605 Race Crew Night + Race Expo

The Friday night of the Sioux Falls race weekend, the 605 Race Crew met up for some socializing and good beer at WoodGrain Brewing Co. Melissa and I met up early to get some dinner. We picked up sushi masa, and since WG doesn't have food, they let you bring dinner in. We had some delicious beers and caught up with old running friends, and even met some new, super speedy ones.

We all were told to wear our 605 team shirts, and I was hoping we'd snap a picture, but all of the 605 staff was milling about at the expo trying to get everything set up after Donald Trump's visit to South Dakota through a wrench into the schedule for the day. Eye roll.

Saturday morning, I got up later than I wanted to get in my shake out run, and then made my way to the expo. I was excited that 605 Running Co. brought back their race predictions, this year including an adorable polaroid camera. Chelsey messed up writing down my time, but I should've kept it, because she was closer than I was! I guess 2:02:42 and she wrote 2:02:02. The winner was SPOT ON and had done the marathon. And best yet, the person's coach was the one that predicted it. How's that for knowing your athlete's abilities?!

I took a break and enjoyed ten minutes of recovery at one of the booths and chatted up my running friend Nichole while I was there. I had so many people stop by while I was stuck and wonder what the heck I was doing. They're great.

Then a group of us decided we all needed to buy the same shirt, after I had told myself that I definitely didn't need it. Look how cute they are though!

And a picture with my bib before I left. Lucky number 64! This expo has gotten better and better. When I first started running this race, packet pick up was in the Scheels in the middle of an aisle. When it was first taken over by Sports Authority it was in the same arena, but it was laughable how big the site was compared to the vendors. It was basically a packet pick up booth with maybe 1-2 other booths. This year, and last year, it started to feel like a legit race expo. There were tons of people I know who were planning to go that weren't even racing this year. That's a sign of a good expo. Keep it up!

Sioux Falls Half Marathon Expo Drama

The day before the Sioux Falls Half Marathon was a pretty busy day. I taught my monthly yoga class at the WoodGrain Brewing Co. I debated about staying after for a beer, and ultimately opted to stick around to enjoy a delicious IPA, after all, I wasn't racing on Sunday. I chatted with Ryan about running and a fellow yoga teacher about life and it was a lot of fun. It randomly started down pouring so that solidified my decision to hang out.

Finally it was time to head to the expo to pick up my race bib. I had sent BRF Toni there to skip my class because SFWR were selling some expo exclusive gear and I knew it wouldn't be there by the time I got to the expo. She snagged me an awesome pint glass and long sleeve shirt. So cute.



I got there and made my way to the packet pick up. I got my bib stamped so I could get a post-race beer (this is an important detail that will become very relevant in the story to come), and made my way back through the expo. A bunch of my friends were there working different booths, I bought a couple of awesome tanks for myself and Toni. Definitely check out 73Threads, super cute printed shirts/tanks in tons of colors and styles at reasonable prices (not an ad, just happy with the product!).

I stopped and chatted with the SFWR ladies at their booth, talked to some friends about their race plans as I was still looking for someone to run for fun with, that wouldn't mind when I picked up the pace with three miles to go, as was the plan, and chatted with the POWER coach, and the crew from 605 Running Co.

Before too long, I was on my way home, starving, ready to head out for my shake out run and to hang out on the couch relaxing and reading a book. When I got home, I took a few moments to scroll through Instagram where I noticed Toni had posted a pic of her race bib. Ooh, good idea! I rifled through my bag for my bib.... and I couldn't find it. I tore every single piece of paper and marketing material out of my bag to find my bib. It wasn't there.

SHIT.

Full disclosure: It's about 2:30pm, I have eaten zero food and drank one IPA. I've done a 60 minute yoga class, and I'm ready to chew off my own arm in hunger. Also the hangry level is reaching a code red. Kyle is fishing, so I call him on the off chance he's making his way home and can just swing by the expo to track down my bib. Nope.

I frantically message all of my friends that were at the expo last I left, to see if they can look for my bib. I suspect that I left it at the information table, as that was my first stop after the beer stamp table. Assuming I set it down as I was chatting. Nope. Not there. My next hope is that someone just returned it to the bib drop, so I load back into my vehicle to make the trek BACK to the expo. Just a casual 25 minute drive. Super fun way to spend my time.

Luckily for me, my sanity, and my stomach, I grabbed a luna bar as I headed out the door, ate that and drank a bunch of water, because I had also neglected that most of the day, ugh. En route to the expo, I get a message from a runner friend that another friend had just found my bib......LAYING ON THE FLOOR. [insert heavy eye roll here]

WHO GOES TO THE RACE EXPO FOR THEIR BIB AND THEN PROCEEDS TO LEAVE THEIR BIB BEHIND?!?!?

I am 33 years old. Life is hard.

I got back to the expo, grabbed my bib. Thanked everyone who helped support me on the mission for bib reconnaissance immensely for their time because of my stupidity and headed back home. For my shake out run. At 4pm, the day before the race.

The whole way home, I practiced gratitude instead of beating myself up about my stupidity: I am thankful that this isn't a goal race. I am thankful that this is a local race and I have a car readily available to get me back to the site. I'm thankful that the bib was found and there wasn't further drama to retrieve it. I'm thankful I realized it was missing early enough to track it down. I'm thankful I can afford gas in my car to make extra trips due to my stupidity.

Never did get a picture of my bib pre-race.

Hmph.