I had a great time at the Air Force Marathon expo. It wasn't super big or super small -- just right :) Boyfriend treated me to a few goodies so I picked up the following:
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| My favorite socks, Balega Hidden Comfort in snazzy new colors, and a new Kid Stick! |
I have been trying to be very good with foam rolling and using my Stick at night. I was sad to think I'd be without both when I was away. So I decided to look into getting a travel-sized Stick. I ordered one from Running Warehouse (actually named, The Travel Stick) but was disappointed when it arrived and was practically the same size as my current Stick.
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| My original Stick on the bottom, Travel Stick in the middle, Kid Stick on top. The odd-sized Travel Stick has since been returned. |
I mean really? The Travel Stick was barely smaller than my current one. When I was at the expo, I talked to the guy at The Stick booth and he told me about the Kid Stick. "I usually sell this to children," he said, "but you're small so it will probably work." I only use The Stick on my legs so the Kid Stick works perfectly. In fact, I think any size adult would find it useful for the legs. I was really nervous about carrying it onto airplanes as I've heard of people who have had theirs confiscated. But no one even asked to take it out of my bag for a closer look. I am really looking forward to having it with me at Goofy in January and maybe even on our honeymoon.
I also got to ogle some of the new Oiselle clothes that a local vendor was carrying. Some of this stuff hasn't even hit the Oiselle website yet, and it was great to feel all the yummy new fabrics in person.
After hitting the expo, I stopped by McDonald's to pick up my tried-and-true fallback pre-race meal:
I would have much preferred a bowl of pasta, but this was within walking distance of my hotel and I know it agrees with me during races. Dayton was not a culinary tour as I dined at Pizza Hut the next night after the race (I love me some dine-in Pizza Hut and they are far and few between nowadays -- I saw a dine-in Pizza Hut as I was driving to my hotel and knew where I'd be eating one day).
After eating at Pizza Hut, I swung by McDonald's again to pick myself up a sundae. I spent the rest of that night lounging in a comfy hotel bed, eating treats, and watching cable tv. That is the life.
The only touristy thing I really did while in Ohio was visit the Air Force Museum. I went for a few hours Saturday after the race and again on Sunday before my flight out. I am not that into the Air Force. I am not that into planes or space exploration. But I have to say, this was a pretty cool museum. I'm not sure what I expected, but I didn't realize they would have so many pieces of aircraft with such important historical stories. The following are just a very tiny portion of what must be hundreds of aircraft they have on display.
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| Okay, so the first one is a bike. The Wright brothers made bicycles before they started making airplanes. Here is one of their bikes c. 1895. |
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| I didn't take lots of photos of the hangars, but the museum had 5 huge hangars FILLED with aircraft. Here is a shot of a small part of the collection in the "Early Years" hangar. |
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| Bockscar, the B-29 which dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki effectively ending WWII. |
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| The Sacred Cow; President Truman signed the National Security Act while aboard this aircraft which established the Air Force as a separate service. |
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| SAM 2600; So much history on this plane. Most notable, I think, is the fact it carried President Kennedy to Dallas where he was assassinated. It then brought his body back to D.C. and Johnson was sworn in as the new president aboard this aircraft. |
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| The crew didn't want Kennedy's body in the cargo hold so they removed these two seats and his casket was placed here during the flight back to D.C. |
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| They had an entire hangar of experimental aircraft that never went mainstream. |
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| Apollo 15 Command Module Edeavour. I think we've all seen this on television before. I didn't know that it touched down just north of Hawaii. |
The museum also has an IMAX theater and I caught two of the shows that weekend. You have to pay for the movies but the museum itself is free and I highly recommend stopping by if you are in the area.
One thing I am very thankful for is the fact that I have been able to do a decent number of destination races. I highly doubt I would ever have taken the time to visit the Air Froce Museum if not for this race. It is pretty amazing all the extra places I've gone in my life purely because of my running.
