Country Music Marathon Expo

One of the many things the competitor group does well are their expos. They always have a good variety of booths with so many things to do. Not everyone loves silly games but I'm all about plinko, spin the wheel, and slot machines!

The Country Music Marathon Expo took place of Thursday and Friday at the convention center. The downtown location is perfect for us as we like to go first thing Friday morning every year and follow it up with lunch at a honky tonk on Broadway.

We knew we were in the right place when we
spotted the Brooks car in the parking garage. 

Upon entering the convention center, you have to take two escalators down to the basement level where the convention hall is located. The lines always look long when you reach the bottom floor but they do a nice job of making the lines just long enough that you are constantly moving. It took about a minute to enter the convention hall where the line opens up to the bib pick up.

I always wonder why this part of the hall is so boring. They don't even carpet the concrete floor in the bib pick up area.

After getting our bibs and our run now Boston bracelets, we walked to the end of the corridor to get our tshirts. As you round the corner they had their first of many tribute areas remembering the Boston tragedy. There was a long line of people waiting to take pictures in front of this sign.

The tshirts were cute but very girly this year. I certainly didn't mind but couldn't help but feel bad for all the guys. The previous two years have featured great navy and red shirts that celebrated country music in a way both men and women could enjoy.

The goody bags are directly after the tshirts which all funnels everyone into the official merchandise booth. For whatever reason, I found this giant bowl of pasta hilarious. Inside they were doing gait analysis where you could "out run a giant meatball." So weird but sorta funny.

I asked my sister if she had a rain coat to run in and she said she didn't. She was planning to use her regular raincoat. I mentioned she might want to take a look at some at the expo as it might be more comfortable. She was unsure but after seeing the rock n roll rain coat, thought it might be nice to have as a souvenir. She tried one on but was still a bit hesitant. After being reassured by an employee that we could return it, she decided she might as well get it. Good thing she bought it when she did! We looped back to the store an hour later and they were totally sold out!

This gets me every time!

So true!

We didn't win but I did get a kick out of the reasons people run. Example: "my bff is here and she made me."

Dani from the Biggest Loser talking about her journey and answering questions from the audience. 

This must have been made just for me. I ran my first marathon after
everyone said there was no way I could do something like that. 

View from the second floor. This is only a quarter of the expo. (sorry for the glare)

They listed every runners name and let me tell you, people
were so excited when they spotted their name!