Disclaimer: I received a travel and hotel stipend and swag from The Running Event as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews! No further compensation was given and as always, all opinions are my own. If something was given for review purposes, it will be disclosed.
Picture this: You’re traveling solo to the new-to-you city of Austin, Texas. You get off the airplane and your eyes bounce around the airport, in search of the color orange.
The faces you’re looking for are ones you’ve never seen in person (save for a few, whom you’ve met previously at races); You know them from social media posts, Twitter chats, and the occasional conference call. You’ll be spending the next two days with these people and it’s a bit nerve-wracking.
And then there they are, beacons of light in orange, wearing their BibRave hats and shirts and huge smiles.
In that instant, you know that you’ve found your family.
As a BibRave Pro for the past two years, I’ve had so many awesome opportunities. However, I’ve got to say, this opportunity was the granddaddy of them all! A trip to Austin for The Running Event and the chance to meet 20 fellow BibRave Pros and 5 members of Team BibRave, the staff that includes Tim, Jessica, Julia, Andy, and Stephanie.
Once I received word that I’d been selected to go, it was a pinch me, I’m dreaming moment and that sentiment continued throughout the course of two day adventure!
We didn’t have anything “official” on the agenda until the Zwift Welcome Reception that evening but it’s clear to see that you can’t keep Pros apart. After arriving and meeting up with Kim, Chris, Brenda, and Mark, we took an Uber to our hotel. Once getting settled we decided to have lunch at Moonshine.
It started with four of us and after sending out a quick text to let everyone know where we were, we ended with 14!
From there a few of us branched off to take a quick tour of the city. I’d never been to Austin before but from the brief time we took walking around, I know that I must go back!
After our quick walk about town (and visit to Voodoo Doughnut, natch), we headed back to the hotels and got ready for the Zwift Welcome Reception.
Zwift is a virtual game that you use on the treadmill. For those attending the conference, our representation were the “chosen” four!
A run was set up with our other Pro friends and they all “met” up in the game at 5:45 for a 5k run. Cheering them on was so much fun. Give me a pompom and let me loose!
I was given a footpod from Zwift (the device that connects you to the virtual game) and we’ll be doing another BibRave virtual run on December 18th so I’ll be able to give you my full review on that in a couple of weeks.
Earlier in the week, Team BibRave announced the winners of The BibRave 100, a comprehensive list of the 100 best races in America, voted on by runners. Benjamin the lion is The BibRave 100 mascot and we were excited to see him in attendance! Of course my roomie, Kim, and I had to take a picture with the lion of the hour!
The welcome reception is also where we received an incredibly generous amount of SWAG from companies at The Running Event.
Holy moly, it was honestly like Hanukkah and Christmas morning all rolled into one. And maybe my birthday too.
My eye doesn’t know where to go first!
Following the reception we went for barbecue dinner and then finished up the evening at the Brooks Party. A good number of us wore the Brooks LSD Jacket that we’d just gotten and soon realized just how reflective it is.
Jessica, Kim, and myself
Can we say awesome? That’s a lot of reflection! Check out the picture above and see if you can spot the same jacket without the flash.
Due to the early morning wake up (3:30 for Kim and myself) we decided to head out early from the party. However, just before we left, we got to meet Des Linden, this year’s winner of the Boston Marathon. What a great way to wrap up day 1!
The following morning we were up before the sun, as we prepared for a 6:30am BibRave group run. It was such an awesome experience running around Austin in a big orange pack. I might sound a little bumpkin-y here but city running is certainly different than running here at home.
Thanks to Larry Castillo Photography for the amazing shots during the group run!
Kim and I even ended up twinning in our Skirt Sports Temper Tantrum print and BibRave shirts!
Team BibRave had a great spread of food set up for us after the run, which was so awesome and appreciated. We grabbed our bagels and ran back to the hotel room to grab a quick shower and get ready for TRE Influencer Day!
TRE Influencer Day was so epic, I covered it in a separate blog post. Click here to hop over!
Loved your post! The way you started it out was so creative! 🙂
Thank you, Vanessa! I had such a great time there! Words can’t express just how much I loved this adventure.
It look like you all had an amazing time!! Austin is such a cool city. It had to be so much fun getting meeting all the other Pros. And wow, holy swag! Thanks for the recap 🙂
It was definitely a cool city, nearly as awesome as Philly! 😉 The swag was absolutely incredible and our fellow Pros are amazing in their own right. Thanks for swinging by, Janelle.
I’m so glad we got to meet IRL! I miss you all already!
Same here, Nicole! Thanks for the southern hospitality. I can’t wait to visit again!
I love the way you set this post up. Makes mine look so generic. Miss you already, but hopefully we’ll see each other next year…you know at TRE 2019. Hahaha
Well, thank you kindly! And that’s too funny that you say that because while I was reading yours I was thinking how I loved how you broke everything down into segments. So yes, see you next year at TRE19 (and maybe before, yes/yes?).
I love Austin! So awesome that you got to explore the city and attend such an amazing event!!!
Thanks Annmarie! 🙂 It was such a great time, especially for my first visit to Austin! I only hope my next visit is longer so I can explore more.
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