Chips and Bibs

D, Kris and I met at the Chicago Hilton to take the free bus over to McCormack place to pick up our race day packets. I have to say, it was so exciting! I worked from home today and all over the tv were Chicago Marathon stories and Commercials and short promos on the news. It's thrilling to know that we are a part of this. Kris and D were willing participants in my goal to capture our Marathon weekend moments so I'm happy to share some pictures with all of you. The picture on the left is one of the many great banners promoting the event. Here is our journey to the expo in picking up our official race day necessities!

Here are D and Kris waiting for the free shuttle over to the Hilton. They are holding up our confirmation ticket which is on the back of a booklet we were sent a couple of weeks ago with a ton of information just for race day. There were definitely a unique mix of people waiting for the bus....runners are an eclectic bunch!

This is Kris and I on the free shuttle "displaying" our nervous excitement. Or perhaps Kris is expressing his deep down desire to punch me for bringing him into this mess. Hah!

And then we enter the Exposition Hall. We have to first pick up our packets to get our Bib numbers. Also in the packet are our timing chips which we tie to our shoes. The chips allow us to receive an official time in the Chicago Marathon. There are certain censors along the way that track our chip as we pass on by. Cool, hunh?

When we went to activate our chips, our names appeared on this screen to verify that it was complete and ready to go....So cool that all of our names were up there together, officialy

This picture actually shows a couple of things. First, we were so excited that the shirts are so fantastic. Our 20 miler shirts were so horrible, ill fitting and shiny. These are shirts we'll have forever. The other thing this picture displays is the ridiculous height difference between me and the guys. Seriously, who let that little person enter the Chicago Marathon!!!!

Ok, now this shot needs a little explaining. You can barely see the little man sitting at the table but that is THE Hal Higdon! Chicago Marathon Guru and developer of the training program we are following. I'm over his left shoulder, in the distance, giving a thumbs up. D and Kris insisted that I get a picture with him but I didn't want to buy a book.

I was excited to see there is an official program included in the participation bag. I love these types of things; like playbills at the theater. I save all of the programs even from the tournaments I coach for my basketball games.

The Expo was great. The buzz of new and old marathoners was wonderful and we tried a lot of tasty and not so tasty treats. I'm glad we decided to go on Friday night as it seems to extend this entire weekend into a great event. It was also nice to chat with and overhear other runners going through the same thoughts we were; what to wear, what to eat, hoping to finish with some dignity! Here's to 45,000 people uniting under one goal.