I must admit that upon waking up and receiving an email from the Hot Chocolate race director that there was weather advisory predicting a wind chill of 19 degrees, I was not excited about running this race. I turned to Lee and asked, “babe, am I going to get hypothermia?” Needless to say, he laughed at me and suggested I layer up because “it’s going to be a cold one.” It’s time like these when I ask myself why oh why I like to run.
Unfortunately, Lee was unable to join me for this race because he had prior commitments. This was my first race without him in the same city and my first 15k post baby. I was nervous as all get out. Thank goodness I have amazing friends that run with me at enduraLAB and we all went and ran together.
Getting to the race was less than favorable. Traffic was horrendous and police were funneling everyone into one parking area. Many people were jumping out of their cars and running to the start line. We made it just in time to park, run to the start and jump in the corrals. I was shocked to see that more than half of the registrants did not show. I was supposed to be in corral M but the last of the starting line up was only at corral D. This was totally a sign of how flipping cold it was! (Trust me, I wanted to stay in my warm bed cuddling with Lee and baby Jack.) So we hopped right in and after a few snap shots of how “happy” we were to be there, we were on our way.
The course was well marked with signs telling us every mile and every 5k. The scenery was decent but I wasn’t expecting much considering we were running around Fair Park. The weather did not warm up but at least it was sunny and not raining (I shutter just thinking of White Rock ’11).
Overall the run was great. I felt amazing around mile 6-7 and then hit a wall about mile 8. Running and nursing has certainly been a challenge. I have to make sure I eat and hydrate to keep production up, as well as pump to make sure my body knows to keep a schedule. But regardless, I did it and I wasn’t too disappointed with my time. Again, thank goodness for my running buddies, Autumn and Thao, for pushing me through.
After crossing the finish line, we were immediately handed 2 individually wrapped Ghirardelli dark chocolates with sea salt caramel filling (YUM) and a bottle of water. They had a few mylar blankets for those who needed them. We then walked what seemed like another 9 miles to the expo building for our fondue and hot chocolate.
The after party was very well organized and we were able to get our goodies without waiting in line. It was a beautiful chocolate mecca in a wonderfully warm building. The fondue table had individual trays filled with apples, a banana, a marshmallow, a rice crispy treat and a pretzel, finished off with a 1/4 cup of warm, gooey Ghirardelli chocolate. Then we headed over to the hot chocolate table- again just walking up and getting it with no problem at all. If your wondering where my pretzel is in the picture to the right, it was gone in less than 5 sec! I was so hungry. I am also sad to report that I dropped my marshmallow before I was able to gobble that down… but there were marshmallows in the hot chocolate, so I was content.
I can’t say I really enjoyed physically running this race in the cold and in Dallas, but I am certainly glad that I did. I would really like to see this race come to the Fort Worth area as I’m not a fan of running in Dallas. The chocolate goodies and the wind breaker provided were definitely worth the price of the race. I wish this race organization much success in the future and applaud them for a job well done for their first race in Texas!
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