Hot Chocolate 5k Race Recap...

...Well, the big event has come and gone. Yesterday was the day of the Hot Chocolate 5k here in STL. We had received an email from them on Friday saying prepare for extreme cold temperatures...as in 5 degrees-holy moly!

Early Saturday morning, we got snow...lots and lots of snow. Luckily, Jenni picked up all of our packets at the Expo so I didn't have to brave the roads and take AR out in the snow. Supposedly part of I-70 was closed for awhile yesterday.

Then bright and early on Sunday, earlier than expected because my daughter decided to wake up at 4:30am, I woke up ready to face the Hot Chocolate 5k. I met Jenni at 6:40 then we headed downtown to meet my sis and H were we all added more layers and made our way to the starting line. Our crew, the Turquoise Turtles back at it again! They kept trying to talk to me, but I couldn't hear anything because I had on ear warmers, a hat, that scarf wrapped around my head 2-3 times and my hoodie!

Unfortunately, I didn't really use any of my training. Having already had knee surgery once, I'm always very cautious on ice. Good news though, the only person I saw fall on ice was my husband as he watched me back out of the driveway and told me to watch for black ice...maybe he should take his own advice, huh?

Instead, H and I ran/walked the whole race...hand in hand. Yes, we held hands the entire time until our hands were so sweaty we couldn't stand it. Then I put my arm around her and we'd walk until we'd start running again and then hold hands once more. We ran almost to mile one then probably walked the next mile-mile & half then ran off and on until the finish. I may not have had a stellar performance, but hey, at least I was out there! Haley and I finished in 46:36 so that's not bad considering my goal was under 45 and we didn't run as much as I wanted to. Oh and the winner of the 15k barely finished before us, too. :-)

Oh and I forgot during mile one, we saw Santa and his elf. While AR & I are Santa Stalkers, H is absolutely terrified of Santa and any other character like that so it took a bit of convincing to pass them.

We finished the race and waited on my sis & Jenni. Then we got in the massive line to get our Finish's Mug. I know I'd gotten a few emails that they were looking for volunteers so I'm not sure if they were short or what, but they could've used some more manpower in this area to keep the lines moving. We'd wait in what we thought was a line only to find out it wasn't. Once we got close enough, we saw if we kept moving to the left then there were REALLY short lines. I was pretty stoked to get my finisher's mug!

Unfortunately, our Rice Krispie treat was frozen and my hand was covered in chocolate when I dipped my mini pretzels. My fondue also hardened before I could finish it, but the hot chocolate was amazing! It was an excellent post race treat.

When I got home, Matt and AR weren't home yet, but they had hung garland around the living room (see beads in the left corner of picture). When they did get home, they had a Christmas tree!

Here I am in my awesome hoodie! I picked a larger size since I'd registered back in August and you can tell by the baggy part under my arms, but it's still awesome. My husband was jealous when he saw it so I better keep a close eye on it or he might be trying to wear it.

Definitely a fun race and I hope next year that I can do the 15k. Hopefully, there won't be snow/ice on the ground and it won't be so cold, but with Missouri weather, you never know what you'll get in December!