Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Avengers Half - Pre Race

Like I mentioned in yesterday's "Costume Creation" post, I am breaking up the Avengers Half into multiple posts since I just have sooooooooo much to share (and my recaps tend to be long anyway).

A few weeks back the LOVELY LADIES of Sparkle Athletic asked if I wanted to help out at the Expo. I looked at my calendar and realized that Friday morning/ afternoon would probably be the best time to fit into my schedule. I let them know and was put down for the 10am-3pm slot.


Now in case you haven't seen many of my pictures on Instagram or read many of my race recaps on the blog, I L-O-V-E, LOVE Sparkle Athletic and sport the skirts as often as I can! To say I was stoked to be working with the ladies for a few hours would be an understatement!

Since I wasn't sure how long it would take with morning traffic to get up to Disney on Friday, I left my house around 8:30am. Normally it takes anywhere from 30-90 minutes to get to Anaheim based on traffic. Thankfully I missed rush hour and was up there around 9am. The issue wasn't traffic, it was PARKING. I got off so I could park at the Mickey and Friends structure (that way I didn't have to walk through Downtown Disney to get to the Expo). As I pulled in I could tell they were diverting us elsewhere... Yup, even at 9am parking was a hassle. They ended up routing us over to the Garden Walk (even had us driving through the back lot of the parks to get us there). I ended up on the very bottom basement level of the Garden Walk and finally got out of my car by 9:40am (thank goodness I left early, right?!). After making my way over to the parks, waiting in the security lines and then speed walking through Downtown Disney, I made it over to the Disneyland Hotel (where the Expo was being held) right at 10am.


The funny thing about "meeting" the ladies of Sparkle Athletic is that we felt like we knew each other already... I mean we all follow each other on Social Media, so it is sort of like we know what is going on with each others lives without having met in real life before ;) Just as I suspected, the ladies are beyond sweet! They dressed me up in one of the Super Awesome tanks and a skirt, gave me a little tutorial on the iPad cash register and sent me to the wolves. Now, don't get me wrong, the ladies (and gentlemen) that shop at Sparkle Athletic are super nice, but man were we busy. It was non-stop selling for the full 5 hours I was there.

Hard at work or hardly working? You decide!
Photo Credit: IvieAnne


Carrie, Kelly, Elise and I after my shift ended.
Photo Credit: Cupcake Activist

As I was swiping away I saw some of my running buddies! First up was PointOneMiles. You see, Michael and I "run" together most Fridays but have never officially met. What in the world?! We are virtual running buddies. He will ask me how many miles I am doing and then sends out a hash tag (i.e. #18WithFriends, #12WithCarlee, etc) and gets others to join in the fun. We run the same distance and even though we aren't physically running together it does give you that extra little push to keep going and finish strong! #NeverRunAlone

Photo Credit: PointOneMiles

A big thanks to everyone else who stopped by while I was at the booth, even though we didn't grab pictures together (Jillian, Ty, Ivie, AJ, and many more).

After I was off I walked over to the Pro Compression booth to hang out with Pavement Runner (we "officially" met over at the Sparkle Athletic booth, but we were pretty slammed so we just said our hellos and opted to wait on the photo opt) and PointOneMiles for a few minutes before I had to split. You KNOW I had to get a picture with the man, the myth, the legend - Pavey ;)

Photo Credit: Pavement Runner

On the way out we saw Ms. Carissa (you know, the lovely lady who announces the runDisney events) so had to all jump in one of Pavement Runner's famous selfies before exiting the Expo.

Photo Credit: Pavement Runner

Friday night I was going to the Saves The Day concert in San Diego with the hubby, so I had to call it a day around 3:45pm at the Expo and head back south. {Even though having to leave my running friends was a little lame and Friday traffic was killer, he concert was a BLAST... Brought me back to my High School days! And if you don't think a punk show is a cardio workout, I guess you've never seen me at one ;)}

I think we got ONE non-blurry picture... Hard to keep it
steady when you are ROCKIN' out and getting thrown all over!

Saturday afternoon Ryan and I made our way back up to Anaheim. We checked into our hotel, dropped our stuff, and walked over to the Expo. The Expo was open until 4pm and we made it there right around 3:30pm (I'd call that cutting it close!).


I normally don't buy anything at the Expo, so we grabbed out bibs, took a few pictures, and then made our rounds so I could say HEY to some of the folks.

Thumbs up and ready to run!

Ryan with his bib! 

Had to get a picture with Thor... 

Jeff Galloway! He is my favorite! 

We were ready to SMASH THE HALF!

Ryan is NOT planning on letting the
Wookie win in January!

If you showed you followed runDisney on Instagram you
could take this cool, free picture in front of a green screen.

Ryan wanted to give Hulk bunny ears but realized it wouldn't
work with the whole green screen image...

We were back to the hotel by about 4:15pm and sat down for just a few minutes before texting with Pavement Runner about plans. They decided on California Pizza Kitchen and for some reason Ryan and I were invited along for the meal ;) We had a great time at dinner (where we learned you can get away with saying pretty much anything as long as you have a smile on your face ;)) and had to take a few last minute pictures before we split for the evening.

The crew! #CarleeOut
Photo Credit: Pavement Runner

Another Pavey Selfie with the dinner guests!
Photo Credit: Pavement Runner

I had been trying to meet up with Shelby for the prior 24 hours but things just kept getting in the way. Finally around 8:30pm we were able to meet up at the Disneyland Hotel so I could grab my AMAZING Sparkly Capes for my Pro Compression socks! She was even kind enough to sow them on for me! (I know I shared the picture in yesterday's post, but I can't get over the amazingness of the capes!)

The gal that took our photo was equally impressed with the capes!

Finally Ryan and I made it back to the hotel around 9pm and got ready for bed... That 3:30am wake up call was going to come mighty quickly and this Thor needed her SUPER strength (even though the night before a race I get like ZERO sleep... I'm always soooo worried I will sleep through my alarm that I end up looking at the clock every 15 minutes)!

PS I can't finish this post without mentioning 2 quick things. 1 - The #runner shirt I am wearing in the Saturday pictures was a gift from the AMAZING Pavement Runner! I already own one of the "Run All Day" tanks, but he gave me this shirt at the Expo on Friday and I am beyond grateful! (His shop is currently closed, but be on the look out for it to open back up and make sure to grab a shirt or FIVE when they go on sale again!) 2 - PointOneMiles is currently raising funds so he can run the Dopey Challenge in January (Oh heck-to-the-yes I get to see him in just a few short weeks?! AWESOMESAUCE!). If you would consider donating a few dollars to Autism Speaks in his honor it would be GREATLY appreciated!

Do you normally shop at Expos? Or are you more of an in-and-out sort of Expo attender?

1 comment:

PavementRunner said...

hahaha... all the smiles.