(03-05-2016) Little Rock - Exploration Day

Allison and I didn't have anything in particular on the schedule for today. We didn't even set the alarm.

As we got up and moving, I opened the window/curtains and noticed that the 5K & 10K participants were running past the hotel. Not long after, I recognized our friend MYMW coming by.  I took a few pictures of her from the comforts of our room.

Allison looked up some breakfast restaurant options and we found one within walking distance called The Root Café. http://www.therootcafe.com/ The line was pretty long when we got there but the people in front of us said that it was moving pretty good.  They were from Ohio; two of them would be doing the half on Sunday and the other two would be doing the marathon. Restaurants like this can often be a challenge for me since I am pretty particular about my food but I was able to find something. I'll be honest, it wasn't as fabulous as I was expecting it to be. The best thing was my orange juice. Pretty sure that was FRESH SQUEEZED!

We then walked back to the Expo to look around some more.

I bought a shirt that I didn't need (but at least it was dog related and not running!) and also got one of the free massages. They did a great job working on my piriformis.

We then went back out and walked around looking for some giant eagle that Allison wanted to have her picture taken on. We eventually found it but those pictures are on her phone.

And we also found a candy shop!  So we stopped.  DUH!!!

Then we walked to that capitol building. Not sure how, why or when it started but I have this thing with seeing a state's capitol building now. Mostly they all start looking the same but its fun seeing how they are different as well.

As we were walking back to the hotel, we saw the start line so walked down there (it was only a block away from us) to check it out.

Back at the hotel we rested before going to the 50 States Half Marathon Club dinner later in the evening.  We had done a lot more walking than we planned on doing - or probably should have been doing - and we never stopped for lunch either. Thankfully I had some snacks in the room to hold us over.

Neither of us had been to a dinner with this club but Allison already knew some of the people.  I'm so glad we went. Although the food was expensive and not that good unfortunately, it was great meeting all these new people and hearing other's experiences and stories.

We walked back to the hotel room and put the finishing touches on everything for in the morning. It was "lights out" about an hour later.