Hot Chocolate Races

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

This series has seemed to have a lot of hit and misses with their races. Some cities seem to go pretty well and others not so much. Has anyone participated in these? Did you like it, think it was worth the price?

 

[FireDancer]

I just did the first Columbus Hot Chocolate Race yesterday. I think it was a very nice event and would do it again. The course was great. It started next to the state capital, and the 15k ran onto the Ohio State campus, around The Shoe, and back downtown to finish. There was good course support, enough water stops, and the finish area was great.

My time was nowhere near what I was hoping for but I was kind of expecting a slower race out of myself but it was still a lot of fun and a great way to start Michigan week in Columbus.

 

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

I just did the first Columbus Hot Chocolate Race yesterday. I think it was a very nice event and would do it again. The course was great. It started next to the state capital, and the 15k ran onto the Ohio State campus, around The Shoe, and back downtown to finish. There was good course support, enough water stops, and the finish area was great.

My time was nowhere near what I was hoping for but I was kind of expecting a slower race out of myself but it was still a lot of fun and a great way to start Michigan week in Columbus.

Do they have the traditional food after most races, or is it all chocolate? Good to hear that you liked it.

 

[FireDancer]

Do they have the traditional food after most races, or is it all chocolate? Good to hear that you liked it.

They had water and Gatorade right in the finish chute and then the "chocolate mug" but I didn't see anything else. There was a stage with a live band though.

 

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

Thanks Frank for the info! Will definitely look into it.

 

[wiigirl]

They had water and Gatorade right in the finish chute and then the "chocolate mug" but I didn't see anything else. There was a stage with a live band though.

Nice!

 

[FireDancer]

Thanks Frank for the info! Will definitely look into it.

I should add that the atmosphere was really nice too. I don't know if each race is different and Columbus is a really good running town with a pretty big running and triathlon community which helps but before the race it was very lively and had a laid back feeling. It seemed more like a fun race, almost Disney like.

 

[DisneyRunnerGirl]

I agree with FireDancer - I walked the 5k yesterday in Columbus with my sister who is injured and couldn't have maintained the required pace for the 15k. The 2 races combined had over 7,600 finishers. This was the 1st year in Columbus.

We registered for this at the expo for the Columbus Marathon so in addition to the windbreaker we got baseball caps. Nice little bonus.

The chocolate mug was fun and the line to pick it up moved pretty well. The mug was set up in sections. The center held a paper cup with hot chocolate. The outside ring has a small section for melted chocolate and then a larger section which held pretzels, a marshmallow, rice krispie treat, vanilla creme wafers, a piece of chocolate and a whole banana.

The packet pick here was very quick but I did hear that in Chicago which had 36,757 finishers it took some folks over 3 hours to get their packets
Makes me think that in this case, size does matter.....

Not enough chocolate in the world to have me wait 3 hours for a 5k packet pick up!

 

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

Yikes. I can't imagine even being willing to wait three hours for my packet! Just realized that Atlanta is the same weekend as Goofy. So, won't be doing the local one this year, and I don't think it would be worth flying to another one...unless I happened to be in the area for another race. It does seem like it would be so low key that it may be a good recovery day!

 

[rocio]

I "kind of" did the Hot Chocolate in Chicago. I say kind of, because I signed up for the 15k, but ended up walking the 5k due to an ankle injury. I enjoyed and all my friends who did the 15k had a great time too.

We couldn't make it to packet pick up so our friend who was in Chicago earlier in the day on Saturday picked it up. The race pick up was in a large tent in a parking lot by Soldier field and the line went all around the parking lot. So people were cold. I read a lot of complaints on their Facebook page, but our friend who picked up the packages said it wasn't too bad. She said the line was intimidating but it moved fast and she had all our packages within 20 minutes.

The sweatshirts are nice and kept me warm on race day (I have never worn a race day shirt for the race but I forgot my warm outer layer at home and it was cold and I knew there was a chance I would be walking the race so I broke that rule). It was a good course and lots of fun people around. I heard people complain about having to wait an hour in corrals but having done a Disney race before it didn't seem bad, especially since they had double the people at the Princess.

I'm sad I didn't get to do the 15k as it went right through the museum campus and I would have loved to get some running pictures by the dinosaur skeletons outside of the Field Museum.

Chocolate mug was tasty and we had a great time! I would like to do it again. For real this time

 

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

I "kind of" did the Hot Chocolate in Chicago. I say kind of, because I signed up for the 15k, but ended up walking the 5k due to an ankle injury. I enjoyed and all my friends who did the 15k had a great time too.

We couldn't make it to packet pick up so our friend who was in Chicago earlier in the day on Saturday picked it up. The race pick up was in a large tent in a parking lot by Soldier field and the line went all around the parking lot. So people were cold. I read a lot of complaints on their Facebook page, but our friend who picked up the packages said it wasn't too bad. She said the line was intimidating but it moved fast and she had all our packages within 20 minutes.

The sweatshirts are nice and kept me warm on race day (I have never worn a race day shirt for the race but I forgot my warm outer layer at home and it was cold and I knew there was a chance I would be walking the race so I broke that rule). It was a good course and lots of fun people around. I heard people complain about having to wait an hour in corrals but having done a Disney race before it didn't seem bad, especially since they had double the people at the Princess.

I'm sad I didn't get to do the 15k as it went right through the museum campus and I would have loved to get some running pictures by the dinosaur skeletons outside of the Field Museum.

Chocolate mug was tasty and we had a great time! I would like to do it again. For real this time

Off topic, but I ran the Chicago Women's Half this summer and that course followed that route. I don't remember everything as it was so hot, and I just wanted to finish, but it was a really nice course along Lake Michigan, if only the temperatures weren't so amazing hot! So, if you are on the mend by then, it may be worth checking out.

 

[rocio]

Thanks for the tip! I thought of registering for the women's half but saw it was the first time they did that race and I didn't want to be guinea pig. Sounds like it went well though. Will have to keep it in mind. I hope to be back to running in the next week or so.

 

[Princess on the Run]

The packet pick here was very quick but I did hear that in Chicago which had 36,757 finishers it took some folks over 3 hours to get their packets
Makes me think that in this case, size does matter.....

Not enough chocolate in the world to have me wait 3 hours for a 5k packet pick up!

I registered for the 15K in Chicago and didn't run it partly because of the horrible disorganization and partly because I had IT band pain acting up. DH and I both registered as well as 2 girls from my office. The 2 girls were going to pick up all 4 packets and after waiting over an hour in line and not moving, they had to go. DH took over and stood for another 2.5 hrs to get them. Ridiculous!!!!

There were 40K runners and 5K walkers for the 15K and all were placed in corrals based on registration date not expected pace so there were walkers in B corral and runners in Q. Very poorly run and poorly organized. My IT pain was making me reconsider but the mass chaos sealed the deal. I won't ever register for that one again.

Also, a friend of mine used his Garmin and it was just over 10 miles. I know courses are commonly slightly off, but this was almost a full mile over.

 

[Swmr359]

I did it in DC last year, it was a mess. I'll never do a first year race again. We ran on the road which hadn't been closed, just a few cones set up to close a lane. And they let too many people register.

The chocolate was good though.