Hot Chocolate 15K

The Hot Chocolate race is something I've wanted to do ever since I moved to Chicago.
Hot chocolate and fondue when you finish the race...what's not to love??

I always hesitated in the past because it's an expensive race.  It's a crazy concept when you
think about it.  Paying $80 so I can put myself through the torture of running 9.3 miles.
It's silly.  Seems like someone should be paying me instead.  But this year the quarter zip
jacket they gave away looked pretty cool, and my friend Katy was doing it, so it was the
perfect year to finally bite the bullet and check something off my list.

A few days before the race I came home to find a sign in my front lawn courtesy of BFF,
the running group I'm a part of.  It was such a great surprise and made me smile (A LOT)!

Race day came and Katy, her friend and I drove down to the city and made our way to
our corral. It's fun being surrounded by so many people in a race this big.

Unfortunately I didn't train as much as I would have liked, so I decided to run for fun instead
of race.  I knew I could keep my pace up for a few miles, but I wasn't sure about sustaining it
for over 9 miles.  Instead the plan was to run with Katy and her friend at a little slower pace.

It's always crazy down in the city during these races so I told Ryan not to even bother
bringing the kids to cheer.  I absolutely loved having them cheer me on when I raced at the
zoo, but I didn't want him to have to deal with trying to maneuver all three of them through
the crowds.  I had a feeling he wouldn't listen to me, and I was right.

About three miles in I looked up to see Ryan racing across the street with all three boys
packed in the jogging stroller.  It was the best!!  I gave them hugs and kisses while the other
two girls ran ahead.  Seeing Ryan and the boys was the little push I needed to give me the
courage to attempt to pick up my pace.  I caught back up to the girls then told them I was
going to take off and take my chances at racing the rest of it.

I'm really glad I did.  I finished with a time of 1:17:52, which was 54th out of the 984 runners
in my age group.  I was able to keep up a pace of a little under 8:00/mile for the remaining
6 miles I ran on my own.  I was really proud of how I finished and the chocolate at the end
was every bit as amazing as I imagined it.  Totally worth the run!  

Thank you Katy for convincing me to run this year.  I had a lot of fun and loved being able
to bring this ridiculously huge medal home to the boys!