Day 4: Expo!

Wednesday 1/9

Yeah, marathon weekend has officially begun! Because this is the only weekend with 4 race days, the Expo already starts on Wednesday. We bought Race Retreat, and early Expo acces was one of the perks. We couldn't find anywhere what the time would be for the first bus for RT-ers, so my parents dropped us of at the Expo. We were there around 7.45AM, RT registration (checking your registration and wristbands) started at 8, and early acces would start at 9AM.

It wasn't that busy yet. I think there were around 50-75 people in front of us. I saw some people who I knew and chatted shortly with them. Time flew by.
The registation went well. There were about 6 computes/lines where you could get your wristband. We got our wristbands and were in the first row of the line to get into the Expo.

Expo entrance! More photos from inside and the merch are on another day shown. We went back to the Expo on Friday and took a lot of pics then. Now, we just wanted to shop!

The was the free goodie you got when purchasing RT. It's a running journal. I heard from some that they didn't give those anymore on Friday!

 Our Expo plan:
1. runDisney official merchandise! We collect the mini medal replica pins, and during Wine and Dine 2018 everything was sold out so quickly... And I wanted Dopey merch! It was supposed to be a one and done thing, so I had to get some merch.
2. Bibs and shirts pick up. (HP Field House for Dopey bibs+shirts, and all other bibs)
3. Exhibitors Expo + shirts  pick up for John (Visa Athletic Centre, for the Exhibitors and all other race shirts pick up).

Iiiieeeeks! Dopey Challenge, I am going to do this!!  I love these banners. Paris, take note, bring those to France as well! Paris has so little decoration at the Expo...

At the HP field house I could get my bibs and tshirts. I got them all at once in a bag. John's tshirts we had to get somewhere else.
American sizes are a lot bigger than European sizes... We always have a medium, but they were too big for both of us. The tshirt exchange didn't have a small, so I had to wait until someone else would exchanges theirs. I asked the CM a couple of times if they had a Small. But no luck. There was a huge line for tshirt exchangde, so I just started to ask people in line. And there was an American woman who wanted to try a XS to see if she could trade that for her Small. So I sticked with her, and was so happy that she wanted to exchange!
John had the same problem. Because his shirts were on the same floor as the Exhibitors Expo, he visited the booth 4x times. He had trouble exchanging his half marathon shirt, his favorite, because there wasn't a Small to trade. After the 5th time, the CM had held back a Small for him, which someone else just exchanged! How great was that! So, we were both happy to finally get the correct size. Next time, we will order a small right away!

Jeff Galloway  was there at the Expo! I always wanted to meet him, I followed his training schedules since 2015 (when Paris announced their inaugural HM would be in 2016). After my knee surgery I had to follow the runwalkrun method, and it led me to be able to finish Dopey! He is such a friendly and kind man. He is a "Perfect Marathoner", he ran all the WDW marathons since the inaugural one in 1994!

Expo haul!

I saw a lot of people with this little black bag. I preordered the black marathon jacket and asked the lady at the booth how people got it. People got it for pre-ordering pins. I didn't even had to ask, she gave me a black bag! It's ideal for transporting pins. We buy a lot each trip, so it was completly full on our way back home.

More photos of the Expo will come on the Friday report. While we were at the Expo, my parents were at the Walmart. They spend the same amount of time there as we did at the Expo : 3 hours! :P
We had lunch at The Grill, and then we continued the day!