Boston: Expo and Such

We began our first full day in Boston at the rabbit shake-out, which started from their pop up on Newbury street. From Saturday through Monday, I was with my local running buddies Amy and Colin, and my pro start buddy from Utah, Jennifer.  At rabbit, I connected with my friend Liz, who lives in Portland, and my soon-to-be coach Nick. We ran a nice route along the river and passed Emily Sisson on the run! We popped into the Tracksmith Track House on the way back to the hotel, took photos at Hereford and Boylston, and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory before heading to the expo. Our hotel was connected to the Prudential Center, which has many restaurants and also connected to the expo.

Right on Hereford, left on Boylston

The expo was a madhouse! This small town girl is not a fan of crowds or craziness, so it was not my cup of tea. In the Adidas gear area you could barely move and the check out line looked miles long. There were several really neat photo ops but the lines for them were very long and it wasn't worth waiting to me. I also didn't have my bib number yet, since I would pick it up at the pro meeting the next day. I did a quick run through and left as soon as my running buddies were ready - which didn't take long because none of us particularly liked it. There was so much hype and hoopla, and that drains me even when I'm feeling good. I know some people enjoy the excitement, but I found it very overwhelming. While I think not feeling 100% put a damper on things like this in the Boston experience for me to some degree, I think I'd have hated the expo no matter what, hah!

You could get a better photo with this by waiting for hours

We then walked over to another hotel to talk with some folks from Nike for a program I'm in. It was a much calmer environment and we got to use some Normatec recovery boots. Then it was onto the finish line for photos and more madness! We sent a vlog to our running group from there, and in it I said that I'm sticking with smaller marathons in the future. Sign me up for Bass Pro, lol!

Finish line area

Revolution hotel & my Vaporflys

Normatec-ing

We then walked around Boston Commons before heading back to our hotel and dinner at Amy's favorite, Wagamama's. Colin doesn't love being in photos but he was always willing to take one of me and Amy (Jen went to a Red Socks game after the expo so it was us 3 for awhile) - which made it a lot like a family vacation with Jon avoiding photos but taking them and of me and Albani!

Boylston street decor

The Capital building

Washington

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