Will Run for Chocolate…

Maybe never again.

I signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k because it sounded fun. 9.3 miles with fondue at the finish? No brainer.

So. I sign up with no real information about the race. I didn’t know the course. I wasn’t sure the logistics, but whatever.

So as it gets closer I get about 40 emails about getting a parking registration and carpool. UM…what? I wasn’t planning on running this with people…

So I reach out to a friend to carpool with her. whatever.

Fast forward to race week. I feel sick all week. I run 1 run. I don’t even know how long it was because my watch died and I was pushing the girls in the stroller.

Went Wed. night to pick up my bib, and traffic getting there was nuts. (red flag number 1) but I just figured it was rush hour in DC and whatever.

So Saturday am, we make plans to get picked up at 6:15 (Meredith is running it with me now because our friend got hurt and couldn’t run it.)

We get to the highway and its break light city. We have to go 3-4 miles, literally across a bridge and 1 exit. We sit, and sit, and sit. The race starts at 8am. At 7:45 we are not even off the highway and we still have to go to the satellite parking lot and catch a shuttle to the start.

We did hear they were delaying the start so that was good.

So we eventually get to the start, through a series of bad directions and a little bit of wandering.

We just jumped the barriers and just got in a corral. I was corral O and I think I started around C. This ended up really being a good thing for me I think.

So the race starts. The course is NARROW. Like one car lane for 20,000 people.  The course sucked. It was crowded and mostly out and backs. The first 2 miles went down a 3 lane highway, 1 lane runners out, 1 lane runners back and 1 lane TRAFFIC. I heard someone got hit by a car! SO NOT SAFE, and horrible breathing those fumes!  Another out and back on this gravel construction site.  Then running along the river on a skinny little trail.

Then there were the hills. LOTS of hills. The last half mile or so was up a pretty steep hill. I was trying so hard to go fast, and I felt like a hamster on a wheel. I was running hard but going NO WHERE.

There were very few spectators or people cheering. I get that, they probably couldn’t get to the race!

It was very boring and of course I picked this race to give up running with music!

However, crappy race details aside, I ran the race of my life! I ran the first 3 miles sub 10 min miles!

I walked one water stop only because I got caught in the middle of everyone who just stopped to get water, and I struggled to get out of the jam. The rest of the race was me just going, thinking about how I was going to get some chocolate at the end (WHAT A FAT!)

I finished the race and felt good. I would have felt great if I didn’t have to fight that hill at the end!

I found Meredith and Bo and we went to get our chocolate. We get apples, banana, pretzel and rice krispy treats to dip in melted Ghirardelli chocolate! SO GOOD.

The weather was COLD, and so the the hot chocolate at the end was perfect and tasted amazing too!

The race officials sent out an email apologizing for such a logistical nightmare of a race.

As frustrating as it was, I had a great run, so I can’t hate it too much. I just won’t run it again, unless there are significant changes. 

Look at that pace! I give my running coach Kelly lots of that credit!! I am getting excited to see what my half brings!