Nov 5 - Day 5/Hot Chocolate 5k

Today I am thankful for chocolate.  And running!  Because running makes me not feel guilty about eating chocolate. 

Today was the Hot Chocolate 5k in Chicago.  It's a huge event.  There were over 40,000 people running at this event.  I think there were over 25,000 doing the 5k alone.  I took Ryan with me this year.  I am not a fast runner at all and told him that I wouldn't be running very fast.  He said he was okay with that.  Last year, I completed the event in 44:17, so I went to the area where they had the 15 minute mile slots.  It was at the very end of the corrals, and there didn't seem to be a whole lot of people there.  When things started moving a little, Ryan and I did move up a little, but it took probably about 10 minutes to get to the start line.  We'd walk a little and then stop briefly and then walk some more.



As we approached the start line, we started running.  Or I should say jogging, since I am really not a runner.  I told Ryan that we would run the first 10 minutes and then we could walk for two minutes.  Right away there were people in the path that were pushing strollers.  The race FAQ specifically said no strollers.  And then there were people that were walking with 3-4 or more people abreast.  It was really frustrating trying to navigate around the groups of walkers in the middle and the strollers as well.  I really wish that the people that were walking would have moved over to one side or the other, and I wish that the race volunteers would have gone up to the people with strollers and told them that they couldn't be in the event.  Seriously.  I remember these concerns last year, but they still were a problem.

Anyway, Ryan and I ran for the first 10 minutes.  Then we walked for 2 minutes.  Then we ran again and made it 8 minutes before we decided to walk.  We had passed the 1 mile mark shortly after we started running the second time.  I don't remember how many times we ran and then walked, but we were running 6-8 minutes at a time and then walking about 2.  But then we came up to the area where they had water and gatorade.  We got our water and Ryan was saying how people just threw their cups down on the ground.  I told  him that in a race like this, it was okay, and that they had people picking them up.  So, he drank his water, and made quite a production of throwing his cup on the ground.  He looked up at me and said, "That was fun."  LOL

I don't think we got to the 2nd mile mark before Ryan was done running.  He said that his legs hurt, and he wanted to walk.  So we moved to the left and continued to walk.  We tried to weave inbetween a few of the slower walkers.  That wasn't much of a problem, except when we came across areas where there were a small group of walkers and then a larger group very close by, making it difficult to get by any of them.

We got towards the end, and I encouraged Ryan to run again, but he said he wasn't ready yet.  I actually was glad that he wasn't ready yet, because we ended up going uphill for a little bit.  I think I would have pooped out too fast if I had tried to run up the hill.  But once we got to the top of the hill, he was ready to run again.  We could see the finish line, and we had our last burst of energy.... so I thought....

About 10 yards from the finish line, Ryan burst head, crossing the finish line a few seconds before me.  Stinker!   His time is recorded at 45:05.

The course was slightly more than 3.2 miles, which is the 5k.  I believe it was 3.3 or 3.4 miles.  Like I said - slightly.  They had to reroute the course because a truck got stuck under a viaduct before the race began.

My time isn't showing up right now.  I would like to have an official time, even though I know it was slower than last time.  I do think that I could have beat my time last year if we had run a little more, but I didn't want to push Ryan too much.  He was a trooper and stuck with me.  I may have had a defective chip, so I don't know if my time will be recorded at all.  We'll see.

After the race, we got our photos taken, and got some water and chocolate.  Then we got to go to the Post Race Party and we got trays of Fondue - a pretzel stick, apple slices, half a banana, a marshmallow and a rice crispie treat with chocolate.  Then we got cups of hot chocolate.  And finally, there was a tent with squares of Ghiradelli chocolate.  Yum!

I should add that we stayed at my sister's house the night before, and we took the subway to get to the race.  It was Ryan's first trip on the subway.  My sister's race was later, so she would be leaving later than us.  She told me directions on how to get there, and said, "Pretty much, just follow the people."  And she was right.  There was almost a dozen people on the platform when we first were waiting for the train, and then there were at least 30 people on the train when we got off.  We just had to follow everyone.  When we were done, we went back to my sister's.  Despite the fact that her race was three times longer than ours, she was only about 20 minutes behind us.  We did get a little off course on our way back to her house.  We didn't get lost - I had a good idea where we had to go, but we did need to make a couple of extra turns.

It was a really awesome time.  I would love to do it again with Ryan.  I do hope that they can work things out so that the walkers can stay to the side and let runners be able to pass more easily.  Maybe next year, I will just move up in the corrals, even though I am not as fast.  I can stay to the side so the faster runners can get around me.  I think that we are going to start training a little bit at the park that is near our house.  It has a .3 mile trail, so if we go around 3 times, we'll be doing a mile.  I am not sure exactly how I'll work it out, but we'll start with 3 times around - walk, run, walk. Then after a couple times, switch to run, walk, run.  Then we'll add a lap and maybe to walk, run, walk, run, then instead of trying to add a running to that, add a 5th lap and do walk, run, walk, run, walk.  And on and on until we get to 10 laps of running.  Then maybe we can get faster and faster and by time next year rolls around, maybe I can actually get at the front towards the seeded corrals.  I know that Ryan can run.  He just needs a little more stamina, and we can build up to that.

On the way home, I really struggled staying awake. Ryan fell asleep.  When we got home, Andy took all three of the kids to the indoor water park at the gym, since we have a free pass this month (thanks to Andy's previous military service).  They went for two hours, and I took a two hour nap!  I feel refreshed now!