginning! Please stay tuned :)
Run Happy,
Ali
