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The Hot Chocolate 15K - Run15k


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Chicago, Illinois
United States
RAM racing
30F / -1C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 23m 59s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = F40-44
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

My friend Kim, her friend Cheryl and Cheryl's daughter all met at my house at 5:45am and we headed up to the city. I ate my special holiday pumpkin poptarts enroute.
Event warmup:

None. Too crowded. If anything, trying to shove myself as far forward in the start corral as possible constituted my warmup.
Run
  • 1h 23m 59s
  • 9.32 miles
  • 09m 01s  min/mile
Comments:

I expected this to be crowded; I guess I didn't expect HOW crowded it was going to be. Part of it was my fault - I didn't either find the right entrance into the start corrals, or got in there too late to make my way up to the pace that I wanted to run. It took me almost 15 minutes to even hit the start line after the race gun went off. So - instead - I started with people intending on running 10:30m/m pace and worked hard to get around them in a safe and polite manner.

Until somewhere around mile 6-7, I was running easy -- though usually on the grass next to the path, which afforded its own challenges -- because I wasn't able to get up to pace. When I finally saw a little bit of open space, I pushed as hard as the crowds would allow. Saw a few miles below 9m/m pace, and the last mile somewhere in the 8m/m pace.

Finished up - only got water and didn't even see any other food in the finish chute. I must have missed it because I can't believe they ran out by the time I got there.

Found my friends and because one of them was sick, only went through the fondue tent (since I could take that with me) and ate it while we headed back to the car.
What would you do differently?:

Seed myself better.
Post race
Warm down:

Find friends, get fondue, walk to car.... nothing too much more than that.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Crowds. If it hadn't been the crowds, it would have taken me a few miles to warm my legs up -- waiting around before the race had been VERY COLD. Even with the easy running, it took me almost 2 miles before I was feeling my toes again from the cold.

Event comments:

They need to either restrict the number of entrants into this race or change the course. It was downright dangerous at times -- the course narrowed down to a 6-8 ft path with concrete walls on either side. Not only that, but for most of the race we were stacked shoulder to shoulder -- saw a girl trip and go down and it's incredibly lucky that she wasn't trampled. This race is a lawsuit waiting to happen (except - of course - that we sign away our lives when we pay the registration fee on these things).




Last updated: 2010-09-27 12:00 AM
Running
01:23:59 | 9.32 miles | 09m 01s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Average
Course: Out and back, mostly on the lakefront path. Not so good with 15,000 runners.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5] 2
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 2

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2010-11-09 3:49 PM

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Subject: The Hot Chocolate 15K
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