Little Rock Expo

B and I left Nashville early this morning (mid monsoon,  glad to get away from that) and arrived in Little Rock a surprising only 5 hours later. Its been awhile since B and I have done a quick 'in & out race' where we don't take the whole weekend and explore- mainly because how exciting can Arkansas possibly be??!?!
Originally I had told B a few weeks back I wasn't going to do this race (despite already paid registration) due to my knee acting up. After much contemplation about not wanting to have to later do an Arkansas 1/2 by myself & the fact that after this race I will have 3 weeks break before next race, I gave in. I have run 2 half marys to completion with my crappy knee, whats one more?!?! < I may regret these words tomorrow>

After check in @ hotel, we head downtown to check out expo held at the State Convention Center (sounds like a jail to me). To be honest, I'm not really sure why the Little Rock 1/2 is a Greek themed race, but if I happen to see people running in togas tomorrow, I won't complain :)

The expo itself was pretty spread out, which after experiencing how packed in / crowded Disney was last week, it was nice to not have to say 'excuse me' every 10 seconds. A lot of great companies there; I swear at every expo I see a new company selling headbands that I hadn't heard of before- maybe I should just quit my job and start my own running head band business?!?! ( I actually do enjoy my job)

Only item I decided to try out was new running socks- exciting I know, but once you start running higher mileage, socks make a huge difference. For almost a year now, I strictly have been running in Dry max socks, and although I do love them, they are starting to wear down and I figured it would be a good idea to try something different. I came across Thorlo running socks, and decided that since they felt great to the touch and they had the Runner's World stamp of approval I would give them a shot. I know you're not supposed to try anything new on race day, but I'm going to be a rebel and wear these bad boys!

After purchasing socks, B and I went over to these posters that had the pacers times and their photos so you could know who to look for with the marathon- the reason why I'm sharing this info with you is because after browsing through some of the people, I point to the 3:30 pacer and said to B "mmm Tony is hot, I'd like to break me off a piece of that!!" ( that is not a typical expression coming from me,  so I'm not sure why I said that) Then I realized what I said and made the comment on how embarrassing it would be if he just popped up behind me. As I'm sure you could guess, that is EXACTLY what happened. He came up next to me, pointed at the picture and said, 'do you recognize me??' Tony was MUCH better looking in person, so couldn't tell if it was him, so i asked if he was Tony and he confirmed. I complimented him on his speediness and wished him well in the race tomorrow. Luckily one of the workers pulled him aside to talk with him, so I walked off. Still don't know if he heard me earlier, but it was hilarious!

2nd memorable part of expo is they were doing free massages, none of that 5 minute crap either, full on 20 minutes. I have to give a special thanks to B for waiting in line with me FOREVER so I could get my massage one- it.was.glorious!

told her to pay special attention to sartorius, IT band, and medial side of knee

After expo we walked down the hall to the Peabody hotel (it was all connected), and for the first time I got to witness the duck march that Peabody is so famous for. It was adorable. 

Duck master handing out an award

ducks left the fountain and are now going down the stairs

working the red carpet!

Before we head to dinner, B really wanted to go to a thrift store to get a cheap throw away sweat shirt due to the predicted cooler temps at the race start. After a few failed attempts / stores closures, we finally reach the thrift store meca- trusty good will. 

After browsing around for awhile, we decided it would be funny to get matching sweat shirts or just something ridiculously ugly- tried on this sweat shirt and B told me I looked more 'hipster' than 'trying to be dorky'.

 I wish wish wish I would have taken a picture, however we found matching capri + zip up terry cloth workout suits- mine was yellow, becca's was pink- I cannot describe how awesome and 'old ladyish' they looked, but we finally decided that they would only be funny if we ran right next to one another, and that hasn't happened in a race yet, so sadly we put them back. What we did decide on were these sweet tie dye shirts- B's selection is one left, mine on right... actually looking forward to wearing this tomorrow (and of course being warmer than anticipated)

Finally we find a restaurant that only had a 30 min wait, Chilli's and decide to get their awesome $20 deal- 1 app+ 2 entrees. Now I don't have the time to write out all the reasons on why dairy just really isn't good for you (yes I realize this may be a touchy subject for many people out there bc its so contradictory to what we're taught, trust me, the research is out there) but I've been wanting to cut it out completely for awhile. I stopped drinking milk a few years back, but cheese and ranch are two of my biggest food vices, so B and I decided that for lent we are giving up all dairy, and then see how it goes after lent is over.
We choose loaded cheese fries w/ ranch as one last hoorah!!

After dinner we retreat back to hotel. I desperately wanted to use the hot tub, but it was invaded by the kiddies, so I settled for watching a few episodes of Tosh.O- if you like comedy, you will LOVE this show. 

Up early to meet up for our half fanatic picture and then hopefully not let the tough course tomorrow give me too much of a beating!

Enjoy rest of your weekend!