Friday, November 12, 2010

I Love Hot Chocolate!

Last weekend I ran the RAM Racing's Hot Chocolate 5k race in Chicago. I've ran every Hot Chocolate so far, this year being the race's third year. The previous years it took place at Montrose Harbor; this year it took place at Grant Park to accommodate the growing crowd.

Did the new space accommodate all of the runners? Well, post race yes. There was hot chocolate and chocolate fondue with apples, pretzels and the likes; with lines that moved surprisingly quick. If you are running this race, run for the chocolate.

Not a race for a PR, or even a "run." My pace was somewhere around a 13 minutes per mile due to the fact that I was walking half the time because the path bottle necked everyone. And to put the only water stop for the 5k race at the skinniest part of the race, on a curve, down a hill - bad idea! Poorly executed race course and finish!  When I crossed the finish line there was a crowd of probably eight thousand people "stuck" and building up back into the finish line area. Talk about congestion in Chicago!

The one thing this race wasn't short on was chocolate and porta-potties!  It was like I had died and gone to porta-potty heaven!

All in all fun, but not certain if I'll be racing this one again. If it weren't for the chocolate (I LOVE CHOCOLATE) and the awesome gear (this year they gave out hoodies) I would hands down not race it again.

Oh – and on a completely different subject – there was a Dr. Oz expo happening at Millenium Park a few steps away from the race. That was very informative and fun! A great website they were promoting was www.realage.com; my real age ended up being 26.5! Hurray!

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like my kind of race! Any race that serves chocolate post run is awesome!

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  2. Oh boy, hot chocolate and a race!?! I love it:) It sounds like you had a great time! I love Chicago...seriously, one of the best cities:)

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