How to survive a RunDisney expo and Graves Disease

After going to another building to pick up packets with bibs, shirts for the Glass Slipper Challenge and commemorative items along with an official RunDisney merchandise booth. You headed to another nearby building to pick up shirts and bags at a building across the way. We just happened to not go to the hotel room when we got there and hopped on the expo bus when we saw that it was at the hotel. Having that luggage came in handy! We picked up 5 runners packets with 9 races between us. It was very well organized and there was no wait time when we got there around 5 o'clock. I was happy to see that there was a an official RunDisney official merchandise booth in the same building as packet pick up for runners! There wasn't much in the booth - shirts, car magnets, pins, but one thing they did have was the Princess Mickey ears! I already had those on my list of must haves! They had another booth in the expo building too. 

The spot for this classic picture was upstairs after you picked up the 5k and 10k bibs. You had to follow RunDisney on Instagram and they did verify that by looking on your phone. I already was following them, but my girlfriend just had to follow them in the line and that was it! They emailed the pic to us by that evening. So easy and so fun! 

These are some of the vendors who were at the expo. I really only shopped a few booths since I wanted to save my money for park souvenirs. Plus I already had shopped the Tinkerbell Expo 5 weeks beforehand. (Most vendors were different this expo) My favorites were - Team Sparkle, I had a pick up from them. I ordered online a black sparkle skirt and it was super easy to grab and go. My cousins shopped BondiBands and bought a couple of their bands. Rawthreads had some really cute shirts, not that I bought one, but I browsed! So much cute stuff! I knew that the New Balance  Disney shoes would be gone by the time we got there, so that booth was skipped - almost! They did have some cute shirts and they had a cool wall with all the names of the runners on it. They had a spot for 5k/10k/and half marathon. I noticed the Glass Slipper challenge people were on their own wall near the finish line of the run.

 

We had our third caballero not be able to go on our trip last minute due to a Graves disease/hypothyroidism diagnosis a few days before we were going to leave. Her Dr said she was not able to get her heart rate up in fear of heart failure. They told her she couldn't even walk her runs. She was so sad and we were so bummed for her. There is nothing more disappointing than training so hard for something and be told you can't do it even though you feel fine, or so you think. She has a rapid heartbeat from her thyroid being larger than it should be and it's pressing on her artery. She most likely would have had a heart attack on the run and who knows what would have happened! So scary to think about! I knew how bummed she was and being a former teacher, I remembered Flat Stanley and all the adventures he had, so I created #flatangela to make her feel like she was apart of our girls trip and I had the blessing of my other running buddy. We actually had a blast taking her along and being silly with her. More on that to come! 

I would say don't go crazy at the expos. It's so easy to spend like crazy! I bought a magnet for my fridge, picked up my sparkle skirt, bought my ears and that was about it. (I had preordered my pins for my runs) You get a shirt for your runs from RunDisney and along with a sample of Craisins and a Luna Bar. I really loved the shirt that said My favorite Princess is my wife, but they only had smalls. They were so cute! Especially if you are a new runner you see so many cool things, but they say nothing new on race day for a reason!! It took until almost 8pm which was 3 hours to get all the bibs and shop the expo.