After checking in to the hotel on Friday afternoon, I made me way over to the Walter E. Washington Convention center to visit some companies and pick up my bib and shirt. As soon as you walk into the convention center, there are signs to direct you to the expo - very clear and easy to read. Once walking into the expo, I found the sign for my corral and picked up my bib.

After picking up my bib, I went to get get my shirt. As soon as I saw it I knew it was too small. I usually wear a women's small but this shirt looked like a kid's small! Luckily they also had a t-shirt exchange booth at the expo, so I quickly exchanged the small for a medium. This is the first time I have seen this option! It was nice to walk away with a shirt that I actually knew was fit (and it's a cute shirt).

Then it was off to the actual "expo" part of the expo. Tons of merchandise - souvenirs, jackets, shirts, socks, etc. I pretty much by-passed this entire section because I wanted to leave the expo with money in my wallet :) After surviving the merchandise area, I saw the GEICO lizard. Bizarre? Yes, but I love taking photos with people dressed up as characters so I had to get a photo with the legendary lizard.

After the photo, I took out my expo map that I had printed out earlier in the week. Rock 'n' Roll had a great interactive map on their website that had a detailed layout of all the vendors at the expo. I was able to go through the list and mark down which vendors I wanted to see which made navigating the expo so much easier. Also I'm a very type A personality so this was perfect for me.

I first went to visit Toni Carey, co-founder of Black Girls Run. I just love the organization and what she has done to help get an entire community of women moving and active. The mission of BGR is to be a leading resource of information and inspiration for African-American women who want to lead a healthy lifestyle. This is so important because obesity and obesity related illnesses affect the African-American community more than other communities. Of course she was an absolute sweetheart and I had so much fun talking to her. Hi Toni!

Next I was off to to see Jason from RaceDots. On Monday I was lucky enough to win a package of 5 RaceDots through a giveaway from Chelsea. As luck would have it, RaceDots would be at the expo so I was able to pick them up on Friday to try them for the race on Saturday! First impression - I am never using safety pins again! The RaceDots were amazing and my bib stayed in place the entire time during the race - even with all of the rain :)

Next up was MammaChia. I've seen so many pictures and posts on social media about this product, but I have never personally tried it. As soon as I saw that they were at the expo, I knew I would have to stop by to try their products. I tried the blackberry vitality beverage and it was so good! It's definitely not like a regular drink because of the chia seeds, but the flavor was great. I'll be looking for these drinks in my local supermarket. I also stopped by the Honey Stinger booth. I wanted to show some love now that I'm a member of the #HSHive, but they were crazy busy! I didn't get to say "Hi" but it was great to see that so many people were interested in their products :)

After hitting up a few more vendors it was time to go. I spotted free magazines near the exit (score! reading material for the train ride back home). I thought this was very nice and the magazines were great - all full of useful information for runners.

All in all I would give the Rock 'n' Roll DC Expo a 9 out of 10. I thought it was extremely well organized and the mixture of vendors was great. I went around 3 p.m. on Friday and it was not crowded at all - much to my surprise. I left the expo feeling great and ready to tackle the race the following day.

Since this was my first Rock 'n' Roll race, I was very extremely excited, but I think my expectations may have been a little too high. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy the race. But first, lets start off with the positives.

Despite the rain, and yes there was lots of rain, I didn't get any blisters! Thank you PRO Compression :)
I discovered that my Nike GPS sportswatch is truly waterproof. Seriously, that watch was in the elements for over 2 hours from start to finish and it functioned perfectly.

The medal was impressive and I was so happy to receive it after crossing the finish line!

Spectators and Volunteers - Even though the weather was horrible, there were still a good amount of spectators out on the course. The volunteers were also wonderful. I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to all of them. Spectators and volunteers really help to enhance the race experience, always!

There is a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, hill just before mile 6 of the race. There were photos of fallen soldiers all along the hill and focusing on that made me forget about the pain I was in and focus on how much respect I have for the soldiers that risk their lives for our freedom. I got a little emotional, but I was glad to have something else to focus on, something more important, while going up the hill.

As I said earlier, I think I may have had high expectations. I really expected to stop and dance along with all the bands on the course while seeing some of the sights in DC. That didn't exactly happen.

Bands along the course - I think there were 3 or 4 bands along the course (can't remember the exact number). That would have been okay, but 2 of the bands were playing slow tempo music when I ran by so that kind of sucked, lol. However I was able to rock out for a minute or so with 2 of the bands on the course. Also, I'm thinking the weather may have been the reason there weren't as many bands out on the course.

The course - For some reason I thought the race would also be a semi-sightseeing tour as well. We could see some things in the distance but that was it. Most of the route was through neighborhoods and streets, which was fine but just not what I was expecting.

Port-a-Potty - So before the race I didn't think I would have time to use the restroom so I decided that I would try to find the first one on the course. About a 1/2 mile into the race I saw two port-a-potties - one of the left and one on the right. Yup, just ONE on each side - FAIL! I ended up waiting 15 minutes to use the restroom. So after that debacle, I ran like a crazy woman to try to make up time, which worked for about 4 miles. I did notice that there were crazy lines for all the port-a-potty locations on the course, so this is something that I think could be improved for future races.

The finish line - I was ecstatic to see the finish line. I knew that my parents had a change of clothes for me and I just wanted to put on dry clothing! After collecting my medal and space blanket (heat blanket), I went in search of food. There was chocolate milk in a bin and volunteers were handing out water. I also spotted tables with bananas, potato chips, and granola, but no bagels. I was so bummed! I'm a total carb addict and I always look forward to the post-race bagel. I couldn't believe that a race of this size (over 20,000 runners) didn't have bagels?! Needless to say, I was very underwhelmed with the post-race food options.

Bag Check - Luckily I didn't have to check any items, but I've read that this was not organized that well. Some people waited for over an hour to get their checked items - yikes.

Transportation - It took me about 2 hours to get back to the hotel after the race which is a little crazy. Riding the Metro was quite the experience and it took about an hour just to walk to the Metro station from the finish line, wait to get into the Metro station and then board the train. It would be great if Rock 'n' Roll could provide a shuttle back to the start line - anything to make it a little more convenient for runners, especially out of town runners.

So would I run this race again? No. This race fell short of my expectations, but I am still excited for my other two Rock 'n' Roll races this year - Chicago and Brooklyn. Again, I think my expectations were probably too high so I won't make that mistake for the next two races.