Seattle Hot Chocolate 15K race!!!

I finally had a chance to run the Seattle Hot Chocolate 15K race! I'd been looking at this race last year, but by the time I was ready to commit, it was already sold out, so I made sure to sign up early this year. There was a bonus for the Seattle race for the first time, all finishers received a super cool finishers medal.

 Since I was laid off last November I've been looking for more opportunities to volunteer, I chose to help them out during the first expo day as a goodie bag distributer. My shift was for 4 hours and I had such a great time, it really made me miss interacting with people. It also gave me an opportunity to pick up my bag at the same time.

Everybody who volunteered were super nice, most of them were going to run the 5K or the 15K. My job was to stuff the map into the goodie bag and hand them out to each bib holder. This year, the hoodies were made out of cotton and they ran true to size. The guys hoodies were grey with green piping and the women's were grey with pink piping. I had registered during a promo, so I also received a blue running hat.

Race day started out a bit stressful as it was a nightmare trying to get to Seattle Center where the race started. I should have known as the same thing happened to me before the Seattle Marathon in 2013. There were so many street closures, all the racers trying to get off the freeway and hard to find parking. I just paid the $15, which gave me just enough time to use the bathroom and head into my corral. I literally made it as my corral was already walking to the starting line.

The course was pretty easy, there was a little uphill at the very end as you make your way back to Seattle Center. We started out running past Pikes Market, then headed towards downtown, there was a stretch were we ran across a bridge and back again. Overall I would say that the course was pretty and the candy stations were amazing. I missed the chocolate chip station somehow, that was supposed to have been the first one, then came the strawberry marshmallows, that was my favorite, then Tootsie Rolls and finally chocolate marshmallows. Lots of water and Gatorade of course.



The best part was the goodie bowl that was given to all the finishers, I headed there straight after I received my medal. The bowl was filled with a hot coco cup in the middle and the sides had a chocolate fondue and wafers, marshmallow and other goodies to dip in. Yum!

Photo from www.hotchocolate15k.com

I would highly recommend this race for everyone, just keep in mind is that the 5K finishers did not receive a medal, I wouldn't want anyone to be disappointed, its a great race nevertheless.


Happy running!

K