Berlin Marathon Expo | Tigger Mania

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I promised my next blog would be about the Berlin Marathon Expo.

Last year, the Expo was held in an old airport. It was actually a pretty cool building! They did have a lot of vendors crammed into one large room and it was very congested and warm. This year they moved it to a new facility. They were many rooms so things were spread out and it was much more enjoyable.

My sister and I went to the Expo on Thursday. They say not to spend more than one hour at an Expo so you don’t get too tired. Seeing as this is a HUGE Expo, I knew there was no way we could see it in an hour, so we went on Thursday. We’d have two days to recover before race day on Sunday.

When we arrived, the doors hadn’t been opened yet. We had to wait in a very long line until they opened the doors. The weather was nice AND I bumped into a Twitter friend so we chatted to pass the time. Nice lady!!!

Before you could even enter the building, you had to present some paperwork and photo ID. If you didn’t have it, Sorry Charlie. They wouldn’t let you in.

This was what I saw as soon as I entered the building.

Wall to wall runners! I was thinking to myself, “Wow! Lots of people!!!” Then I had to remind myself that this was the third largest marathon in the world, so of course there would be lots of people!

As you progressed in this hall, you were stopped and a person sewed this band around your wrist. This was part of the security for the race. You were not allowed into the runners area on race day *this means you couldn’t get to the corrals to run the race* without the band.

It was made of some sort of nylon rope-ish, rock climbing worthy, heavy duty stuff. I had to have MFH (My Favorite Husband) cut it off when I got home. It was on there good!

After the band, I was able to pick up my bib. YAY!!! Getting my bib is always my favorite part of the Expo. I’m always excited to see if the race put my name on the bib or just a number. This time, my name was on the bib.

Now, Adidas is the “official logo company” for this race. If you want the “real deal” merchandise, you had to go to Adidas. They have a store in the Expo. They also have a wall at the Expo. You can write whatever you want on the wall for everybody to see. I wrote, #IRun4Aiden. I held my bib up underneath my artwork and my sister took a pic. I posted the pic to Aiden that evening on the IRun4Michael page on FB.

My next stop was to the Abbott World Marathon Majors booth. Seeing as I am an Ambassador for the Abbott World Marathon Majors, I was excited to stop by and say, “Hi!”

While at the AbbottWMM booth, I decided to play and had pics taken there. I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2014, so I had my pic taken in front of the post about Chicago.

I ran the Berlin Marathon last year (2015) and was running it again this year (2016), so I had my pic taken there, too!

Finally, since the lottery drawing for the London Marathon is being held this coming Monday, I had my pic taken in front of the London post…with my fingers crossed for good luck!

My sister was wanting to stop by the Hoka store in the Expo. We headed over there next. There were TONS of pink Hoka’s! I’d never seen so many pink running shoes in my life!

My sister did pick out a pair….they were not pink. I think they were blue!

After 4 hours, we were kind of Expo’d out. I had promised a friend who lives in Washington state that I would pick him up a shirt from the Expo. We headed back to the Adidas store in the Expo to find him a shirt.

Would you believe I forgot to take a pic of the shirt!?! I dropped the ball there, didn’t I? Oh well….it was red. LOL!!!

We stood in line for an hour to buy that shirt! It was just soooo busy!!! As Sam Wise Gamgee says, “A promise is a promise, Mr. Frodo.” While my friend’s name is not Frodo, I had promised him a shirt, so I resigned myself to standing in line. This was the line….it took two pics to get the whole line.

They had the line set up like at a Disney amusement park ride. Back and forth and back and forth. Finally, though, it was our turn. We paid and then left the Expo to find some dinner! We were hungry!

It was a terrific Expo!!! Had a great time!!!

#IRun4Aiden