After 3 and a half years of waiting, I finally made it to Boston (despite a 21-hour delay on the way out) and hit the expo on Saturday 15th April.

Yes, I know! Expo on a Saturday is generally not the best time to go but to be honest, it wasn’t that bad.

The original plan was to go on Friday when it opened up to avoid the weekend crowds but the flight cancellation knocked that idea on the head. Instead, I went to Boston to watch the B.A.A 5k race then went to the expo after that. The doors opened at 9am and I went in around 10:45am.

Initially, the queue looked massive, it snacked around the front of the building and back passed the front door. I was all set for a good hour or so wait but the line moved quickly and I got inside in no time. From joining the queue to leaving the expo I was done in under an hour.

Once you get in, bib pickup was first and went smoothly, with plenty of stands to spread out the runners. I just had to scan the QR code which was mailed out 2 weeks before the race and show my photo ID.

You then head into the expo hall which was big as you would expect for one of the premier running events in the world.

The Adidas stall was huge with loads of Boston merch, the crowds in there were massive and the queue to pay just looked crazy. I didn’t bother looking at anything in there, I had already seen a smaller stand in the FanFest zone near the finish line which had a smaller selection of merch but had the jacket which was the only thing I wanted to get.

I had a quick look around some of the other stalls but wasn’t really that interested in picking anything up.

I did stop by the Abbott World Marathon Majors stall to check out the Wall of Fame now over 3,000 runners had picked up their 6 star medals in Tokyo last month. That list is getting pretty big now and I am so looking forward to joining them this weekend.

I did splash out on the new World Marathon Major collectable coins, I really like the design of these and think it’s a cool way to celebrate your race. They will look good lining up alongside the 6 Star Medal on Monday.

After that, I listened to a Q&A with a panel that included Alexis Pappas. I have always been a big fan of Alexi and her cool outlook on running and life in general so I was glad I had happened upon that Q&A.

That was it for registration and the Boston Marathon expo.

The rest of the weekend was spent wandering around Boston checking out the marathon sights and catching up with friends, some of which I have seen in person for a few years or at all.