I love to run – I have undoubtably become a bit addicted to running. But, I’ll admit I love chocolate too. Yes, it may not be the best food for maintaining my girlish figure, but as most moms will agree that life is better with chocolate. So, how excited do you think I was when I found out about the Hot Chocolate 15K/5K? Chocolate in San Diego? Really! I knew right away that I would be registering for this race.

I was fortunate to have a friend, Karen, and her husband who signed up to run this race also – it’s always more fun to run with friends (and it’s more fun to enjoy chocolate with friends too!) There were about 13,000 runners who participated in the two Hot Chocolate races. The majority of the runners participated in the 5K. We ran the 15K, which is 9.3 miles. This is an uncommon race distance – but it’s a great distance to run. It’s the perfect middle ground between a 10K and a Half Marathon.

Unfortunately for me, I had strained my IT band the day before on a long run so I wasn’t in the best circumstance for the race. Knowing that, I planned to just take it easy so I didn’t further injure myself and finish the race. The San Diego course was quite hilly, which meant we had a good challenge, but none of the hills were so challenging that I needed to walk at any point. The last mile was mostly downhill which allowed for nice momentum crossing the finish line. Despite my injury I ran a decent time for the course and definitely had a great race experience.

They call it America’s Sweetest Race – and based on the contents of the finisher’s mug I would have to agree. The race was very well organized – they did a good job with the organization of corrals, gear check, information, and participant traffic flow after the finish line. There were plenty of water stations and there was even chocolate at the water station near mile 7. The finisher’s mug is a chocolate lover’s delight.

Ghiradelli’s Hot Chocolate, chocolate fondue with a banana, Rice Krispie, graham crackers, pretzels, and a jumbo marshmallow for dipping. Yum! When empty the mug can make a great little desktop organizer for office supplies – or better yet chocolate supplies!
*this review was originally posted on www.ocmomblog.com