Race Report: Publix Georgia Half Marathon [The Expo]

Publix Georgia Half Marathon | March 17

The Expo

I signed up for this race somewhere around Christmas. About a month ago, I decided that I wanted to also volunteer some of my time and work the expo - part of my goals for the year is to volunteer for at least two races. So many of my races have been great thanks to some outstanding volunteers and I wanted to return the favor, even if I couldn't do it on race day.

On Saturday, I was driving back up from Florida (that's a different story for a different day), and was supposed to be at the expo at 1:30. Traffic was horrendous just south of Atlanta, and apparently there was a St. Patrick's day parade in downtown - all places I needed to be! Super. I got to the expo about 2, met up with Heather, and we got down to work (well, correction, she'd been there awhile already).

 

We spent all afternoon working packet pick up and had a blast. It got a little chaotic for some points, but was a total blast. Heather and I kind of became some sort of team leads and helped organizing our packet system, bag and shirt pick up, and became our area leader's go-to ladies. All in fun times! Brandi spotted us, as did a few other friends - our sorority sister Liz was running her first full, Jessica her third.So many girls all together - how perfect!

Spotted! Photo cred: Brandi

Before the expo closed at 6, we got to take a quick break and check out the booths - some really fantastic booths. Lots of good free swag and fun stuff to stop and check out. The race had a ton of great merchandise, including a few tops I lusted over, but unfortunately just had to say no. With Publix being a main sponsor passed out mini cutting boards, and some biscotti spread, in addition to having an almost full-service store set up! Photography company was doing on-the-spot prints with some awesome props. Ragnar, runDisney, Rock 'n Roll were all there. I stayed clear of all those for now; no cash for the extra races! Soon enough. Except Ragnar - finally got to meet Lindsay! Hooray! ... and no photo to prove it. Womp. I also finally got to stop at the KT Tape table and get my knee taped - first time I've finally gotten to since the line was actually short - but more on that on Wednesday with my race recap.

 

 We were signed up to work until 6:30 and ended up being there until almost 7 - again, turned into those unofficial team leads. It was fun, seriously though, but surely regretted being on my feet all that time by the end of our shift. At that point, I was just hoping that the balls of my feet didn't throb that bad come first thing in the morning.

Perks to working packet pick up? Super easy packet pick up!

Half marathon #8, here I come!

Have you ever volunteered at a race expo? Do you ever volunteer at the race expo you end up running?