The days leading up to my first half marathon were filled with nervous excitement and anticipation. The night before the race I headed to Indianapolis for the Indy Mini Expo. After reading numerous recaps over the last year and a half of various expos across the country, I was excited to finally get the chance to check it out. Once I walked into the expo, all my nerves dropped away, and all I felt was excitement!

Full of excitement for my first race expo!

My brother and I had a great time walking around the expo for a little over an hour. I picked up my race packet and then checked out all the booths. I didn’t end up getting anything, but definitely enjoyed seeing all the running items. I wish now I had gotten a 13.1 magnet for my car, but for some reason I felt a little weird getting it before I ran the race.

After the expo we headed off to the hotel. Once there I immediately starting setting everything out for race day! I skimmed through the race info provided in the packet (always important), and looked at the location for my corral.

I wanted to check out the shirt for the race, but given that it was hot and humid, I knew I would NOT be wearing long sleeves during the race! The shirt is pretty comfortable, and will be perfect for cool fall and spring runs!

I wanted to make sure I had my race outfit ready to go, and my bib pinned on in the position I wanted the night before so I wouldn’t have to fiddle with it the morning of the race.

Ready to go!

I have to say that I was so excited the night before the race that I slept maybe 2 hours at most. I mostly tossed and turned due to excitement, and when I got the wake up call at 5 am, I jumped up ready to run my race:)

Having everything set out and ready to go the night before definitely helped decrease my stress the morning of the race, and I definitely will go into the next race prepared as well!

Other posts about the Indianapolis Mini:

Now it’s your turn to share! What do you do to prepare for a race the night before?