The Eve of Melbourne Marathon

I've already picked up my bib on Wed morning, the first day of bib collection for international entrants, last min registrations/changes. Anyways, I thought I drop by to see what's the buzz about the marathon expo, which was launched on Fri. Oh, also to pick up my gift bag. Well, you don't get t-shirt or vest like ones we get in Malaysia or Singapore. For event's apparels, you will need to buy it, but kind of pricey to get one. However, you do get gifts. Marathon runners will get a towel (photo below). Inside the gift bag is a can of tuna, a bottle of sports drink and a pack of Salonplas (probably need it after the run). Oh and some brochures. That's basically it.

Quite a lot of booths set up for both organiser and sponsors, pretty much similiar to KL Marathon, but no bib collection hiccups like we had in KL on the first day. Maybe because most of the bibs have already been mailed out to local competitors. Only thing wasn't sent out was the gift bag. All you need to do is to bring along your bib to exchange it. A hole will be punched on your bib once you collected.

Take a look at this. They are even have refreshment drop off for marathon runners only based on the certain distance markers, i.e. 9km, 16km, 25km and 35km.

Asics, being one of their main sponsors besides St. George Bank.


Merchandise booth, nice but a little pricey.






Collection of gift bags




Some of the other booths at the expo.

One good thing that I got out from this expo is, I've collected a lot of free Salonplas patches. Haha. Kidding. I was at this Timex booth browsing through their watches and I thought just asked them about my Heart Rate Monitor which wasn't working. Just wanted to find out whether it's the problem with my HRM or my watch. Since my GPS pod is working fine, I don't think it was the watch. I was hoping they will be more professional answering it than those back in KL. You asked them about it, first thing they tell you is, "Oh, I think you need to bring it to the HQ". Probably because my watch wasn't bought from their shop. It was a gift from my sister in US.

So the lady there, explain it that could be the battery in my HRM. I told them that I've already got it changed. They suggested to me maybe I can try out using their HRM on my watch. Damm, I wasn't wearing it. So I told them I'll come back later with the watch. Before I left, I asked whether they sell the HRM seperately. They answered something but I didn't hear it properly, so I left. Went back home to have lunch and rode back again with my watch. I went straight to the booth, the lady remembered me and said "Ah, you came back." So, we tried using their HRM and it worked! So, I asked them again if they sell it seperately (just want to find out the price just in case I want to buy it). The lady just told me, "You can have it." That took me by surprise, I asked, "Are you sure?". And she said it again, "Don't worry about it, you can have it." Wow, I was in cloud 9 hearing that. What's the use of a HR watch without a HRM, right? Haha. so I went back with my pricey 'new' HRM. I am so glad that I went to the expo now!

Here's my bib number for tomorrow. Which reminds me, I need to go to sleep now.