Hot Chocolate 15K Recap

This past weekend I got the opportunity to participate in the Hot Chocolate 15K in San Diego. This was a last minute addition to my spring racing schedule but when Sweet Valley Organics reached out to me a few weeks before the race and asked me to participate for them I couldn’t turn down the opportunity. I’ve had my eye on doing a Hot Chocolate race for YEARS and always thought they looked so fun so I was really excited to finally run one.

Going into the race I knew it probably wouldn’t be an all out racing effort because I was racing a OXY 10K the week before and that race was more important to me but I still wanted to get in a good workout, solid race effort and maybe come away with the win. I glanced at the race course the day before and knew that it was going to be really hilly so I didn’t have very many time expectations. I also glanced at the 2017 results and saw that I would probably be running with some of the top guys/all by myself based on where I thought my time would be – all the more reason to go off of effort and treat it more like a workout. 

The race started at 7:45am which was sooooo nice because it meant we didn’t have to wake up too early. My alarm went off around 5:45 and I ate my typical pre-race coffee and bagel in bed, and ended up sharing some of my bagel with Liv. At 6:45ish I headed out for my 2 mile warm-up, we stayed close enough that I could just run from the hotel. I got to the starting area, used a porta-potty (there were so many that I didn’t even have to wait in line!) and started my drills. Henri and Liv had walked over from the hotel so they met me there with my shoes for the race and I was easily able to change my shoes and give them my phone, headphones and warm-ups before I headed to the starting line.

After a few strides at the starting line we were off! The first mile was straight up-hill…. so uphill that I was about 25 seconds behind the pace that I thought I could hold on a flat course. This confirmed my thought that it was going to be a “by effort” kind of day. Around this point I was about the 8th person overall, the guys ahead of me were pretty close. I’m not going to lie, the first 5 miles were rough! It was net uphill and we gained a whole lot of elevation over those miles. I tried to stay focused on keeping a strong effort throughout the race – pushing up all the hills and picking up the pace on the downhills. My splits for the first 5 miles were – 6:05 / 6:07 / 6:14 / 6:26 / 6:37.

Between miles 5 and 6 we finally started to head back towards the start/finish area (and sea-level, haha) – the next two miles were net downhill and on mile 6 + 7 my pace was finally right around where my coach and I had expected, 5:43 and 5:56. 

Mile 8 brought another huge uphill and I really worked to catch the guy ahead of me and continue to pull away from the second place girl. I slowed down significantly although I honestly think the effort was still there. I came through that mile at 6:23.

We got some more downhill for the last 1.3 miles of the race and I picked it up to a good clip without overextending myself, I had a pretty generous cushion for the lead woman and that was my main goal for the day. 5:45 for mile 9. As I was making the last few turns over the last half a mile a guy came flying by me and we had a nice race to the finish – my last .3 miles was at an average of 5:15 pace and broke the finish line tape at 57:07.

Overall, I really enjoyed the race. It definitely would have been fun to run a fast 15K time but it can also be nice to run some low-pressure races where you aren’t focused on a goal time and can almost treat it more like a workout. After my cool-down Henri, Liv and I hit up the after party. Liv and I enjoyed the treats from my finisher mug (although I’m pretty sure she ate much more of the treats than I did) and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a fun day in San Diego. 

If you ever get the chance to run a Hot Chocolate race I can’t recommend it enough! It was a such a well run and organized event and who doesn’t want to splurge on some chocolate after a great race? haha

**I was invited to run the Hot Chocolate 15K by Sweet Valley Organics and received a free entry for representing them at the race but all thoughts in this post are 100% my own. 🙂