The Hot Chocolate 15K

On November 5th, Kevin and I dropped the girls off at the babysitters and headed downtown for the Hot Chocolate 15K! Last year we participated in the 5K and had so much fun that we decided to kick it up a notch and go for the distance in 2011. Unfortunately, I've been really sick over the last few months and had a super hard time training. By the time the race came up, I'd only run a total of 5 miles at a time. I was terrified to attempt running over 9 miles without sufficient training, but Kevin convinced me that the combo of race day jitters, the training I HAD done, and his companionship, would pull me through to the end. So I didn't back out, and guess what? He was right! The second we got to the packet pickup the night before, I knew I could do it. There was just so much excitement in the air, how could I not at least give it a try!
Here is a video of all the excitement from start to finish. It was a pretty amazing event!


When we got there we actually found our friends that we ran the Ragnar with earlier this year (which is pretty amazing considering the crowd.) We dropped off our gear together and then headed over to our corral. There were over 40,000 runners so we all had to start on different streets.

Soon the race music started blaring and we all began pushing toward the start line... it took a few minutes to get there, but then we were off!

About a mile into the run I realized that I had not sufficiently emptied the ol' bladder before the race, and with all that bouncing... well, I knew I was doomed if they didn't have porta potties along the race route. Luckily they did, and after a 5 minute wait in line I was empty and ready to run again!

Anyway, there were so many runners participating in this race that we were NEVER alone on the course, which is actually pretty nice if you are a slower runner. That way its not as obvious that you've fallen behind! :)

Another nice thing about the race... Kevin was with me the whole way to cheer me on and take some pictures to prove we actually did it!

And in true Kevin fashion... he also took plenty of pictures of himself along the way. As you can see, running at half his normal pace to stick with me left him with tons of extra energy!

As we closed in on the last mile his energy finally started to rub off on me...

And soon we were hauling down Michigan Ave to finish off a beautiful, scenic run in perfect weather, on a perfect day! 

Once we crossed the finish line, we were all greeted with Ghirardelli chocolates! WOOHOO!

And yummo fondue trays!

And of course, some delicious Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate!

When all was said and done, I finished in 1:50:45. Five minutes past my goal time (which means if you take off the time for my bathroom stop, I actually hit my goal!) 

Of course, having not trained properly, I was absolutely WASTED when I got home. So when the girls went down for a nap, I gladly joined them!

 And Kevin? Well, he was rewarded greatly for joining me for a lovely Saturday jog :)