Run for Chocolate?!?

So, this past weekend Brandon and I had our first 5k race together. Several months ago, a friend of his sent an email with the ‘big idea’ of doing this Hot Chocolate race in February…holy cold! I was fresh out of excuses (not quarter close, not a bday, not a holiday) so I had to commit. I wasn’t impressed with the thought of what the temps could be in mid-Feb, especially after the ice storm and solid week I spent working from home last year during this same time period. Anyway, overall, we’ve had a lame winter so I thought I might just luck out with decent weather. Not.So.Much. A cold front blew in Friday night and by Saturday morning, the temps were in the 20’s with a wind chill of 17 degrees and 15-20 mph wind gusts. BURR. Not only do I hate running in wind, I hadn’t run 3 miles straight in over a year. I’ve been working on it and I’ve done 4-5 miles at a time but not without walking some around mile 2 ½. Cold, wind, hills...I was not looking forward to it. I begged Brandon to let me get out of it with no luck. (I should mention said 'friend' bailed that morning due to the cold...I'm sorry, what?!?)

I got up at 5am to get ready, bundle up as much as possible and added a few ‘lucky layers’ for kicks.

My 'lucky' shirt from Amy...

My 'lucky' socks from Amy...

Brandon was entirely too chipper and ready to run...I don't think I've ever seen him this excited at 5:30am...

Oh it was cold. So cold. Our fingers and toes were FROZEN. I finally started feeling my big toes again about mile 2. We both survived…and both ran our best times yet. I’m happy to report that as painful as it was, I didn’t have to stop and walk (the motivation of being able to tell Amy and Brandon that I ran the entire thing without stopping…and knowing there was warm Ghirardelli chocolate fondue at the finish line…definitely helped!) Brandon ran the race in just under 25 minutes and I ran it in 28 minutes….way faster than I typically run! We were happy with our times…and happy to eat our chocolate afterwards!!

pre-race 'frozen' pic

 time to thaw and eat some yummy chocolate fondue!

 1st Race together = SUCCESS!