philadelphia half marathon: rothman 8K + expo (sat)

I left Boston on the Amtrak at 9:30pm on Friday and arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday morning at 4:30am. I met up with my friend, Rha, at the train station and we cabbed it to my sister's apartment. I was rushing to finish my Corporations take home final (please don't ask why I was STILL working on it on Saturday morning) so that I could go watch the Rothman Institute's 8K!

This was Rha's first race! How exciting! She did an awesome job. Hopefully we can trick her into running more races in the future.

Afterwards we hit up the expo and got lots of free stuff (obviously). I love free water bottles, chapstick, and Geico gecko masks. What I don't love (but still take anyway because I have a free stuff problem) are 5 hour energy bottles, grocery bags, and bandaids.

I tried to find a long sleeve t shirt to wear during the race, but no such luck. I couldn't find any that I liked (this turned out not to be a problem because apparently I get hot when it's 45 degrees out and like to run almost naked).

not free stuff :-(

After the expo, I took a nap while Ashley and Rha went on a hunt for Philly cheesesteaks. My friend Irene met us later on, where we carbo-loaded at Panini Trattoria in Old City. There was free sangria! but there may have also been a food poisoning incident, so if you go there, maybe you should order something that does not involve salmon. Aside from the poisoned salmon (which I fortunately did not try), I thought the pasta was quite delicious.

Next up: race morning!