Rock CF Half Marathon travel and expo

Hey guys, I have so much to tell you about my trip this past weekend to Michigan…but bottom line, it was a BLAST and I am SO SO happy I went.  So, with so much to tell you, I decided to break up the race into 2 post, one with the trip and expo and the second just about the race recap. So, let’s get started!

My flight was scheduled to leave Boston at 12:30p.m. but being the type A person that I am, I left my house at 10 am to ensure sure I would be at the airport an hour before my flight.  Now usually I’d be given a hard time about wanting to leave so early, especially since getting into the city on a weekend is usually smooth sailing, however, once I was right outside the city, they had the highway down to one lane and it was backed up for MILES. It took me about 30 mins to get past a stretch that would take me only a minute or two.  Thankfully, I had given myself enough time and had a nice buffer (see, it pays to be neurotic!)  When I finally figured out how to park in the overnight lot at the airport, I quickly headed through security since I checked in online the night before and made the trek to my gate. Three of the girls traveling to the race from work called out my name when I was walking by the restaurant they were parked at and I went in to join them.  We had about 45 minutes before we were going to board so they were enjoying some beer and I had just hit up my beloved Starbucks before meeting them.  Around 12:15 p.m. I said that I thought it was odd we hadn’t boarded yet.  We looked around since we were about 50 feet from our gate and it was EMPTY.  Like, no one but the gate attendants, so we quickly walked over there and they said to all of us “Haven’t you heard us calling over the loud-speaker for you?”  Um…no.  We were literally right there and heard nothing.  So, we were the very last passengers to board the plane.  EEK!

The flight was smooth sailing, took about 2 hours (I don’t know why but I always thought Michigan was so much further)  and I read a book the entire way there.  Once we landed we quickly made our way to Enterprise to pick up our car…well, van since there was going to be 8 of us this weekend!  Here are 5 of us in front of our beautiful ride…it was “a fully teched out” (Enterprise reps words) Town and Country Mini Van.

I have to hand it to T&C, I’m not a mini-van fan, but this thing was super spacious and had those doors that open and close themselves, pretty cool if you ask me!   I drive a teeny, tiny hatchback (which I love) but 3 of my cars could have fit into this bad boy!!  We headed the 20 minutes to our hotel, checked in, grabbed another co-worker who had arrived earlier and headed to the expo.

We had to travel about 15 minutes from our hotel to the expo at the Grosse Ise High School.   Once we got out of the car, we were greeted with signage with our company’s name and then a short little statement about one of our drugs.  It was pretty cool to see that as the first thing as you are walking up to the school, so of course, we had to take a group shot.  Notice our hair?  Yeah, the wind was pretty intense the entire time we were in Michigan!

Once we walked into the high school, we went to look on the sheets tacked up to see our numbers.  AND…of course, I am the last one listed!   I went from the front of the alphabet to the very end when I got married so I am pretty much guaranteed to be the last on any alphabetical list now!!  At least I am easier to find, right?

We entered into the gym and it was very quiet.  They had a lot of different opportunities for people to pick up bibs at a local running store and then throughout the day on Friday and Saturday.  We got there about an hour before they closed, so we had the place essentially all to ourselves, which was kind of nice.  All the people we spoke to were super nice and I know a lot of my running friends would have been happy to see that Bondi Band table set up below.  They were essentially the only vendor there selling stuff, with the exception of the race organization.

After we picked up our bibs and shirts (which by the way are the best race shirts I have EVER gotten) we went into the hallway to look at the other shirts available for purchase. I wanted one of everything, but I settled on a super cute, amazingly soft grey t-shirt for Ashton, his very first race shirt! Seriously, aren’t these the best shirts ever? For those of you who may not know, Cystic Fibrosis (CF) affects the lungs, among other things, so I love that the shoes represent lungs.  I absolutely love them and the quality and feel are amazing!

As we were all trying to decide what to buy, we met up with Emily, who is not only the founder and leader of the Rock CF Foundation (and designer of the shirts above), but she is a CF patient herself who is incredibly active in the community working hard to support research initiatives and heighten public awareness in the fight against CF through events like this race.  She is truly one of the most inspirational and charismatic people I have ever met and is a ray of sunshine on a dark, cold, windy day in Detroit!!  I was so happy to finally get to meet her (she is third from the left) and get a team picture together.

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