Nike’s NTC Tour made its only stop in the U.S. in April — and because it was just up the road in Los Angeles, I pretty much had to go. The only problem? I had no idea what to expect. It was scheduled for almost six hours (ending at midnight!) on a Saturday night in a pretty dodgy area of L.A…. but I shouldn’t have doubted Nike Women for a minute. After all, these are the same people who produce a women’s half marathon in San Francisco that ends with a firefighter in a tuxedo presenting you with a little blue box from Tiffany.

Because of space limitations in the area, they recommended everyone park at the convention center and take a shuttle over. But since Toby was in L.A. with me but wasn’t going to the event (I didn’t realize until too late that men were allowed!), he dropped me off. Driving there was a little worrisome, but once I arrived I could see that Nike had transformed what appeared to be an industrial area with some abandoned buildings into a girl power wonderland.

We immediately received a water bottle, neon yellow waist pack (with a Nike flash tattoo and map inside) and schedule, so we could see which workouts we were going to be doing. There were also tons of photo ops (which, of course, I took advantage of) and an area where you could borrow some new Nike shoes to try out during the event.

We all started with the “Nike epic workout,” which was a sort of warm-up/exercise class led by several Nike trainers. Then we broke up into groups, and I headed to “Pound,” which is a class that incorporates drumsticks and a live drummer, so you can rock out and work out at the same time. Then, I had a speed run class, which I was worried about because I had run 4.5 miles that morning, but it was pretty awesome. In addition to the Nike running trainers, we got tips from two Nike-sponsored professional runners, English Gardner (pictured below) and Carmelita Jeter… who just happens to be the fastest woman in the world. No big deal.

I bonded with a super fun girl named Britney over the fact that some of the other attendees don’t seem to have any awareness of other people around them — which is particularly problematic when lots of people are squeezed into a small building and flinging drumsticks around. We hung out during our “rest and relaxation” period after the speed run, took more photos, and then partnered up during our NTC workout at the end.

(Photos above courtesy of Nike Women)

Apparently I was really focused on that squat! Anyway, the workout was led by several Nike trainers and Silje Norendal, a Nike-sponsored snowboarder. The cool thing is that most, if not all, of the exercises we did in that session and the intro are available on Nike’s NTC app, so you can download them and do them at home or at the gym.

I was on the “get toned” track, which is how they determined which classes to assign me to, but there were several other workouts, too — like kick-boxing, fly wheel and a dance class that looked really fun. And they ended the whole thing at midnight with an epic dance finale, complete with smoke and fire.

I had a really amazing time and would definitely go to other Nike Women events in the future. Unfortunately, there aren’t any more NTC events in the U.S. this year, but there are a few in other countries — plus several Nike Women races all over the place. And I love that there were women of all ages, sizes and fitness levels at this event, so you don’t have to be crazy fit to enjoy it.

Nike had sent me a free pair of their new L.A.-inspired tights, but I couldn’t figure out the right top to wear with them. Instead, I wore some old pink and purple cropped tights (similar here, here and on sale here), an old oversized Nike top (similar here and here), pink Nike jacket (on sale) and the Nike shoes that used to be my running shoes (new version).