Our First Disneyland Expo

Hi everyone! As much as we enjoyed our time at Disneyland in California, we are kind of glad to be home. The weather in Southern California was much cooler than we anticipated and for that reason we are loving the 80 degrees and humidity that we came home to ( yea, we may be a bit crazy)!

On Thursday morning we attended our first Disneyland race expo.  If you have done a run Disney race at Disneyland before some of this stuff may be redundant. If you've never done a Disneyland race before perhaps you will find some of this info helpful. We met our friend Pam on the way to the expo and she helped us navigate around!

The race expo is located at the Disneyland Hotel. This was very convenient for us because we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel. Just like at Disney world, packet pick-up and the actual expo are in two different locations. At Disneyland packet pick up is underneath where the expo is (kind of like in the basement).  Here is where you will get your bibs for all the races, pick up any pre-ordered merchandise, and get your wristband for the Coast to Coast Challenge if you are a participant.  I had totally forgot about getting a wristband because I was not given one when I got my bib. Thank goodness my sister noticed. I of course had to go to Runner Relations and let them know that I DID run Princess and I was doing the Coast to Coast Challenge. It appeared that they did not have my birthday correct. It was a simple fix and I got the wrist band.

I was also kicking myself because I did not order the "pre-order" Tinkerbell half jacket before it sold out. When I got to the expo and saw that it was exactly the same design as the marathon weekend jacket, I was relieved I did not order it.  Really Run Disney, you couldn't have come up with a different design?

After picking up our packets, it was time to go upstairs and pick up our shirts and do some shopping. We were very pleased with all the shirts for this race weekend. They were very accommodating with shirt exchanges for those that didn't fit. 

 

By the time we got to the official Merchandise area it was still rather early and there were no lines to get inside. Merchandise was fully stocked and all sizes were represented. My sister, mom, and I all got the teal Tinkerbell Half Marathon jacket. I think it's cute and I wanted to keep up my tradition of getting a jacket for each Disney race weekend but I will say that the quality is no way worth the $80 we paid for them but that weekend they were worth their weight in gold because we were literally freezing all weekend. Where was that Southern California sun?

In addition to the jackets, we picked up some magnets and some sweaty bands. All the sweaty bands were SO cute. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to get but knew I didn't want to go overboard. Apparently the one I got was very popular because when I went back the next day they were sold out.  Seeing that the expo was pretty well stocked when we got there, I was hopeful that they would have enough merchandise for those runners coming in later. Turns out, they sold out of jackets, magnets, some sweaty bands, and wine glasses all on the first day. When will Run Disney ever learn?

At one point we stopped to listen to the speakers talk about what to expect on the 10k and half marathon course. Since the course was new to us we thought maybe we would learn a thing or two. 

Unfortunately we didn't really learn anything about the course except where the "hidden" port o potties were. The session was more about safety information and would probably have been very helpful for first time runners.

The rest of the time at the expo was spent checking out some of our favorite booths. Since neither of us packed our Massage Sticks, a visit to this booth was a must. We also found some new medal displays we wanted to get and I decided that it wouldn't hurt to get my knee and IT band taped up.

They of course had some fun photo ops at the expo as well. Here is a little tip that we found out. Don't wear a green or teal colored shirt or jacket in front of a "green screen".  It picks up that "green" color and makes it blotchy like in the first picture. That was told to us by the photographer AFTER the fact. We knew better when it was time to get another picture in front of the "green screen", the jackets came off!

For the most part, we thought the expo went very well. We especially liked the fact that it was located right inside our hotel and we didn't have to get transportation to another location.  This is one thing that is a definite plus compared to Disney World.

When choosing a hotel, is it more important to you to be closer to the expo or closer to the start line?