ING, the second time around...

It seems like more than a year ago but here we are again. The ING. My first "big" race, one year later. I remember the excitement of going to pick up my race number, the amazement at all the cool running related things that I *had* to have. The slight feeling of being a beginner by "only" running the half instead of the big kid's full marathon. My how things have changed.

I drove down to the Georgia Dome in the pouring rain and paid my $10 to park to go pick up my race number (UGH!). I picked a great time to go this afternoon as there were little to no crowds. I walked right up and got my number and goody bag. This year I graduated to corral 2 (woo hoo!), last year I was in the last corral, corral 7, so it is quite exciting to have earned a spot closer to the front!

I LOVE the race shirts this year! Very simple, not a lot of advertisments ...



I milled through to pick up any freebies like any self respecting freeloader! One year later, I am kind of over the whole expo thing. I do like the free LARAbars mmmm, mmmm, mmmm and seeing what other races are out there to run but beyond that I seem to see mostly the same shirts and sunglasses at the other races. Granted, this one isn't huge so might not draw as many vendors. I did bump into a cool vendor at Disney that I will have to tell you about in another post... I picked up some Larabars, a duffle bag from publix which had a cute little banner thing inside. You can't really tell from this pic but this banner is about 11 inches by 24 inches and has these handles on it. You write "Run Karen Run", "you are almost there", "are you almost done so we can go home" or whatever cutesy saying your spectator wants to say and it rolls down to the size of a long pencil for easy transport. If I ever have a spectator, I am going to insist that they carry it! (HA)



So, pick up my freebies and my race swag and I am back on the road home in about 20 minutes. All in all a very productive afternoon!

It has been raining non-stop for the past two days and it supposed to rain all day tomorrow as well. The forecast calls for clearing on Sunday for the race - YAY! I am looking forward to the run. The race winds through a lot of neighborhoods and they call come out to cheer. Some set up music in their driveways - everything from a sound system playing CDs to a live band. So much fun! I can't wait :)