Hot Chocolate Run

Kristen

Race season has begun-FINALLY! Having done a fair amount of races, I will start by saying-this may be my FAVORITE race ever!  But let me start at the beginning...

Over the winter, during one of our endless snow days, Heidi invited all the neighbors over for drinks and sledding.  It was a fun afternoon and we got to talking about how it was the last day to sign up for the Hot Chocolate Run and still get a free mug.  We all became instantly panicked.  I was planning on running this race with my kids anyway, because I think its fun and also its a great way to spend time as a family.  It doesn't hurt that exercise is involved.

 

Anyway, we all raced home from Heidi's and signed up for the race that night and then promptly put it out of our heads.  The packet pick-up was at Philadelphia Runner-a cool little running store about 45 minutes from where we live.  Or you could travel into Philadelphia to another Philadelphia Runner store.  I volunteered to drive everyone and then go to lunch at Harvest-a delicious farm to table restaurant.  I really thought that we would have to wait a long time for our bibs, but we walked in and walked out again in no time flat.  One of the easiest packet pick-ups I have ever done, though apparently I didn't sign up properly and didn't get free mugs anyway!  A delicious lunch did not hurt things either!

My poor daughter broke her foot a few weeks ago so sadly she couldn't join us on this family outing.  She was happy for the great new sweatshirt that they give all race participants.  We again set up a carpool for Sunday morning and were pulling out of our neighborhood at 5:20-as close to leaving on time as we've ever been.  We were 3/4 of the way to Philly when I got a text from Amy asking if I had brought Emma's bib?  I had been trying to give it away for weeks with no takers.  That morning, I decided to bring it along just in case.  So glad I did.  A certain someone had no idea they needed a bib to race.  I was quite happy to share and may have laughed a little at this persons expense.

It was the little guys first race!  He did an awesome job!

We got to Philly a little later than planned-we had at most 30 minutes to race time and we had a hike from the garage to the start.  No worries though, we made it in time.  We split from our group and hung out for a few minutes and before you knew it we were off.  I ran with my oldest.  He tried his best to train beforehand, but we still did a lot of running/walking.  His whole mission in life was to beat his brother who did catch up to us at the halfway point and this made the oldest work all the harder.  He was about to give up in the last one-tenth of a mile-it was a slight incline and he wanted to walk.  I told him his brother was catching up so he took off for the finish line-whatever works!

 

After we were all done, we headed over to the post-race snack area.  It was beautiful-a cup of hot chocolate and a mug filled with fondue and snacks.  We were all in heaven.  We sat near a fountain enjoying our delicious treat and waited for all the others to join us and share their race stories.  We finished our celebration with a run up the Art Museum steps-the steps Rocky runs up in case you were wondering and then a group photo with Rocky himself.  The beauty of racing is we were still home by 10:30 with a full day in front of us!