This past weekend was the start of my Spring Break. I had originally planned on hopping on a cruise ship for a week and soaking up the sun in the Caribbean. However, with the boyfriend moving to PA, I opted out of the Caribbean for sunny PA to spend half of the week with him. Of course I had to see if there were any races that we could run.
I stumbled upon the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k taking place in Philadelphia this past Sunday morning.
We decided to stay at the Hilton by the Airport because they were providing a free shuttle to and from the race start.
Let me just run down some of my minor complaints about the race.
I don't want to say I've become a running snob, but after running a handful or races with J&A and even RunDisney I've come to expect a decent level of togetherness.
From some of the blogs I've read, RamRacing seemed to have it together. Maybe I should give them a little more leeway as this their first race in Philly. But there was no expo. It was two tents set up outside the Philly Runner store where we could go pick up our bib number and race swag. Josh is not a fan of crowds so we stayed there for only a matter of 3mins. Long enough for me to look for some KT tape and get out. It sucked because I really love a good expo.
Ok so I know I had some complaints...but check out this race swag.
Sort of made it all worth it. Its really nice tech hoodie! Definitely came in handy on race day!
Race morning I was expecting a coach bus as the shuttle, because I had seen in other blogs that they had coach buses. As long as I was keeping my expectations to the expo.....we had a school bus. It didn't bother me. It was warm and transported me to the start and back again.
Just a little cold out!
Now let me talk about the actual race.
IT WAS COLD!! Like so cold I couldn't feel my feet!! We had to wait around over an hour from the time the shuttle dropped us off to when the race actually started. The 5k started about 45mins before us. Trust me - I much rather would have run the 5k but Josh made a point that if we're going to be doing any sort of traveling...it has to be longer then twice around the parking lot of his apartment complex.
Once the race actually started we were good to go. Our feet started to defrost and I was slowly finding my rhythm. I have a new knee problem that has recently popped up so I made sure to use some KT tape and tape it up. It actually helped, but I'm still planning on seeing my doctor to make sure it's not anything major.
Knee all taped up and ready to run.
By the 10k split, I was tired and tired of running. Josh knows I don't always push myself, so he knew I was going to throw in the towel at some point. I actually think he thought it was going to be way earlier then 2/3 of the way through. The race was an out and back on part of the loop, so I could see on my way out that they were timing the 10k split. Since that's the shortest distance I need for the Wine and Dine, I wanted to see what I was currently running.
We finished the last 3.1miles with my run5/walk2 combo. Our time was just under two hours. 1:59:48.
Overall I couldn't complain.
My Garmin read further then the actual 15k, but I'm still pretty happy with that pace for how little I've trained - and the amount of walking we did.
Hey - I'm still lapping the old me who would've still been asleep!
The race finished right at the bottom of the steps to the Art Museum, so that was pretty cool. I should've snapped a picture of that but I forgot.
We grabbed our dry gear, hot chocolate/fondue mug, sat for a minute and then headed back to the hotel.
There was no medal but this mug is pretty sweet! Although I'm not sure my tummy really enjoyed all that chocolate after running.
We showered, rested for a few and then headed over to Xfinity Live to hang out before the Flyers game that night.
For my first weekend of Spring Break it was an eventful and fun weekend.
Enjoying the Flyers game!!
And they won!!
(Thanks Matty for the tickets!)
Here are few pics I took along the run. Philly might be my new favorite place to run. It was pretty fun to see all the crew teams out on the water next to us while we were running.
Can't wait to run the Broad Street 10miler in a few weeks!
Ok that guy on the sidewalk is walking with a giant log on his shoulders....not sure what that was all about.
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