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A Hot Chocolate Race…what a delightful way to spend a morning run! Melissa and I spent the weekend in Columbus with Caitlin, which was so much fun! The night before, we laid out all our clothing, making sure we had all our cold-weather running gear (there was a winter weather advisory out yesterday!).
Cold weather running gear
On Sunday morning, Caitlin, Melissa, and I headed to downtown Columbus to run the Hot Chocolate Race (Cait was doing the 15k, and Melissa and I did the 5k). We didn’t head to the expo since we were heading into town on Saturday and had other plans to get to, so Cait’s cousin picked up all our stuff. He said the expo was well organized and smooth, and he was in and out in 15 minutes. With the bib came a cozy hot chocolate sweatshirt which I’m sure I’ll wear all winter. It runs pretty true to size. We were told to arrive at the race early, as there were 20,000 runners signed up. We ended up getting to the parking garage downtown at about 6:15 am, which was the suggested time from the race organization… and we were far too early. If it had been nice out, that would’ve been fine, but it was chilly, so it wasn’t ideal. It all ended up being fine, as we sat in the car with the heat on for another hour. People in cars around us were doing the same thing, so it all worked out. Parking was $5- not bad.
The parking garage was really close to the race start and finish, so we lucked out in that. Caitlin’s wave started at 7:30, so she left the car earlier than we did. Melissa and I made sure to leave enough time to go take a trip to the port-a-potties before the race. I have to say, this was one of the best port-a-potty situations at a race that I’ve ever seen. Not only were there rows and rows of them around the race area (and the course as a whole) so there weren’t long lines, but they were clean, didn’t smell badly, and had a hand sanitizer dispenser in it! All wins in my book. We took a quick picture with a hot chocolate cup, and then it was off to the race line!
Look how cute the race start was:
I loved all the little details that this race had, and loved the marshmallows on top of the start line! As we were waiting at the start, it started to flurry a bit, which was really pretty. Then we were off! Because we’re only two weeks out from Indy Monumental, we were both still not feeling 100% back to normal, and decided that this race was purely for fun. There was not even a thought in my mind of PRing but the day before I had mentioned that we would be getting a PR for the race… in amount of chocolate I would consume while racing. The first few minutes were tough physically as we started to shake thing sout, but then we both fell into a really good grove. We’ve run either 7 or 8 races together so far this year (depending on how you count it…), plus had lots of hours of training runs, so it’s easy to run with her. We just naturally fall into a groove, which makes it extra fun. The first mile flew by quickly, and I knew it was time to start looking forward to the chocolate stop on the route!
The 15k route had 4 chocolate stations throughout the race, but the 5k only had 2. Because I’m lactose intolerant, I had specifically brought lactose pills with me, and had to take a moment to stop on teh course and take one before I got my big pile of chocolate chips (the chocolate chips handed to us were just a bit smaller than quarter sized, and we were each handed a big handful). They had a water/gatorade station right after that, which was helpful. We slowed down a bit while we enjoyed our chocolate, and then we were on our way again. It was really enjoyable getting to run in downtown Columbus, as I’ve never gotten to run there before. The course route itself was pretty great, and Caitlin said that the 15k route was awesome too!
The 5k and 15k runners were together the first 2.5 miles of the race, and then split (the 15k runners joined us again before the end of the route), and the signage was really clear about where runners needed to be, which was nice. There was a nice sized crowd coming into the finish line with lots of cheering, which helped us kick it into gear the final part of the last mile. Overall, I really enjoyed the course. I was surprised by how hilly downtown Columbus actually was, and both Melissa and I commented on how much better we are at running hills- we’ve improved so much since the Carmel Half. We crossed the finish line in 36 minutes, which was fantastic for the stiffness and pains we had from our previous race, and me having to stop and take medicine on the course so I could walk and eat my chocolate chips 🙂
When I crossed the finish line, I realized that only the 15k runners got medals, which I was a little bummed about. Normally I’m totally fine not getting medals at 5ks, but this was a more expensive 5k, on top of the fact that the medals were really cute! Caitlin crossed the finish line a few minutes after we did, and we wandered over to the finish line tent to get our finisher mug with chocolate.
When I had seen pictures previously, I thought we would be getting nice mugs with food and chocolate inside (I was looking forward to having a mug that I could use later on…especially since I didn’t get a medal!), but what we actually got were plastic mug shaped bowls with partitions in it to hold the melted chocolate, hot chocolate, and treats. While it was set up well and the chocolate treats were fantastic, I was a bit bummed that this wouldn’t be a reusable mug!
Caitline’s medal and our post-race chocolate treats!
We found a place to sit down and enjoy all the goodies. To dip into the melted chocolate, we had a banana, cookies, a marshmallow (they needed more marshmallows!), baby pretzels, and a rice krispie. They nicely included a wet wipe for our use, as the chocolate was pretty messy. I enjoyed the hot chocolate too, although ended up throwing half of it away because it was just too chocolate-y.
I kept my space blanket around me for warmth, which also served to help catch all of the melted chocolate as I was eating!
They had rolls of plastic bags you could grab after eating to throw our bowl into (since it was covered in chocolate) so that we could transport it home without getting everything messy. That was really ideal, as I would’t have thought of that. They didn’t have any space blankets at the end of the race, which wasn’t ideal as we had a winter weather advisory in the morning. Because of POTS and the trouble I have at times regulating my body temperature, I went into a medical tent right after crossing the finish line and specifically asked for a blanket (they had plenty of them in there, but weren’t giving them out to everyone) to make sure that I didn’t cool down too fast. That was helpful, but I wish everyone had the opportunity to have one.
Other than the space blankets and lack of medals for the 5k runners, I really have no complaints about the course. The volunteers were fantastic, the race was organized REALLY well, the route was great, and I loved the sweatshirt we were given at the expo! This was such a fun “race” to start my off season on 🙂
To read other recaps, click on my race recaps page
Huzzah for chocolate (YES!) and our increased skill AND SPEED! We’ve made huge strides, I can’t wait to see where we are at this time next year 🙂
So much chocolate! I’m excited for this period of rest, and I’m excited for next year!!
Looks like a fun event! They should have at least had some kind of medal for 5k runners, even if different or smaller somehow to save on costs. I’ve seen plastic ones for shorter distances before. I love the idea of getting a sweatshirt instead of a tech shirt!
Hey Emilie! Yes- just a little something! Even a mug or something would’ve been fun!
Such a unique concept and fun event. Those are cute medals, too bad you did not get one too.
I absolutely loved the idea for the race- it’s really unique and fun!