“Disclaimer: I received a free entry into the Hot Chocolate 15k/5k St. Louis to review and promote as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!”
If you missed my first part of this race, you can find it here.
This gets me EVERY year! I thought I was being savvy with the shuttle passes. But then I realized I would have to pay $1 every 20 minutes to park at the shuttle pick up area. So I made the point to get to the race over an hour early. They already had the areas blocked and I resorted to park at the Zoo. This is $10. So I think next year I may just do that again. It was about 1 mile from the start, but a quick trek and easy to get out after the race.
The corrals were well marked. I wasn’t injured at the time of registration so I was supposed to be in corral A. I knew that wasn’t a good idea, so I found my BibravePro pal Melissa and joined her corral!
If you haven’t been following, I have been injured. I have pulling in my left leg and no one knows what it is. I hadn’t received my MRI results yet and didn’t want to ruin my almost 3 months of rest, so I planned to trot/walk the 5k. I started out trotting so I wasn’t in the way of anyone. I fully documented the race via IG stories and loved it. This allowed me to appreciate the race and volunteers much more. The whole time you had great support along the course.
I loved the energy the volunteers had, especially the younger boy and girl at the 5k/15k breakaway, they were GREAT!
Nuun and water were offered on the course as well as chocolate pieces, which I seemed to miss. I heard them say it but I couldn’t get to the other side fast enough. It’s okay, I knew there were more at the end!
Towards the middle of the race you can appreciate some fun and supportive signs along the way from the race and those always help give me a boost.
My favorite part! I was able to find Melissa and her mom at the end to say goodbye, which was impressive with the amount of people there. The great part is it is spaced out in a huge open field. I also took advantage of the fun photo opps!
All State had a cool photo area with a digital clock showing your finish time, but the line was a bit long for me to wait on that one.
So I went and did my typical hot cocoa shot, but this year got crazy with a boomerang!
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Then of course more amazing volunteers handing out our sweet treat afterward! Tip: eat your melted chocolate treats before you do anything, otherwise the melted chocolate tends to harden again. This was my first year I actually got to enjoy the chocolate because I ate it first before heading back to the car!
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I loved that they had a 5k medal this year. This year and last year I had registered for the 15k but had to drop down to the 5k. I loved that you still received your treats but it’s just such a fun race and the quality of their medals are SO good that I was jealous of everyone. It’s still not as cool as the chocolate bar, because duh, but it was nice to have a nice heavy medal after!
Also new this year was compostable bowls for your treats. I know some people utilized the plastic bowls in the past, but I’ll be honest, mine always was donated and I always saw them tossed in the trash can when leaving. So I think this was a great move on their part.
Final thoughts: organization, swag, treats, fun….what more could you want? You need to do one of these races at least once!
Check out the Hot Chocolate Locations & Dates
Follow them on social media:
HotChocolate15k
and #Hc15k
Q: Have you done a hot chocolate race before?
Q: What city would you run?
