Saturday, December 3, 2011

Hot Chocolate Race

My friend told me about a 5k race that was called the Hot Chocolate Run and it was sponsored by Ghirardelli. She told me about it back in the summer when I was training for the Ragnar race so I thought sure, I can do 3.2 miles, no problem. I quickly signed up because I heard it can fill up quickly. I didn't even consider that it was in December. Luckily Ja was also on board and signed up with me (or I signed him up, hehe).

As we got closer to the race I was beginning to realize the logistics of it all. We would need to leave at 5:25 a.m. That meant we had to get a babysitter to come at 5:25 a.m. Tiffany volunteered herself and for doing so wins the best aunt and sister award.

We got to the race at National Harbor at 6:15 a.m. and it was dark and cold. The race didn't start until 7 so we had to wait around for it. We were encouraged to get there early because parking is always bad at a D.C. event.  We walked up and down the start line to stay warm. I was cold but I think Ja was colder. He didn't have any gloves, had only his vibrams (no socks), and his pants were very thin. I felt really bad for signing him up and dragging him out there. He was a very good sport and never complained.

Then as the race was about to start we were told it was going to be delayed because there were traffic problems and delayed the shuttles that were bringing people to the race. Then we got a series of "delay start" announcements. We didn't start until 8. We thought we would be done running by that time. Since we hadn't done a race like that before we didn't realized how unprofessional and terrible it is to start a race late. My friend was very upset about it all.

I ran in thick running pants, a long sleeve shirt, a long sleeve exercise shirt, a wind breaker, a scarf, an under armor beanie, another hat, and gloves. I was still cold for awhile during the race. Eventually the scarf, gloves, and wind breaker came off but soon came back on after the race. It was cold! I ran faster than I ever have before and I felt really good during the run so that part was fun and exciting.

Afterwards we got some really good hot chocolate and fondue. I obviously didn't eat my fondue fast enough because it turned into a solid block of chocolate soon. It was that cold.




All in all I had a great time. I just don't recommend ever doing a RAM Racing event. Especially one that allows 20,000 runners in a place like National Harbor that can't accommodate that many people. And I won't ever do a large event like that for when it's the first time because all the kinks haven't been figured out yet.

1 comment:

Ja said...

Was it cold? I must've not even noticed.