expo-sing ourselves

i did it!  and i didn't die or throw up or faint or anything!  it was one of the most amazing weekends EVER.  totally ranks up there with giving birth to my girls and marrying the hub.  seriously, it was that awesome.

we kicked it off on friday, when the bean and i headed down to disneyland hotel for the health & fitness expo.  that's where we were to pick up our race bibs and shirts, and i knew that if i waited much longer it would be a madhouse.  there were 12,000 people registered for the race, and every last one of those folks had to come down to check in and get their gear.  plus, i knew that there would be fun merchandise to shop from, and since i'd read that it often sells out, i wanted to get me some.  heh.

since she'd just spent all morning at school, i put the bean in her stroller to make things easier on both of us.  she pointed out all of the signs to me as she recognized the castle and the disney logo.

we both let out an awed "oooooooh" at the tinkerbell-themed signage.  we're such girls.

i was pleased to see that i'd timed things right and didn't even have to wait in line to check in.  armed with my bib and timing chip, we strolled through the test area to make sure the chip worked. and not surprisingly, it did.  as i stepped on the mat, my name popped right up on the screen.  yay!

as we made our way upstairs, i was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of vendors selling all sorts of fitness and running related gear.

i decided to take care o'business first, though, and headed to the very end to get my shirt and bag.

i'd ordered my sparkly running skirt from team sparkle weeks ago, and they'd tweeted that there would be some fun swag bags for everyone who came to the expo wearing their skirt.  so i put mine on over my jeans, feeling like a goober, and headed over.

sadly, they'd already run out of goodies.  the expo had only been open for three hours at that point.  boo.  i love me a freebie. well, most of the time anyway.  there was lots of free yogurt being handed out at this booth, but i wasn't really all about trying to juggle a spoon, a cup, and the stroller.

i smirked to myself as i passed this booth.  "heehee!" i murmured as i eyed their merchandise.  "i don't need to spend $40 on one of those, i made myself one that's even cuter!"

unfortunately for me, that smugness would come right back to bite me in the ass later. dun dun dunnnnn.

when i saw that there were some fun prizes being given away here, we got in the growing line to spin the wheel.

the hot guy who was working the wheel was happy to let the bean do the spinning for me.  i smiled pretty and said "ooooh, i would reaaaaaaaaaallllllly like one of those pan am totes, i love that show so much!" and he grinned back and replied "i think i can make that happen for you."  and when the wheel slowed down, he might've given it a little nudge to make it land in just the right spot.  yesssssss.

official merchandise time.

yes, those ears were a little creepy.  but i did let myself buy one of those "i did it!" shirts, hoping i wasn't jinxing the whole thing by buying it before running the race.  i really wanted one of the zip-up jackets, but i couldn't stomach the $50 price tag.

on our way out we checked out the run disney booth, where one could sign up for future races and check out all of the bling.

i was excited to see the medal i was working to earn.

and, one similar to what i'll be running for come september:

this is the one that you earn when you run a race in disneyland and disney world in the same calendar year - the "coast to coast."  SO not gonna happen for me this year.

before we left, we got in line to take a picture here.  too bad it came out super fuzzy.

all in all, it was a great start to what promised to be a kick ass weekend.