The expo was held Thursday and Friday before the race. It was held in the usual spot for Philly expos in the convention center, just a different room than I've been to but doesn't matter. The convention center is generally easy to get to and we always find parking on the street. I was hoping to make it down in time for one of the Easter egg hunts for the kids but the last one was at 4:30 and I had work so didn't make it. We still had fun taking pics with the Hot Chocolate inflatables, sampling some chocolates and other treats. I really loved the electronic bib system. I simply brought up my race email, they scanned it and printed out my sticker and slapped it on a bib, took two seconds. I appreciate this especially when the kids come to an expo with us! I then was able to quickly pick up my hot chocolate bag that contained my hoodie. It was so nice to get something other than a tech shirt and the hoodie was definitely very nice. I also thought it was great that they allowed people to try them on and make exchanges.

On Race day we set off as a family into the city. There's a garage about a mile from the Art Museum that's always $5 on the weekend so that makes logistics super easy. I had made the mistake of telling the kids there was going to be bouncy houses for them to play. Unfortunately there was no kids play area, however I'm 99% sure it was because it was VERY WINDY. Everything turned out fine tho, as there were lots of kids for them to play with and 9 miles is not too long for them to occupy themselves ;-)

The 5K started at 7:15 and 15K at 8:00. This worked out well as far as potty use since all the 5Kers were out on the course. As much as I love corral starts, this one wasn't exactly beneficial as it was completely random assignment and not according to pace. I appreciate that they were trying to spread things out but it doesn't work out that way when it's random. Even though the course was not much different than most Philly races, I still enjoyed it. It's always a great feeling running down JFK boulevard towards City hall and then we turned around and ran an out/back along West River Drive, which is always beautiful along the river. It was pretty blustery at first but things seemed to calm down and it was a beautiful sunny run. I really enjoyed it.

After finishing, I was quickly given my chocolate bar medal. I really liked how it was personalized for Philly with the liberty bell. Then I grabbed some water and snacks. The best part was getting my finisher's "mug" with dipping chocolate and lots of goodies to be dipped. While it wasn't really a mug (it's a plastic mug-like thing with sections) the kids and I thoroughly enjoyed it's contents.

So all-in-all I had a great experience at the race. It seemed very well organized especially given there were easily 15,000 people. The swag and chocolate goodies were great and of course the race itself was a lot of fun. The free runner tracking worked awesome, posting to FB, twitter and sent texts to my husband in real time and accurate. And lastly, free race pics!!!!!!! wooo!!!!

You can read a bit more about my personal race on my blog: http://runningmarathonmom.blogspot.com/2015/04/did-someone-say-chocolate.html

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