I have been looking forward to this race and expo since I saw the booth at the Country Music Marathon Expo. The draw for me was the idea of the two piece medal and the fact that it was a race especially for women.
The Nashville Medal is unique to Nashville. Each of the races has finishers medals that are specific for that race. You can find the concept art work here at their home page Women's Half Marathon.
They also advertise the "ultimate goodie bag". Again the artwork for each bag is different dependent on which race you are running. The let down of this "ultimate goodie bag" is that the ultimate thing about it is the specially designed bag. It is special and unique but not what I would really call "ultimate". I was looking for something from the major sponsors of the race in the bag and found only the following items:
Dole Real Fruit Bites yogurt and whole grain oats covered pineapple chunks these I was looking forward to and they did not disappoint.
Shave Secret tried this when we got it in previous goodie bag it's not that great
Real Foods Corn Thins uber thin corn cakes I added some Nutella to mine for some flavor
Rohto Redness Relief eye drops different version than I had received in another race bag, but still can't use do to contact use, tried this version after taking out my contacts not a pleasant experience it made my eyes burn even more
ViOLOGIE sample of shampoo and conditioner with a coupon
It would have been nice for them to include a chain of some sort for the charm that detaches from the finishers medal. It could have been a leather cord or just the same chain they sold for $10.00 since the draw for many participants was the idea of being able to wear your medal where ever you go.
The tech tee is cute, the graphics, style and feel of the shirt are nice. These are NOT real women sizes, my XL was more like a large or medium and there was no offer of any sizes larger than XL. After talking to several other ladies at the expo that were not itty bitty, there was a general feeling of letdown that they would not be able to wear the shirt due the small sizing.
For a "women's" race one would think that they would want to cater to the "real" women. This race series has seemed to draw quite a few "first timers" this would be a GREAT opportunity for them to showcase that not all women are built the same, I think they might have dropped the ball in that area.
The sizing of race apparel and tech shirts is something that I have found to be an industry wide problem for men and women. The tech shirts all seem to run small, sure this FCR could compromise and buy a guys shirt but I don't want a guy's shirt. They are cut differently and just don't seem to fit correctly.
The Expo was laid out so as you entered the area you first went through the branded apparel, there were some really cute head bands and tee-shirts with the race logo. Then you begin a serpentine walk around past the vendors, the drawback to this lay out is that you had to go all the way around the booths to get to the tee-shirt pick up area. Not a bad marketing strategy but for those participants that had to pick up their packets and leave it caused a bit of a bottle neck during the "rush".
Michelle Stone, Dawna Stone, FCR and Ellen Heise.
I got to spend some time talking to Michele Stone and Ellen Heise about the expo and goodie bags and they explained that the bag was considered "Ultimate" because it wasn't the typical throw away plastic bag that you get at most of the races across the country. I can give brownie points for that. They also explained that they were very picky about what was put in the bags more points here. Taking that in to consideration is a nice sentiment that you don't come home with a bag of fliers that you never read and just toss away.
Over all the expo was nice, filled with your typical race vendors, from this FCR's experience, there was of course Spibelt and Gu, our Fleetfeet friends and our local Acme Multi-Sports guys and girls at the Oakley booth, Brooks made and appearance with Fleetfeet, and Muzino was there with Sports Seasons. There were some new to me vendors there as well. The gang from Nuu Muu was awesome. And the Concerta staff was very nice as well. RungirlRun and GypsyRunner.com were also in attendance.
Next up we will review product from Nuu Muu, rungirlrun and Gypsy Runner, as always we never review product that we have not personally tried.
Know of someone or something we need to feature just send us a note and we will check it out.
Till Later
FCR
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