I’ve been so busy since Thursday I forgot to announce the winners of the Asics gear giveaway. And there are some random pictures I wanted to share from the weekend…
We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica. You know I’m super not fancy, so I always feel spoiled and out of place and BLESSED when I get an opportunity like this.
You know it’s a fancy hotel when the room person sets out your make-up…
That gesture is so sweet I’m going to overlook the fact that their toiletries called me a d-bag.
Plus, they answer the phone with your name and the customer service is amazing!! I really felt spoiled. When I went for a walk Saturday morning they handed me a towel and water as I walked back inside.
There was a photo booth at the party on Friday night…
And of course there is the view…
I took a walk to find lunch on Sunday and snapped a quick picture of Third Street in Santa Monica. This used to be a cool place to come when I was in high school but now I live so far I haven’t seen it for years.
I kinda skipped over the expo since the LA Marathon expo isn’t that grand considering it’s a big race. But there were a few things to note:
It was at the LA Convention center…
And outside there was a treadmill challenge – the treadmill was set to the pace of the LA Marathon course record – 2:06:35. That is 12.4 miles per hour!!
You could get hooked up in a harness and see if/how long you could hold that pace. They also did it at the NYC Marathon to Ryan Hall’s PR Pace.
The expo did give me warm fuzzy memories of the NYC expo this year though. The signs are the same and I LOVED New York so this made me happy…
Please note: I have no shame and do embarrassing things in public and try to get you to do them too…
And just like at the New York City Marathon, there is a wall with all the runners’ names on it. For some reason my name is epic-ly big!!!!! Score 
I’d like to thank all the RER readers for helping to make this happen…
And I stopped by the ProCompression booth and did a little dance.
The one tiny fail of the weekend was that my Garmin lost satellite for a few miles during the race. I wasn’t going for time, but if I was I would have freaked the heck out!!!!
The post-race dinner was probably the highlight of the whole weekend (hello, besides the race) for me. I got to sit at the table with Deena Kastor and she is so normal and down to earth. Seriously. I felt comfortable enough to tell her about that time I barfed in my car. (Suddenly regretting that…)
Added bonus: Brian got this picture of me hanging out with Deena Kastor after our run Saturday. Would it be weird to make this my Christmas card??
Plus, these lovely ladies were there and I dig them too.
And my fave group picture after dinner…
Check out this post for a list of all the bloggers.
Winners of Asics Giveaway:
Question: Do you have a big collection of random pictures on your phone too? What’s the BEST one??
Loving all these rando’s. They’re normally the best 🙂
My favorite random picture is my boyfriend and his dog sleeping in exactly the same position. Gets me every time
Those are some amazing pictures! You’re so social! I’m like “*finish line* *beer* *photo* *bag check* BYEEEEEEEEEE!”. It looks like such a wonderful time; I mean freaking Deena Kastor and Ryan Hall! That guy is a damn beast!
So.many.randoms. And they need to be deleted. Haha!
Looks like a Blast! Totally make that your Christmas card, haha!
sounds like the perfect weekend! awesome running friends, yummy food, and a race…what more could you ask for? 🙂
most of my pictures are ones of my two dogs <3
That treadmill thing is pretty cool. I think i’d fall over and die just trying to jump on…that is some fast running
I have way way to many pictures on my phone. My fav’s are probably my munchkins doing crazy stuff.
Wow that hotel is fancy!
I have ton of pics on my phone! Quite a few blackmail too 😉
Ha!!
I have a ton of pics on my phone, and a lot of them are of food.
Looks like so much fun! You look great, Monica! xo
This looks like such a fun time. I will miss all the races back at home this year.
Top notch service! Too bad I can’t afford hotels like that. 🙁
So fun and makes me super-stoked that I am finally getting back into my running routine.
I have TONS of photos on my phone. Things from my pets, blog pictures, and even a picture of a stick figure my husband drew of himself with a broken sacrum (he was injured and having a pity party). That’s probably the oddest one I have.
That is odd and awesome 🙂 Hope he’s better now!
Those are great pictures, you know how to have a good time!
The pictures on my phone are the best because they are so random and meaningless at the time I take them, but then they because so meaningful exactly for that reason.
I have TONS of random pictures of everything from animals to friends and family to my bruises from tripping and various other injuries. My weirdest/best is I screens hotted the picture that TMZ posted of Prince Harry when he was naked in Vegas haha
I have 900 random pics, mostly of the peacocks and emu’s that live in my neighborhood but there is one picture of someone’s kitchen and I have no idea who’s kitchen it is. Is that not the weirdest thing ever?
I always have random photos on my phone. You never know which ones you are going to want to use on the blog. Others just end up in the random camera roll.
I can’t believe someone can run a marathon keeping up a 12.4 mile per hour pace. That’s amazing to me!
I have way too many pictures on my phone. The best one(s) are prob the ones of my husband wearing absurd things that I put on him in stores. He won’t let me post them but I have a great blackmail selection.