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

Lululemon SeaWheeze 2012

So I know this is kind of late for a review on the SeaWheeze, but better late than never right? :)

My SeaWheeze Half Marathon went a lot better than expected. I ran it with an insured tendon and it hurt a lot, however I finished with a decent time. I think it was 2:20, it was slower than my Seattle Rock'N'Roll half, but I was fine with it since I was insured and all.

Lululemon did an amazing job putting the whole even together. I also volunteered there the night before as well (got an awesome SeaWheeze shirt for that).

 We got there Friday afternoon, we drove up from Seattle. When we got there we checked into to the hotel and then went to the Vancouver Convention Center, where the event took place. And I really mean an event, they had a room where you picked up your packet, it came with a cool drawstring backpack and Native flip flops. Then right next door they had the SeaWheeze store set up, the bummer about it was that by the time we got there which was in the afternoon they didn't have any of the bags left and a lot of the clothing was sold out in my sizes. I ended up getting a pair of compression socks that I ended up wearing during the run. Right outside they had freezer carts with lime and watermelon pops and energy gels, they had hammocks and couches you can sit and lay on. By the water they had a photo booth set up with all you can take free pictures, it was amazing. They also had free massages and people painting nails with SeaWheeze colors. After that we just walked around Vancouver and had a great time and ate some amazing food. I love Vancouver.

I was volunteering that night, I had signed up for a two and a half hour session at night. I walked over to the convention center and met up with another girl who was there to volunteer for the same shift. She worked at the Lululemon headquarters and was there just to support the event, I thought that was really cool. They didn't have much for us to do, we just went and labeled some parking spots and then we were all done. Pretty easy, I would have stayed to help more but they told me to go since I had the run the next morning.

I woke up super early to get ready, my husband and son were still sleeping. I got my running stuff on and off I went. I had a bit of a hike to the Convention center, it took me probably about 15 minutes to walk there. On my way, I think every person I saw was going to the race. Once there, they didn't really have anything set up pre-race, which was a bummer since the Expo had been great, so we all just stood around and waited for the race to start. The view was amazing as the sun started rise over the water, Vancouver is truly a beautiful city.

I had made a huge mistake and not eaten anything that morning, I don't know what I was thinking, but I got super hungry super fast. BIG MISTAKE, always eat something, anything. Well, the race was about to start and everything was closed I had no choice to make my way to the staring line.
With the SeaWheeze, they didn't have any bibs or corral assignments, you got a chip for your shoe  and a wrist band with your number on it, a little different than what I was used to but I rolled with the punches.
Same with the corrals rather than A-F or whatever, they just had pacers standing there with their times and whatever time you thought you can finish at that's who you stood behind. Well I was being very optimistic and stood behind the 2:00 finish time. I was hoping to beat my Seattle RNR. Well that didn't happen, as you know :( Oh well.

Once we started running I got really hungry and lightheaded, I thought that I might faint and not even finish the race. To my huge surprise at the first water station they had cut up bananas and oranges for us to eat, WHAT?!?!? I was in heaven, I think I eat a whole banana and an orange, downside, my hands got super sticky. Now my tummy was happy and that made me happy. The course was beautiful, over bridges and next to beaches, through parks to finally the finish line. It was overall an easy course I thought, the only thing against us was the weather, it was way too hot, I'm sure it must have gotten around 80 degrees and the sun was just blazing. There was a girl just a mile away from finishing that had collapsed, I felt so bad, they had medics tending to her though, hopefully she walked to the finish line.

I finished with 2:20, super excited, the medals were kind of disappointing though, you could unclip it and use it as a key chain, which was cool, if the medal would have been cool, it says said SWEAT ONCE A DAY, and had the SW initials on it. Most people would not even know what it was for. Oh well. The after party was all worth it. I didn't stay for the concert, we had to check out from the hotel and I wanted to be able to shower and what not. But they served brunch with hot eggs and waffles and all sorts of cool stuff.

They had sunset yoga on the beach that night and they provided yoga mats for everybody and you got to keep it! Lululemon is awesome, I love that company so much!

Overall I definitely recommend the race, it was super fun. Even though I did it all by myself I still had a ton of fun and enjoyed Vancouver afterwards :)

See you there in 2013!