When I first registered, I was expecting there to be an expo with bouncy houses as that was what they advertised on their website. I figured it would be a fun thing to bring my kiddos to before race day, however they set up the expo at a Philadelphia Runner store and it seemed like it was a last minute thing as they did not have the expo details on their website until pretty late. I also found it odd that they listed hotels late on their website, as I know people from out of town like to reserve their hotels early to get a good deal and just for peace of mind. That wasn't the case in this instance because I guess there was a huge conference the same weekend and many of the hotels were already booked.

Anyway, packet pickup at Philadelphia Runner went smoothly. It was a quick pick-up, they even handed out chocolate, which was great. The black hoodie is really nice! Really awesome actually. I like how there is a pocket so you can put a key and ID in.

Parking for the race was not so great. The Hot Chocolate website isn't very clear on where exactly to park, they just suggest you to visit a website that lists garages. I really wish they would make it clearer so that we don't have to a bunch of research on our own. A friend and I drove from Princeton and the parking lot we had our eyes on that was really close to the Philadelphia Art Museum ended up being full as we pulled in. If only we came a little earlier. Anyhow, we ended up having to park almost a mile from the start. Ended up not being so bad as it was a pretty cold morning and we considered it to be a nice little warmup.

When we got to the start area, the 5K had just started. We had more than enough time before we were to start at 8am. There were lots of port a potties which was nice, so there wasn't a long wait to go to the bathroom. Gear check was also easy to find.

My friend and I were in the K corral, so we were starting not too far from the fastest wave. The course was nice. We ran towards downtown Philadelphia but turned quickly back (would have been nice to go further) however the rest of the race was beautiful. We ran on road that was right by the Schuylkill River, so we had nice scenery throughout the run. The crew boats were even out, so it was nice to have a little distraction. Water stations were good and they even handed out chocolate close to the 5 mile marker (took one but kept it). The course was pretty flat except for some slight hills. The hill I remember is the one heading back up to the finish. I remember saying to myself, just up this hill and we're home free. :)

The finish line area was awesome as there are lots of people cheering you on. I sprinted to the finish, and once I crossed you walk a bit to get some water. I found my friend and we both walked to the area where we turned our tags in from our bibs to get our finisher's mug filled with yummy goodies to dip into fondue and a cup of hot chocolate. Oh my! The hot chocolate was so yummy. It was my favorite, but I guess anything will taste yummy after running 9.3 miles. I will definitely run for Chocolate again!

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