Saturday - Hot Chocolate 15k Race Report

Hot Chocolate DC 15k Race Report (I have no pics from this race... ah well)

• Race Name: Hot Chocolate DC 15k
• Race Date: December 3, 2011
• Race Location: National Harbor, MD
• Race Distance: 15k (9.3 mi – measured 9.13 on GPS the day of)
• Division: 30-34
• Total Time: 1:29:37
• Time Breakdown: Split 1 – 21:33, Split 2 (at 10k) – 59:27
• Age Group Placing: 613/1638
• Overall Placing: 2982/7678 (women only)

Pre-race

Race registration was all online (this is pretty much the norm now, I think). As long as you registered early enough, you had no problems with registration. A few people tried to sign up closer to the race and the 5k race was closed, so there were complaints about that. When you registered, you had to select your jacket size, which they told you how to measure. This is important later for many people.

On Friday, we headed down to the National Harbor to do packet pickup. We left Tysons Corner (work) right around 3:00 and were at the National Harbor by 3:45. We checked into our hotel and then went to packet pickup. We went in, got our bibs, picked up our jackets, then walked around the expo for a little bit. It was mostly PRR selling stuff at the expo, so that was a bit weird with it being just one vendor, but it’s all good. I picked up a pair of Kinvara 2s that I’ve been meaning to make the trip to PRR for anyhow. We had dinner, met up with Nadia, then met up with Rachel later. We went to bed around 10 with the alarm set for 5:30.

The morning of the race, we walked the mile from our hotel to the race start. Since it was about a mile walk, we started out at 6:30am. This would turn out to be the biggest mistake we made all day, without knowing it. To give the race director a little bit of credit, they did emphasize that people needed to be there by 6:15, as they were closing roads at 6:30. People in the DC area, as always, didn’t account for traffic and it was a cluster. On that note, they should’ve never allowed people to park at National Harbor for this race. They should’ve shuttled everyone in. Also, they should’ve narrowed down the field to at least half of what they had. Had they done those two things, I think things would’ve gone a lot differently.

We were delayed an hour from our start. Mind you, the 15k was supposed to start at 8am. I had been standing outside from 6:30am in race tights and a long sleeve running shirt. I ditched my jacket in bag check at 7:15 because the 5k was supposed to start at 7:45 (they didn’t end up going until 8:20 or so). Total side note: there were PLENTY of port-a-potties in the after race area. The 15k ended up not going until 9:00. I had been outside for 2.5 hrs in very little clothing in 32-34 degree weather. By the time we started, my heart rate had been consistently in the 120s because I had been shivering so much. Since course maps had been provided, I knew we were headed to 210 and then back through where we started and into the National Harbor to run the 5k course before heading back to our start area. What I didn’t realize was that this was a lot hillier than I thought. Oops.

Run

This race is a hard one to write about. I was in a corral, so I didn’t seem to have a lot of the problems people later in the pack did. I found the course to be wide enough and mostly well staffed. I did have to get water off the table myself because by the time we returned to the water station, a couple of the volunteers had left. I didn’t think this was that horrible, so no real complaints. I took my gel at mile 5, took some water, and kept running. My legs actually felt really good for most of the race. Once I hit mile 7.5, my calves started to cramp up and I figured I might be in trouble a bit. I was definitely right… it wasn’t good! I seriously under-estimated the hills on this run and between the 2.5 hrs in the cold and the hills, my calves were shot. Training a bit more (like… at all) would’ve definitely helped me on this race.

Post-Race

Immediately after I finished the race, I was on the ground and massaging my calves to get them to stop contracting. I knew this was super important to get them to stop as soon as possible given my Achilles issues from 2009. I caught up with Rachel, Nadia, and Jon. Jon helped me massage my legs and stretch out some. We sent the ladies back to the hotel since they needed to pack up and check out. I got my hot chocolate and skipped the chocolate fondue. I just wanted real food. After about 45 minutes, we finally started the 1.5 miles back to the hotel. We stopped at Nando’s Peri-Peri for lunch. Chicken with mashed potatoes and cole slaw was just what I needed! Yum!

Summary and Lessons Learned

The worst part of this race was the lack of communication from the race officials and the waiting. The RAM organization seriously needs to look at what went wrong before returning to the DC area. Once we got started, I thought everything was fine, but again, I didn’t have the issues that apparently others did. I think that the field needed to be cut off at least half of what they had. Ultimately, I’d do the race again. We’ll see if they return.

Note: We were delayed an hour because of the traffic debacle that was the National Harbor this morning. If we hadn't been delayed, I would've loved this race instead of just liked it.