Hot Chocolate Chicago

Hot Chocolate Chicago

Hot Chocolate Chicago

( 64 reviews )
81% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Chicago,
    Illinois,
    United States
  • November
  • 3 miles/5K, 9 miles/15K, Virtual Race
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Brittany

Chicago, Illinois, United States
3 3
2014
"Neat Concept, Poor Execution"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Brittany 's thoughts:

Disclaimer: Because of the experience I'm chronicling here from 2014, I did not run the race in 2015 and therefore have no idea if the things I mention have been remedied or not.

This race has a really neat concept. It's freezing cold in Chicago in November--who doesn't want to run, warm up, and grab a nice cup of hot chocolate and fondue after? Personally that sounds like heaven to me, so a friend and I ran the 5k variant.

Let's start with the expo. Pushing my feelings toward McCormick Place aside, I will say that the RAM crew did a pretty decent job organizing within an absolutely chaotic space. McCormick place is an enormous maze-like palace of a conference center, and my friend and I had trouble both meeting up and finding where we were supposed to go for our packets. I wish there had been more signage along the way to help point us in the right direction, because if your uber drops you off at the wrong door (as mine did) you're going to waste a lot of time wandering around. Additionally, I wasn't super thrilled with the expo. I wasn't really interested in any of the booths--everything seemed more geared towards an ultra-casual runner than a casual-to-serious runner. I remember there being an entire booth of costume hats for running, for example...

My feelings towards the race are also a bit lukewarm. The course was totally fine, and I very much enjoyed it, but the corrals were a mess (people in the wrong corrals everywhere, RAM members struggling to control who was in which corral, etc) and overall everything just felt rushed, yet stagnant at the same time. Very much a "hurry up and wait" situation for sure.

Post-race, it was fun getting the hot chocolate and fondue, but there weren't a ton of places to sit down to enjoy it. There were so many people crowding that we ended up sitting in the way, and were shooed to a new area by RAM officials. We ended up giving up and just walking home with it. I had to reheat the chocolate, but it was still good later :)

In terms of swag, I wasn't very impressed with the hoodie. I see people all of the city wearing them, but it was scratchy and not very thick (odd for a winter race). I wish they had gone with a name brand hoodie with a bit more substance to it, because as it is now, this one is buried in my closet to basically never be used again. I also wish they had a finisher medal for the 5k. This race was my real return to racing after a year or so off, and I wish I had gotten a medal that I could use to commemorate that.

Overall, it was a fun time with friends and I would recommend it. The other reviews I'm seeing here suggest that it was much improved in 2015, so maybe I'll give it a shot in 2016!

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