Hot Chocolate 15k Recap

There really is no better motivator than chocolate.

My expectations for the Hot Chocolate 15k were not very high because my husband’s company party was the night before (and hello finger foods and open bar!) I’m not a big drinker but because my husband had been out of town for so long (an eternal month!), I wanted to enjoy the night with him and eat, drink, and be merry–not worry about what I ate because of a race the next day.

All cleaned up

All cleaned up

So I indulged and had two cocktails and paid several lengthy visits to the other bar, the cheese bar 😀

We still made it home early because, well, we’re not much of the party type. Seeing 9 o’clock before my head hit the pillow made me at least feel like I’d get a decent night sleep.

I woke up, er, my son woke us up at our usual 5 a.m. time and I began getting ready. I wasn’t sure whether to go with shorts or leggings as the weather in Arizona is still pretty mild (don’t hate me). I decided capris because I’m a wimp to even the smallest drop in temperature.

I had a ton of friends doing this race so I made sure to get there early with enough time to take pictures and chat. There were 3 running groups that I was meeting up with–2 before the race and 1 after–and two co-workers who were also running. Trying to find everyone proved to be an awesome warm up 🙂

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My AZTNT crew ❤

 

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Several MRTT chapters 🙂

 

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Teachers on the run!

The race had corrals which I liked and was happy that I was in the first one with several friends from my running group. We all run similar paces so when the gun went off, we all stayed together at the beginning.

We were chatting and not really even paying much attention to our pace which was great considering I hadn’t wanted to anyway.

The first mile beeped a 9:00 flat and I was pleasantly surprised as I felt great and had been talking the entire time. We kept running, keeping up our conversation, giggling, and just having fun. The second mile beeped 9:06 and again, we were happy to have maintained our pace talking the way we were. The third mile beeped, 9:07. Now I was starting to get a little competitive with myself and figured if I had been keeping such a steady pace, I might as well try and keep it that way the rest of the way. One of my friends began distancing herself and sped up her pace, another friend began to slow down a bit. I kept it steady.

I checked off miles 4-7 at

8:58
8:53
8:54
8:58

Yes, please congratulate me for those beautiful splits! 😀 I was feeling so good and felt like I was on total cruise control.

Part of the credit does go to my husband though– he had not signed up to run the Hot Chocolate 15k because he thought he’d still be out of town. Since he’d made it, and needed to get some mileage in anyway, he decided to run part of the course with me 🙂

Mile 8 was part of an awful long out and back and I beeped it away at 9:09.

The last mile was all about finishing strong and getting to the chocolate as quick as I could.

8:48!

And the end result was a brand spankin’ new PR!!!!

Almost a 2 minute improvement!!

Almost a 2 minute improvement!!

I was so incredibly thrilled! I wished this would’ve been a half marathon because the way I felt would have earned me a new 1/2 PR lol! I was so happy with my splits and felt that this was by far one of the best races I’ve ran this year. Such a good way to start to close out the season (I do still have one more race, a 1/2, on Sunday!).

Having such little expectation and going into it with purely fun in mind I think allowed me run such a good race. I want to remember all of this for future races! All stressing out does is make me overthink things and lose focus on why I do this in the first place–to have fun!! 🙂

After the race was more socializing. Seriously, this race just had good vibes all around.

One of my friends I’d started with finished just behind me and we met up with some others in our group to pose for pictures.

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My AZTNT girls

 

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Mandatory podium shot!

 

I was also finally able to meet up with another one of my running groups to take a fun group pic

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#RunEatTweetAZ (follow us on Twitter!!!!!) 😀

 

And then best of all, several co-workers had come to cheer me and two of my fellow teachers at the race.

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Love my job and co-workers ❤

 

I must have stayed a good hour post race just hanging out. It was so. much. fun.

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Oh, look who I ran into!

 

I can’t forget that along with an awesome race, the swag is what makes it even better. Along with a sweet jacket, finishers received this awesome medal

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It didn’t melt!

 

and of course, chocolate!!!

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Nom!

 

If you’ve never done a “fun” race, this would be the one to do. It’s still a race you can be competitive at if that’s your style (the top finisher ran it in 49 minutes!), but it’s also one that’s all about having a good time.

Having done it two years in a row, it’s become a yearly race that I will for sure always have on my calendar 🙂

–Have you ran for chocolate?

–What would be your favorite food to “run for”? (mmm, pizza)

This post was written by me and contains my own honest opinions. I was not compensated in any way by Hot Chocolate 15k organizers. (But if you guys wanna hook me up next year, I’m all for it!! 😉 )

 

 

 

36 responses

  1. Nice pace, congrats!! Awesome that you had such a good time and kicked butt. I did a 5k this summer where we had to eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s at the halfway point…so not exactly running FOR chocolate. It was a silly race I can say I’ve done but not sure I would do it again! Good luck on the 1/2!

  2. The Austin version of this race was held the first week of September, with a “frozen chocolate” theme. It was, not surprisingly, hot. At least Arizona had the sense to schedule it in December. And was your whole course on paved roads? Half of my 10K was on gravel road. Every time I read someone’s race report from a Hot Chocolate race where things were great, I become more convinced that the organizers just totally dropped the ball in Austin.

    I run for coffee and tacos. 😉

  3. Congrats on the new PR and damn you clean up nice! I did a “Chocolate Chase 5k” when I was in undergrad, but there was general lack of chocolate involved. It was sorely disappointed.

  4. I have never done a hot chocolate race. I think they came to DC once and it had terrible reviews. Congrats on a great race!!

  5. Woohoo- congrats on your PR! Maybe the cocktails & cheese helped more than you thought 😉
    I totally believe that not stressing out on race morning helps lead to PRs. If we’re not wasting energy stressing about it, that’s more energy we can use to run, right? & your splits were seriously amazing!
    I’m so glad you had an awesome race experience all around! It’s so much fun to be involved with more than one run club come race day.
    As for what I’d run for? Peanut butter, hands down!

  6. How fun! I love the hot chocolate race series! I did the 5k in Philly last April and will probably do it again this year! It’s still too early in the year for me to feel prepared for a 15k.. I think but maybe this year will be less snowy and I will be able to run more frequently. Regardless, chocolate is absolutely a great motivation along with the awesome sweatshirts they gave out! I heard next year’s is great too!