2013 Rock n Roll New Orleans Expo

Happy Monday! I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed their weekend! I know I had a great time in New Orleans for the Rock n Roll Marathon! I enjoyed spending time with my family, seeing friends, meeting new people, and running the race! Couldn’t have asked for a better weekend! I’ll start off with a recap of the Expo followed by the race itself. :0) 

On Saturday morning bright and early (7 a.m., thank you!) my family and I began our trip to New Orleans! I decided to take a few vitamins before we left (like I always do) – only this time, I took them after having eaten only a few bites of a banana. (Pills make me nauseated if I don’t have food on my stomach.)




After taking the pills, I ate the rest of the banana, then proceeded to foam roll while waiting on my parents. Not 20 minutes later, a huge wave of nausea hit me and….yep….everything came back up. Before you think it, NO…I’m not pregnant! I thought I felt better after that, so we got in the car and left. We were only about 15 minutes away from home (not quite to the interstate yet) when I made my dad pull off to the side of the road. It happened again.

Standing on the side of the road holding my hair out of my face, I kept thinking about the race the following morning. Was it just the vitamins I took that did this? Have I come down with a virus? What was I going to do? I was worried.

We continued driving and about 30 minutes later, my dad had to pull off to the side of the interstate. By that point, I was dry heaving. Thankfully, there was an exit nearby and we were able to locate Pepto Bismol!  After taking a dose, I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until we were in Baton Rouge. When I woke up, I felt like a new person! No more nausea and….best part….I was hungry! Thank goodness for the inventor of Pepto Bismo. He was suddenly my new best friend! :0)



We stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Gonzales for breakfast and I ordered an egg, sausage, and fruit plate (didn’t eat the grits).

After breakfast, we shopped a little bit at the outlet mall and I hit up my favorite store….Banana Republic!
Before long, we made it to New Orleans, checked into our hotel, and began the walk to the Expo.



The Expo was held at the Convention Center complete with new finishing touches to the outside (when I was here in may for a Convention, it was all under construction).



Ready to rock this thing!!



My husband didn’t tell me the mask was on my face crooked! Haha!

After walking around the Expo a bit, I received a text from a fellow Run Pink Ambassador, Mindy! She was at the Expo, too and we were finally able to meet up!



After “talking” to Mindy so much on Twitter, it was nice to finally meet face to face! (She’s a runDisney lover, too!)

We continued walking around and before long, ran into my running buddy and partner in crime, Heather!



We found a leprechaun and just had to stop for a picture! :0)



I also spotted the runDisney booth and they gave me a bag! Yay! Even though I was missing out on the Princess Half, it was nice to have a little Disney in New Orleans!



Steve Gleason was at the Expo with his booth “Team Gleason”. It was neat to see so much support for him, his charity, and ALS in New Orleans!



We stayed at the Expo for an hour, then decided to find some food! Last year, we had a really hard time finding something to eat because NOLA was super crowded. If we started early this year, we’d avoid all of that, right?



Wrong. There were LONG lines EVERYWHERE. After walking around for an hour, we finally ended up at a sports bar where I had a flatbread pizza!



Yum!



After dinner, we met up with our running group for a team meeting and picture. I love these guys! They are a lot of fun to be around!

Once the meeting was finished, Jason and I hit up Pinkberry for some FroYo, then returned to our room for sleep. I had quite the eventful day and was ready to catch some zzz’s. Perhaps the best part of the day is the fact that my nausea did not return! Yay! I made sure to drink plenty of fluids throughout the day and rehydrate myself before the race.

Up next: Rock n Roll New Orleans Full Marathon Race Recap