On Sunday, we had our first local chapter MRTT open house appropriately named the Fall Showcase Open House!  Our chapter leaders, Erin and Amanda, put a lot of effort into making it perfect and fun for their 300 members.  No, we didn’t have perfect attendance, but the turnout was really good!

Erin had transformed her house into a pink-lover’s dream (or as she said, “an explosion of pink”) ready for us to make ourselves at home!  Guests signed in when they arrived and filled out ten tickets for chances to win cool prizes.

MRTTOpenHouseSigningIn

Amanda and Erin outdid themselves when rounding up these amazing prizes for the Penny Auction:

  • Runner’s Fuel
  • Poka-dot Tutu
  • BAMR Bands Headbands
  • MRTT Goodies
  • Sparkle Skirts Addict T-shirt

They also had three Grand Prizes:

 

MRTTOpenHousePennyAuction

Since they wanted the open house to be informative as well as fun, they had three little mini-presentations set up throughout the afternoon, and I was honored to be asked to help out.  These included:

  • Foam Rolling with Debbie
  • Winter Running with Amanda
  • Creating A Training Plan with Erin

In addition to the mini-presentations, there were a variety of activities for us to participate in.  The most popular was the shirt press.  Runners could buy and iron their favorite logo onto shirts they brought with with them.

Amanda volunteered to man the 280º shirt press, and helped everyone make sure their logos were
positioned straight before making them permanent.

MRTTOpenHousePositioningLogo
Amanda even took time out to do her own jacket!

MRTTOpenHouseShirtPress

And here she is,  showing off her newly decorated purple jacket!

MRTTOpenHouseAmandaJacket
It was fun to see fellow bloggers Kim and Katie there!  Katie is the lovely face behind MAMR Bands, and had her shop set up for us to stock up on her non-slip headbands.

MRTTOpenHouseKimKatie
Another station was the “Accomplishments” and “Running Inspiration Phrase” table.  Runners were encouraged to write out their accomplishments and inspiration phrases to hang on ribbons and share with their fellow MRTT sisters.

MRTTOpenHouseAccomplishments
And of course there was this!  If you’re the type to judge an event by the food and drink, you would have been happy!

MRTTOpenHouseRefreshments

Before my foam roller presentation, I gathered my group together for a quick little selfie since I’m one of the unofficial self-proclaimed team photographers!  And we were photo-bombed by Sammy, a future MRTT member!

MRTTOpenHouseFoamRollingSelfie

I went over the different types of foam rollers, and proper rolling techniques that you can read on my previous blog post.

MRTTOpenHouseDebRumbleRoller

It was an incredibly fun afternoon with some amazing women that help make my miles click by much faster in the wee hours of the morning!

 

  • Questions:
  • Have you ever tried iron on a decal onto clothing?
  • What types of open houses are your favorites?
  • If you won two personal training sessions, what would you want to work on?