Hot Chocolate 15k/5k Expo and Volunteering Recap & Giveaway Winner!

Volunteering at the Hot Chocolate 15k/5k Prep

Saturday morning Lisa and I reported to Turner Field to help with preparations for the race! The first thing that happened when we got to the volunteer site was get our AWESOME sweatshirts that say "Will Volunteer for Chocolate," and at 20 degrees when we got there we sure did need the extra layers!

Our job as volunteers was to assemble the finishers mugs. Each mug had to have a bag of pretzels, wafers, a rice crispy treat, and a hand sanitizer wipe. We also had to make about 20,000 of these! There were about 50 volunteers there during our shift and we broke into smaller groups and made an assembly line putting the finishers cups! This lasted about 5 hours and then we were off to the expo!

The Expo!

The race expo was located at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, and for those who haven't been there it is HUGE! This was our first expo which was really exciting, so we spent a few hours there. 

The expo was one large room in the World Congress Center filled with booths for other races and companies like Skirt Sport. For some reason we didn't think that there would be booths with clothes and shoes so we did not expect to go and spend money! There were some amazing deals there on our favorite running gear, like 50% off shoes, Skirt Sport clothes, Sweaty Bands headbands, ect. So we browsed and walked around the expo looking at all of the items that we wanted but didn't buy since we weren't expecting to spend money. 

As you can image that only lasted so long. Lisa and I purchased race entries to the 80's Rad Retro Run, which is on May 10 (the day after my 21st birthday!). The expo also had music, chocolate covered marshmallows, and hot chocolate of course!

Below is the goodie bag that we got with packet pickup. I also got a free coffee mug (with a coupon from another blogger when I signed up)

Giveaway Winner

The winner of the giveaway is Tara! Tara if you would send us an email with your information to claim your prize, it will be on its way to you soon!

The race recap will be up soon so be sure to check back for that! (The blog post after that will have a giveaway too!)

Running on a budget!

The Weekly Update!

So last week it suddenly got very cold! Thus unfortunately we only got to go out twice to exercise. :( the two times that we went out we did our usual circuit of a 3.5 mile walk/run. Lisa and I started playing around with the idea of doing a yoga or cardio workout video inside once a week. We also made a trip to Target to get some long pants to run in. Hopefully next week we will be more use to the cold weather and get out our normal 5 times a week.

Running on a Budget!

So we all know how budgeting can be, and unfortunately since Lisa and I are both collage students it is a necessity for us to budget our running expenses. We thought this post would be a good time to share how we save money and get feedback from everyone on how they save.

Lindsay's purchases from Target 

So far to save the most money we usually look for great coupons. The local running store that we go to offers a membership for a 10% off purchases and they also have special events where they offer 20% off. Outside of that we also get gear from off-priced department stores such as Marshals, T.J. Maxx, and Target.

Lindsay got this resistance band workout for $5 at Marshal's 

Lisa's purchases from Target

For most of our races so far we have either taken advantage of early registration pricing, discount site registrations (like Living Social or Groupon), or giveaway entries. We got registrations for our Color Run from Living Social for 50% off which was great! And the Hot Chocolate 5k race I won an entry from a giveaway. Most races have a Facebook page where they giveaway entries or give out discount codes so we both 'liked' the races that we are interested in ahead of time so that we can keep an eye out for coupons and giveaways.

Speaking of giveaways . . . we LOVE them. It is such a good way to try new things! Which is why we want to start offering them as well. There are so many things that you can win from giveaways including but not limited to: RoadID, race entries, socks, clothes, inspirational jewelry, meal supplements, Gu's , protein bars, and many many others. In the spirit of saving we want to host a giveaway for everyone that has liked our Facebook page and reads our blog. Please let us know what you want for a giveaway! You can post a comment here and let us know.

Next time we will be talking more about our training and the training plan that we are following and why.