Late Friday afternoon I arrived in Amelia Island for the ZOOMA Florida Half Marathon.
I traveled to the race as a member of ZOOMA’s Blogger Advisory Panel and finally got a chance to meet Tricia, Brae and Brooke, the three-woman team behind the race series. Yep, only three women organize the five races that take place around the country. I’m not sure how they find time to sleep!
The race expo and finish line party took place at the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island which was easily one of the most luxurious hotels I’ve ever stayed in. It was absolutely gorgeous and the service was unparalleled.
ZOOMA is all about making their races “girls’ weekend getaways” and I took that mentality to heart and had a great time with the ZOOMA women and blogging buddies! Right when I arrived, I ran into Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point in the elevator!
We were both set to speak during the expo and after I dropped off my stuff, we headed back down to the expo room to meet up with the women from ZOOMA and prepare for our talk.
I was a bit nervous, but luckily everyone was really friendly and helped to make the presentation interactive which is what I was hoping would happen when we began talking!
Once we were done, we took some time to explore the expo, drink some Barefoot Wine samples and speak with the various vendors.
The expo was quite small, but the race itself is a “boutique-style” race with less than 700 runners, so it seemed fitting. The vendors brought lots of samples and I loaded up my bag with bottles of Hint Fizz sparkling water. As a sparkling water fanatic, I absolutely love the pop of flavor in Hint waters. I told them that I wish water came out of the tap tasting like their water!
After the expo, it was time for a mocktail party sponsored by Honest Tea.
The party took place in the hotel’s Seaside Room, a cozy room that had a blazing fire roaring which added a lot to the ambience of the event.
At the party, I was able to meet some of the other women running in the race and say hello to more blogging friends including a bunch of other ZOOMA blogger ambassadors.
I’ll be back in a bit with a race recap! If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram, I think you already know it was a pretty darn good race for this girl. 
I hope you’re having a great weekend!
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Wow three women organizing the whole thing crazy! Can’t wait to hear more about the race recap! It looks like it was a fun time!
i know! they are rockstars!!!
Congrats on the PR! The Zooma weekends look like fun destination races!
You have to love races geared toward women. I love events that highlight the importance of physical fitness for women. Congrats on a great race! 🙂
Out of all the races I’ve ever done, the Iron Girl in Seattle was by far the best one for both organization and goodie bags. 🙂 I think the girls know how to do it. haha.
Three women?? Impressive!
And congrats on such an awesome race!! 🙂
Is it sad that I didn’t realize there was a fire going last night until this post? Lol. I was SOOO paying attention to the details.
Ha!!
Great recap and congrats on the pbr! You have always inspired me and I cant wait to do my first 10k in June.. Zooma!! Thank you Julie you rock! 🙂
annapolis!?!? i heard that race is AWESOME! good luck to you!!!
Yuppers! So excited it is close to home that the hubby a little one can come watch.. thank you!
I was just at Amelia Island a few weeks ago (my bf’s parents live there, rough, huh?). Anyway, I heard about this race and I totally wanted to run it, but it didn’t match with my schedule. Congrats on the awesome race – I can’t wait to read about it!
Didn’t know you did public speaking as well! Was that your first time?
I’m gonna have to twitter stalk you!! haha can’t wait to hear how it went!
As a fellow sparkling water lover, I COMPLETELY understand the desire for it to come out of the tap that way 😉 Congrats on your new PR!
Looks like you had a wonderful time! You make me wish I was a runner 😉 Go on and get some rest now, girl!
Congrats on the PR!
Cant wait to hear about the race girl! Sounds like the weekend has already been a success!!
Yay, I can’t wait to read about your race! I love how relaxed this half-marathon seems. It really takes the stress out of everything!
Congrats on the race!!
Woohoo well done! Can’t wait to hear about the race…also Caitlin’s hair looks amazing short!
Wow, what a fun weekend! Sounds like you had a successful race, too .. congrats!! 🙂
Do you happen to know if there is going to be a Zooma Atlanta? I found it on a list of half marathons around the country, but it’s not on Zooma’s website. 🙁
congrats on the pr 🙂 can’t wait to hear more about it!
Congratulations!!!!! 🙂
This all looks amazing! Congratulations on such an awesome race! 🙂
These Zooma ladies know what they are doing — between you and Caitlin, this is making me want to sign up for a Zooma race :p Looks like a fun weekend!
I’m having an awesome weekend! Got to run a good 11 miles yesterday morning. Weather was perfect in Alabama. Which is funny because Thursday it was cloudy and snowy, then friday and saturday the skies were blue and the weather was crisp. Weird? Yes.
It looks like you had a lot of fun! Glad you PR’d
After hearing you talk about the Zooma series you inspired me to try it! I’ll be running the Cape Cod race and am super excited after seeing how great this one was for you! Thanks girl!
Sounds like such a fun weekend/race! Can’t wait to read the recap… and so cool that you were able to meet up with some other awesome bloggers! 🙂
Congrats to both of you!! Great races!
Looks great! 🙂