Hot Chocolate 15K recap #REALwomenmove

Hot Chocolate Philly was, hands down, the most organized race I have ever been in. We arrived in Philly on Friday afternoon, parked the car using Parking Panda (with a Groupon! Score!) and walked the half mile to the hotel.  

After we all checked in, we walked the short walk to the Convention Center for the expo, and got on line for bib pick up. Their system was amazing! There was no predetermined bib number, you showed them your confirmation (mine was in my iPhone's passbook) and they printed a label that went on the bib. 

Around the corner you picked up your swag, already in your swag bag. It was a small expo, but they had several photo ops which we took advantage of!

After the expo, the teenie and I did a stray boots tour, which I will blog about separately! It's too much info for right now!

We had dinner at Maggianos and turned in early.

Race morning was wet and windy. It rained all night, but stopped just before we went outside. The teenie decided last minute to run the 15k and pretty much regretted it instantly. She was freezing!

We met up with Gigi and her friend, plus my friend Susie, and jumped around until it was time to go into the corrals.

The sun actually came out just in time to start,  but the wind remained insane the whole race.

We all started out together, but Eileen and CA pulled ahead right away. My Plantar's Fasciitis was rough and my foot just wouldn't warm up, so at about mile 2, everyone left me behind. Including the teenie! She caught up with Gigi and ran with her.

The course was an out and back along the river, and the water stops also had marshmallows, chocolate chips, and tootsie rolls. 

I caught up with Eileen at the turn around, and stayed with her, as her foot was bugging her.

Morgan texted me when we were at about mile 8.5...

With no training, she finished her first 15k at 2:00:15, it was her first long race ever! Gigi even convinced her to run a half with us in the future!

We finished and got our bling, and headed over to get our mugs.

The mug was amazing! The center had a cup of hot cocoa, there was a section for dipping chocolate, and it had a banana, pretzels, marshmallow, and wafer cookies for dipping! Yum! The teenie will be taking them to college to use as a

Snack cup.

We walked back to the hotel and showered, stowed our stuff and walked another 1.5 miles to the Tap Room to meet Gigi for lunch.

Fried PB&J. It was super tasty. 

What a long day! Thankfully, Gigi dropped us off near our parking lot, and we headed home.

There is definitely another Hot Chocolate in our future!

Ohhhh, the morning after? Not as nice. Allllll that candyyyyyyy.......

Have you ever run a Hot Chocolate?