Pittsburgh Marathon Expo 2014

We flew into town Thursday night so we could visit the Expo on Friday morning.  Since hockey playoff games were added it tightened up our schedule a bit, though in a good way.  Of course!

We stayed at the Cambria Suites next to Consol, a decision made way back last year based entirely on the hope the Penguins would make round 2 of the playoffs.  And they did - hurrah!

Compared to Calgary Pittsburgh was very green.  The leaves were out on most of the trees, there were flowers and green grass.  The birds were singing everywhere.

It was only a 15 min walk to the David L Lawrence Convention Center.  Race kit pickup was easy, we turned right and the bibs and shirts were right there by bib # (marathon) or last name (5k).  That part took about 10 mins.  Shirts were a different colour for men and women in both distances, the marathon had long sleeve and the 5k short.  I thought they were excellent.  Nice job!

After that we turned into the main section.  Aren't these bridges brilliant?

We found ourselves on the wall.

There there was a blur of spending which I did not manage to take any pictures of.  I got socks from Fleet Feet who were extremely helpful, Kev got shoes and compression sleeves.  We pre-paid for a photo discount from Marathon Foto, and as soon as the code actually works you will see some race pictures.  

Something I had really been looking forward to was getting some T's from Fresh Factory.

I always like to check out other race booths so we did a quick tour, popping into Detroit who run one of our favourites.  Shortly after this we passed by a photo display stall and found...the 2014 marathon medal.  I had mixed feelings as it was going to be a surprise for me on race day.  

Somehow a great deal of time passed and we had to head off to find something to eat then get ready for the hockey game.  Why didn't I buy shoes?!  Dammit!