RnR Brooklyn Expo + VIP Experience

A few weeks back when I had volunteered at Disney with Sparkly Soul, my SS ladies told me that they had been cancelled as a vendor for the Brooklyn expo because they were told the expo had been significantly cut to basically focus on race sponsors and charities. I was bummed, of course, but also confused – this is the ROCK ‘N ROLL SERIES we’re talking about – they’re known for giant, bustling, awesome expos, right?

Friday afternoon after my jaunt through Central Park, I headed down to the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn for the expo at the Brooklyn Expo Center. My first thought was that the expo was nowhere near the race, which is usually the convenient way to go. The expo center as it was, was a decent walk from the G train. But I digress.

Much like Sparkly Soul had warned, the expo was… tiny. Underwhelming is the word I gave Ashley, our Rock ‘n Blog coordinator extraordinaire. Gu, Toyota, and other headline sponsors, as well as a few charity groups (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) and that was about it. You could also sign up for next year’s RnR Brooklyn at a discounted rate (good through Sunday, do it! Just $50).

While it was nice to get through the expo in what seemed like less than ten minutes, it was still a disappoinment at the same time. I was hoping for some cute Brooks race swag, but found that there were all of two racks of women's tanks to choose from and that was it. Boo.

I grabbed my shirt, talked to Ashley for a bit, snapped some mandatory photos, and called it a day. Some of the Sparkly Soul ladies and other folks were meeting up at 4 for a meet up at the Brooklyn Winery – turned Kent Ale House – so I decided to head that way early. Dani wasn’t far behind and soon Briana and Cynthia were there too! It was great getting to meet some fantastic women, and eventually one man, all sharing the same running (and sparkly!) love.

Selfie-taker extraordinaire, Dani! And me, and Briana. 

After our meet up, I made my way back into Manhattan for dinner with yet another circle – Jessica, Adrian and I were all doing #BKtoLB and tons of other Rock ‘n Roll aficionados were all gathered for dinner at Il Corallo Trattoria for some carb-loading and social fun. I got there way late but had the most amazing pasta and happily called it a night! I headed back to my sister’s and got home just before she did from her happy hour.

Rock ‘n Roll VIP

Pre- and post-race, I was offered the opportunity to participate in RnR’s VIP experience. This was only my fifth RnR experience ever and clearly my first VIP, which I was really excited about! Dani explained to me that every race VIP has had a different kind of amenities offered -- some mimosas, some bagels, some croissants, and that you never know what you're going to get! I was excited and pretty eager to find out.

On Saturday morning, my sister and I made the hour-long trip into Manhattan and back out to get to Prospect Park. She knew I had to go to VIP, so I made my way in there while she waited for her two friends (Jansen, running his first half, and his support team girlfriend) to get to the park. VIP had a completely separate security gate and bag check than the other runners, which I later learned pretty much saved a super hassle in my book.

VIP was inside the Brooklyn Public Library in the heart of Grand Army Plaza at Prospect Park. It was warm, though a small space, but it was warm, and that was all I cared about at that point. Inside were bagels, croissants, coffee, orange juice and our own bag check that would be carted over to the finish line for us.

I'm not sure how many VIP folks there were, but I'd guess probably close to 100. While we had our own restrooms, there was still a line once it came time to start heading out to the start line. About 6:35, I dropped off my bag, left my jacket on, and went outside to find my sister. Through the fence, I met Jansen and told him to head through security so he and I could at least walk towards our corrals together. I waited nearly 15 minutes before I realized that he was stuck in the mob of people trying to get through that security line. God bless the VIP line! I told my sister and Jamie to wait for Jansen and that I'd just see him at the finish line. I bolted to the start, anxious to get into my place and was freezing. Thank god I left my jacket on. But more on that soon.

Post-race VIP was amaaaaaazing. Breakfast? Check. Mini-shower station? Check. Beer, if that's your cup of tea? Check. MASSAGES? All the checks. Hosted by Westin, this seriously made the thought of paying for VIP worth it, even if just for the massages with a (fairly minimal) line. There were tables all out in the sun if you were freezing or underneath some tents in case the sun was just too much. Personally, running in 60 degrees is beyond glorious but I cool down way too fast to enjoy it afterward!

Ashley & I, finally! 

Post-massage, I went back out to find my sister and her friend who was still finishing the race. We listened to a bit of Nate Ruess' set, though not enough because let's be real, I adore him, and had to bolt to the subway so I could make it to the airport on time.

I even got to meet a few extra friends while out at VIP - re-united with Dani and heard about her race and got to meet the super-fab Ashley of Healthy Happier Bear.

If you're able to hang around post-race and soak in every amenity of the VIP experience, I highly recommend all that it has to offer. If you're traveling with tons of folks, this may be hard to do, but if it's one or two of you on a race-cation, this is totally worth the additional cost (Brooklyn was $79, but prices can vary depending on the race location and packages offered). Spectators can get in on this too, so if you have someone waiting for you at the finish line, this might be a great way to say thank you. :) Get that massage while you can and all the free deliciousness of a bagel, fruit, cookie breakfast (I think I had more cookies than fruit, but that's not surprising). 

All in all, a great experience in VIP. Despite some disappointments with the expo, the race itself was fabulous. Can't wait to share more about it tomorrow!

Have you ever done a Rock 'n Roll VIP experience? What'd you think?

I am a member of Team Rock ‘n Blog  through the Rock 'n Roll Race Series and was provided both the race entry and VIP experience complimentarily. No other compensation was provided. All opinions are my own. 

Weekend Adventures in NYC + Birthday Giveaway Winners!

Most epic birthday weekend/week ever. So after coming back from Portland on Monday, I was absolutely good for nothing on Monday afternoon. I took that as my sign to kick back and rest. Tuesday, then, was the day I felt like a chicken with my head cut off - post-PDX laundry, unpacking, errands, and then re-packing for New York!

My flight out was 7:30 on Wednesday morning, and despite leaving 2.5 hours before I needed to even BE there, I was still on the road at 7:15. For a bit, I thought I'd just cut it close, pay a billion dollars for airport parking at LAX and try and run in... and then I gave up and knew I'd have no way of making it. So parked the car off-site, shuttled in and just pleaded my case to the Delta counter. High fives for Delta who hooked me up - they only charged me $50 for the flight change and got me out at 12 noon. There are perks to landing in New York after dark though...

Some pretty magnificent views, that's for sure. After that trip though, we didn't get back to my sister's place until nearly 11:30 so she was ready to crash and I didn't complain. Thursday and Friday my sister had to work most of the day, so I was off to play in the city and entertain myself. First stop: the Highline. The coolest above-ground railroad track turned city park. I walked the entire stretch, including the new extension, so about 20 city blocks in total.

After that, it was off to Times Square just to kill time while I waited for my sister. I'd been through the chaos before, but on this gorgeous Thursday morning it wasn't all that crazy. I stopped in some stores because why not shop? And then I stumbled upon this!

Total random but super awesome! My luck. The rest of the time I spent in Times Square was really just people-watching, checkout the hoards of tourists coming off buses and taking it all in again. One of my life goals (seriously) is to spend New Years Eve in Times Square but the more I say that out loud, the dumber I think I am.

After my sister got out about 4:15, we headed up to the top of Rockefeller (Top of the Rock) for some of the most amazing views of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and basically buildings as far as you can see out. It was the perfect day for going 900 feet up and I still can't believe the views you get that high up! Central Park, Ellis Island, and every signature bit in New York are crystal-clear from that high up! Amazing.

Afterwards, we headed back down to dinner and my birthday present from my sister - tickets to Chicago! This was actually Rumer Willis' Broadway debut show and no lie, she is pretty fantastic. I figured with a Dancing with the Stars win that surely she can dance, but she actually belts out a Roxie Hart song pretty well too. A great show, tons of fun and I felt like I was really getting New York in that way! :)

Friday was a quick shakeout through Central Park, just 3 easy miles but lots of touristing, stopping for photos and making sure I took it all in. When my mom, grandma and I came and visited my sister 4 years ago, I did a nice run through the Park in winter too, but this day was so pretty, it felt like a whole different place. Magical even.

Friday afternoon was race expo + meet up fun (more on that soon). But as I wrapped up my run in Central Park (with the photo above), I've never felt so lucky, or so grateful, to get to go on such a trip. My sister was an awesome host and I'm just mad at myself that it took another four years to get back and visit her! Sorry, sister. But thank you for an amazing weekend. Love you!

What other must-do NYC things did I miss that I need to do next time?


And now what you've really been waiting for... my #30thbirthdayblogblowout giveaway winners! Thank you to all 390 entrants for making this my best giveaway ever! Congratulations to Kasey and Stephanie for winning! You'll have an email soon describing your package + info I need from you!

Have a great Tueday, friends! Brooklyn and Long Beach recaps coming later this week as part of my #30halfsfor30years and #BKtoLB shenanigans!

How to Run a Marathon

It might not be marathon weekend this weekend at Brooklyn, but surely at Long Beach, Chicago and I'm sure in seventy five other places. I loved this snippet from Rock 'n Roll a few weeks back, so I thought I'd share as you get geared up for race weekend!




Happy marathon weekend, wherever you're running, friends!

Race Recap: Portland Marathon Half

So you've gotten the city recap already, with the short amount of time we had to go play around, and now the best part of all... race recap time!

October 4, 2015 | Portland Marathon Half 

So in the cluster that was the adventure into downtown on Saturday afternoon, we pretty much just bolted into the expo, got my bib, found the posters and race bags, and made a quick lap around the expo. The expo was much smaller than I thought it would be, and basically in the basement of the Hilton, race headquarters.

We were pretty much in and out in under 20 minutes. I do love that every runner gets a race poster, so it'll be perfect to add to my collection at work and covers another state on the wall! The race shirts came at the finish line, much to Doug's surprise, as they are truly finishers' shirts and say so.

Race morning, I got up - letting Doug sleep in some - and was out the door to catch the 5:56 train to downtown to meet Frank and Karin from the IERC at the hotel. I was actually downstairs and out early and managed to catch an even earlier train so I was already in the hotel lobby by 6:02, with a planned meet up time of 6:30! It was nice being their early, chilling and taking it all in. I met a friend, Darryl, who was in from Raleigh and running the full. We talked about races and distances and my birthday shenanigans and how we each managed to get into this race.

Frank, me and Karin! IERC representin'. 

Frank and Karin were down right at 6:30 and we headed outside to head to the start line. Lemme tell you, after training in 100+ degrees all summer, a 50 degree morning was quite cold... and refreshing, all at the same time. I was definitely shivering some and Frank's wife gave me an extra jacket while they hung out with us before we moved up in the corral.

I had no plan for this race, other than just to run well but take the time to take in sights, see Portland and enjoy state #8 for all it had to offer. Running through downtown right at the start was fun, even though it was still quite dark outside.

Miles 1 - 4: Frank, Karin and I all hung together and ran and chatted and had a great time. These gmiles Gradually roll all uphill. Honestly, I wasn't expecting hills at all in this course, so they took me by surprise but nothing we couldn't manage.

Miles 5 - 8: Thankfully, all the rolling hills we went up... we went right back down. This was a double-back basically past downtown again and all the folks lining the main street along the river. A good cheer tunnel, if you will, so that was fun! The only hard part was that, though seemingly an issue throughout Portland, is that much of this street seemed to be the equivalent to LA's Skid Row. Lots of homeless folks camped out under the bridge, some awake and watching us crazies, but it was hard to run by.

BUBBLES!

Miles 9 - 13: Early in mile 9, my stomach flared a little so I stopped at the porto. After wasting probably at least 5 minutes  inline, I gave up and kept going. Shortly thereafter, all these bubbles started heading towards us - best turnaround ever! These cheerleaders had a wall of bubbles going and was just a freaking blast. Mile 10 brought another porto with shorter lines, so success. And then like that, it was over! Generally though, miles 8 - 11 are another out-and-back that follows the river, but really runs by warehouses. Lots of folks out cheering though, trying to spice it up some, which I appreciated!

A sold 2:11 finish, even with 5+ minutes in lines and for beign stopped at a train. So really, I give this like a 2:05 finish, which makes me even happier. 

The finish line is where the fun continues: you get a rose immediately upon crossing, then continue on through the foods (grapes, oranges, bananas, pretzels, cookies, and clearly Costco-sized bags of Halloween candy!) and drinks (choclate milk, water, Ultima, orange juice)... like a full on buffet of drinks and post-race snacks. Then you get to the shirts. So I thought that all finishers chose their race shirt color - turns out half marathoners all get one color, while the marathoners had options: green (Universit of Oregon), orange (Oregon State), purple (University of Portland), blue (Portland Marathon's classic colors). I have no complaints about our maroon ones and will actually rock a race shirt at some point. Marathoners also get a commemorative coin that matches the medals. 

The best part, however, is that EVERY finisher (marathon or half) gets an Oregon sapling to take home and plant. YOUR OWN RACE TREE! I was more excited about this than the medal and just got my tree planted tonight. I can't wait to take this baby around and watch him grow! 

Overall, a great race with weather I couldn't have even dreamed of. 

Race pros:

- Great course support

- Save the hills in miles 1-4, easy course

- Race swag! 

- Scenery

- Weather = top notch for this Southern California girl!

Race cons:

- No bag check (I know, what?)

- Some sketch areas to run by 

Seriously though, no complaints. I had an awesome weekend in Portland, loved that this was my Oregon race and would seriously contemplate coming back again to run PDX! 

Have you run Portland? Your thoughts?

The City of Roses

I hadn't been to Oregon since I was maybe in high school, and before than even elementary school, but I don't think I'd ever been to Portland. Despite only having about 48 hours in the city (and even less than that, really), I wanted to squeeze in as much as we could (naturally) duirng our quick weekend getaway! 

On our way! 

Our flight out of Long Beach was Saturday morning and we were in Portland and landed about 12:45 pm. We figured that we'd be on a train around 1:30 to get to our hotel, drop our things off, down to the expo to pick up race day essentials and then be on our way to explore PDX and all it had to offer. (Side note: this Portland Bucket List is awesome and I wish we had had more time to do it all!) The city had other plans -- a light rail train derailed somewhere around the exit we had to get off at to get to the hotel. So on the first train, the conductor suggested getting off at one of the main transit centers and catching a bus into downtown (where the expo was). So we're waiting around for the bus - meanwhile, people see me in my Portland Marathon Ambassador shirt and are asking me where to go! - and then a TriMet guy comes out and says "Hey, there's another train, take that one and by the time you'll get near the derailment, it should be clear!" So duh, we do that. 

Mandatory PDX carpet selfie.

Wrong, wrong and so wrong. We got stopped like three stops later and spent half an hour sitting on that train before we gave up and went to go catch another bus. We befriended an older couple who were at least getting us as best around as they knew how. So we caught that bus, transferred to another one and eventually got to downtown before our hotel. We figured we were that far already that we may as well hit the expo (all our luggage in tow) and then fight our way to the hotel. By the time we got to our hotel, checked in and upstairs, it was nearly 5:30 pm. Shenanigans. 

I had mentioned maybe going to the Portland Timbers game that evening, solely because they have one of the most live and tradition-based soccer teams in the country and even though they weren't playing the Galaxy, it'd totally be worth going to, but again... 4 hours later, that was the last thing I wanted. So we hightailed up to the hotel bar for the last 5 minutes of happy hour and spent well over three hours there watching the night's college football games. No complaints - a great bartender, great view of the city from across the river, and drinks. Color me happy. 

DOUGHNUTS! 

Sunday after the race (recap coming later today!) was pretty much all we had for exploring the city. Post-race we headed straight over to Voodoo Doughnuts because, duh, Portland. The line was only about 20 minutes, so we must have caught the last little wave before people really got going after the race - win! The gloriousness and OMG, the gluttony. We ended up with six: the classic sprinkles + vanilla, plain glazed, Oreo + vanilla, Portland Creme, a maple bacon bar and the signature voodoo doll that has a pretzel stake in his chest and oozes raspberry filling when you tear him apart. So. Good. 

After Voodoo, we headed back to the hotel so I could shower and nap and then got our day going. I really wanted to go check out the International Rose Test Garden up in Washington Park.A nice train and bus ride later (seriously, Portland's lightrail system is awesome), we were at the top of the park. 

An amazing view of downtown... and roses on roses on roses! The garden is home to some 550+ varities of roses, some which don't even have names because again, they're test roses! 4.5 acres of some of the most beautiful roses in colors I didn't even know existed. There are no words, but highly recommend you taking a visit here if you get the chance. The garden is supposedly open April - October and is free! 

Could NOT get enough. 

After the garden, we met up with two of my running club friends and their spouses (we were the kids of the group, for sure) and headed over to Blue Star Donuts who was unfortunately sold out of most everything by the time we got there. I've heard that they're "better" and "more gourmet," whatever that means in donut terms). So then we made our way to Deschutes, which is based in Bend but also has a brewery in downtown Portland, for drinks and some snacks (Doug and I were starving). After a tasting flight there and a citrus beer for me, we walked over to the Portland City Grill. Highly recommended by that couple on the bus, and despite being a little dressed down, we got in anyway.

This place is on the 30th floor of the US Bank building and overlooks the entire downtown area and the Williamette River. There are stunning views on clear days of Mount Hood and it's just breathtaking. We got up just in time for the last of the sunset and then got to see all the lights at night, too. I definitely want to go back here if we get the chance, to enjoy either a) a window table or b) a full meal, but note that it's not super cheap ($30-50 per plate). But oh my, the views make it worth it !

And that was that. Monday morning, we were up before the sun to get on the train (with no issues!) to head up to the airport and back home. Short trip, amazing trip, but it's definitely leaving me wanting more! 

What else is on your Portland to-do list?