The Hot Chocolate 15K - Run15k

This was my first run "only" race. It took me 10mins just to get to the start line. I tried to start out not too quick knowing I can run a good 2 hours if I pace moderately. My goal here was modest I wanted under 2 hours. At the first Mile sign I encounter (Mile2) I see that I've been running 10 minute miles. Oops!! Slow Down! The race was pretty crowded there were at least 10,000 people (15,000 numbers assigned) Over half of them were there for the 5k.

There were 4 aid stations. I skipped #1 and stopped at #2 for a quick sip of water. Had 1 Gu after 40+ mins. Walked aid station #3 just long enough to drink a full cup of gatoraid. Skipped Aid Station #4.

The only trouble I ran into was on the last mile or so. About 1.3 miles before the end I tried picking up my pace again and my knees started to ache all of a sudden after about .3 mile. The last mile or so my knees really hurt, which was a new occurrence for me (never happened in training runs) and slowed me down somewhat.

Overall I felt great throughout the race! My plan was to run the whole thing and I accomplished that. My realistic goal was to break under 2 hours and I did that with flying colors.



Take the first few miles slower, and not try to take the last mile as hard as I did because that's when issues popped up. I think it was caused by the cement (I've mostly been doing treadmill runs) with the increase in pace.

Also, the day before I walked and had a swimming class. I probably should have skipped that, but it was more important to me to get better at swimming then shave a minute or two off of the 15k.

Walked to the Hot Chocolate tent.


Weight as usual.


I wanted to love this race. I have to say although it seemed run okay I was somewhat disappointed. It was very crowded for such a small run area. Worst of all the Hot Chocolate was undrinkable. Something was seriously wrong with it... it boarded on rancid! One sip and in the trash it went. Considering the whole race was based on the Chocolate hype... that's a huge let down! They were also out of chocolate Fondue. C'mon if you're going to increase the race entrant #s that much be prepared! I watch what I eat so I had no plans to pig out, but it's just the principal of it.

This race is really expensive and although the swag was decent (running benie, jacket, shoulder bag) I expected more from a race that cost over $50.00. Don't know if I'll be back. I'd actually be more annoyed but at the mini-expo they had I got an amazing deal on a jacket that was marked down way more then it should have been, so I call it even. :)

I went home and made my own Hot Chocolate. Humf!