As you might remember, I was a brand ambassador for the Hot Chocolate 5k, and I wrote two posts about it: here and here. I was given free entry into the race, which happened this past Sunday.
I haven’t run much at all this winter/spring for two reasons: the weather has been absolutely freezing and I’ve been focusing on ballet. I wasn’t even planning on running the Hot Chocolate race, but I figured I should give it a shot after HQ and I went on a fairly successful run last Wednesday. My plan was to walk/run most of it.
For the race, I had to get up at 6 am for the first time since high school. Luckily, I managed to get to bed around 9:30/10pm on Saturday, so waking up at 6 am wasn’t that big of a deal.
HQ’s photo of the sunrise as he waited for me to run.
While I had to wait for about 10-15 minutes in the corrals until it was my turn (a first for me)–it didn’t seem all that long before we were off. I ran pretty slowly for the first bit, and my legs started feeling pretty tight after about the first mile, so I walked for a good portion of the 2nd mile, since I lot of people around me were walking as well. I picked up the pace again for the third mile and only walked through the water stop (which was pretty long). My legs started to feel a lot better because they were warming up and I wished I had tried to at least slow run the entire time.
Pretty much right after I finished running–before I even got any chocolate!
While my time was far from a PR, it felt good to get out there and run again. I’m looking forward to running some more this spring.
Overall, it was a fun race, even though it was the first race I ran by myself. The chocolate fondue was awesome afterwards too (I don’t have a photo because I ate it too fast!) I’d definitely do it again if they’re in Philadelphia.
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