The Expo was a bit smaller in past years, but I feel that this is common for all races. It was really efficient. You bring in a QR code that they scan and print a sticker and attach to your bib. Easy peasy. In fact I picked up 4 other packets and was done right away with no hassle.

Since this was my 3rd year running the HC15K Charlotte, my bib said that I was a Legacy so a stop to the next table and I picked up my Legacy gift - a branded mug with an amazing sprinkled chocolate bar and bronze medal. Such a cool perk. Several people stopped to ask us where we got them and how.

Then it was on to pick up our jackets. They scan your bib and hand you a bag with your correct size. You can try on your jacket and switch out if necessary. I always love the HC15K jackets. They are always amazing and this year was no exception.

After getting the jackets, we wandered around looking at the few set ups there. In the middle was my favorite, the chocolate sampling. They had hot chocolate to try and also fondue chocolate with a cookie and marshmallow and mini chocolate squares. Yum! And they have some fun facts about the amount of goodies they use and allergy information.

There was also a small merchandise area where I bought a super cute HC15K knit hat. I immediately put it on and got lots of compliments. I even wore it for the race the next day!

Okay y'all, I am not going to mince words... Race day was COLD. Like really cold. It was 23 degrees F at the start line and this warm-weather loving girl was not having it. I will fully admit, I was sulking. But you know what? I still had a great race because that is the power of Hot Chocolate races.

I parked close by to the start in the 7th Street Station garage which had plenty of spots and was adjacent to First Ward Park where the race started and finished. I had made arrangements to meet with my various running crews - BibRave, Burn Sisters, random running friends and so on at landmark and we took some quick pictures and mostly were cold. There were a ton of potties which I used 2x (race day nerves, yo) and never even waited in line there were so many. Just walked right in!

The 5K started at 8:00 so I went down to cheer them on. This year the number of 5K runners was much higher than in past (actually for all runners I think) as in the past the 5K waves were A, B, and C, but this year it was A-F! After the F wave went out, the banners were flipped for the 15K runners to line up. I was in Wave G which was the first 15K wave. The 15K started right on time at 8:30 and we were off!

Another time I will not mince words... This course is HILLY! Most uptown Charlotte races are, but I believe that this course takes the (chocolate) cake as one of the hilliest, at least that I have run, and I've done a lot of Charlotte races now. There is an uphill around mile 4-5 that just does not quit. It's the area around the Country Club and man is it rough. I tell myself every year that when I get out of the Country Club area the hardest part is now over. I mean, not the last of the hills, just the worst of them. But the course is very well marked and there are aid stations stocked with water, Nuun and goodies like marshmallows and M&Ms spaced throughout. There are several cheer stations scattered throughout the course as well so it is interesting and fun to run. There was this guy who was WAY excited to be cheering on the runners around mile 7 that I swear his exuberant high 5 gave me renewed vigor. Around 8.5 there was a sorority that a brightly colored "Hit Here For Speed Boost" Sign that I swear worked. And the last half mile there are tons of inspirational signs to guide you in.

The finish line was located on 7th Street and as usual for a Charlotte race, it was uphill. I was prepared for this and saved a bit of energy for the end. Lots of cheering in the chute and the announcer welcomed every single runner in by name. Overall, I was pleased with my time, I had cut a minute off of last year's finish on the same course, but can't help but feel had it been warmer (and had I had like 10 lbs less of clothes on) I could have done better. I was handed my medal by a super cheerful volunteer and made my way to the Nuun station and then a water bottle.

The goodie pick up is super efficient, lots of volunteers on hand to assist you. You tear off the bottom of your bib and you are handed a bowl of yummies! This year, the bowls were made of biodegradable heavy cardboard which was awesome.
After that, it was just another quick walk back to the garage and that was a wrap for the Hot Chocolate Charlotte 2020. Loved it even if it could have been a bit (a lot) warmer.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Did I mention that HC15K races give you FREE photos! In fact, I got an email before I even got home telling me that my photos were available. I thought there was no way that was right, but yup, clicked the link and there were 3 finish line photos waiting for me. So cool!

I will for sure be back in 2021 and I hope to see you there too!

This past weekend, I ran my very first Marathon Relay at the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon. Basically how it works is you, and up to 4 of your friends split up the marathon distance and tackle the course together rather than have to put in the full 26.2 miles by yourself.

There are 5 races that make up the Charlotte Marathon race day - the Marathon, Marathon Relay, Half Marathon, 5K and Kids 1 Mile. All races are run the same day with a 7:30 am start for the Marathon, Relay and Half, 7:45 start for the 5K and 7:50 for the Kids 1 Mile. So really there is a race distance for everyone. The races start at the Charlotte Knights Stadium and finish at Romare Bearden Park (across the street) and each course winds through Uptown and some of the most iconic parts of Charlotte. Immediately after finishing, a volunteer gave you your medal and there was a backdrop up for finisher photos Further down, the finish line chute had small Publix bags to pack with food (bananas, cereal bars, fruit cups, Gatorade, water and if you finished early enough Chocolate Milk (they had run out by the time our team finished). NoDa Brewing was giving out free craft beer in a roped off area with space heaters (yay), there was a band playing and several vendor tents set up in the park.

The race website has a ton of excellent information including course maps, elevation maps and extremely detailed information about the races, the schedule, basically anything that you need to know.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the Expo because I was working on Friday, but luckily one of our team members worked just down the street and picked up our stuff for us. For the Relay, just one person needed to pick up everything anyway, so it worked out perfect and the teammate who went said it was well organized and easy in and out. Relay runners received an envelop with 5 bibs (all the same number), an Velcro armband with the tracker on it that was to be handed off at each leg, and a shirt for each team member. The shirts were short sleeve Recover shirts, navy with green writing for the Relay and really quite nice. They were true to size and I love the way mine fits.

Our team met up early and carpooled into the Charlotte together in order to save on parking fees. There were plenty of places to park with easy access to the Start. We parked in a garage about 2 blocks from the start and made our way over to the surrounding area where lots of groups had tents up. Music was playing and the ball park had their bathrooms open so it was nice to be able to use a real bathroom pre-race.

Here's a quick heads up to those who have never run in Charlotte before. Charlotte is hilly. Like a lot hillier than you would expect. The 10 miles of the course I ran were challenging, but not what I would consider super hard. As long as you added some hill work into your training, you would be fine. Just don't expect a flat course.

Leg #4 was my official leg, but because some of us are a bit crazy, we actually ran an extra leg to both put in a few more miles and to keep each other company. So I ran legs #3 and #4 which spanned from mile 10 to mile 20. I had asked the Race Director during a Facebook Live event if it was okay if we ran multiple legs and he said that as long as we had a bib and were respectful of other racers, sure, why not, so a few of my team ran multiple legs.

So like I said, my 10 miles were hilly, but not unenjoyable. There were several bands and DJs blasting music along the course also, but I don't really remember at what intervals. Every 2 miles or so there was an aid station with Water and Gatorade. I also heard there were gels at a few stations, but I didn't pay much attention as I carried my own water and nutrition.

When you finished your Relay leg you had to pass off the Velcro armband tracker to the next runner who had to run over a timing mat in order to officially start the new leg. Once finished, there was a table at the exchange point where volunteers would give you a bag of goodies that had a water bottle, Gatorade bottle and cereal bar. There were also a couple of portapoties at the exchange points.

The thing that I was most worried about was getting around from exchange point to exchange point. At first I thought that each of us would have to hang out at our starting point until our hand off, and then we'd each have to make our way back to the finish on our own. There was no transportation provided by the race as far as shuttles or anything like that. What we ended up doing was one of our team member's husband gracious drove us around and picked us up at our stations. With the help of a GPS and the map/directions provided by the race, we were able to successfully navigate the exterior of the race and drop off and pick up as we needed with no one being late to their start and no one waiting long in the cold.

Now for the really only complaint I had about the whole race experience, the runner tracking. The race sent out links to a partner company that handles their tracking, RaceJoy. The app was super clunky and not the greatest to use. First off the bat, it kept crashing on me. So much that I uninstalled and reinstalled and had a bit better luck. Secondly, in order to track a runner, you had to have the app running in the background, which drained the battery some. Also, for the Relay, you had to not only have the app running, but had to physically take out your phone and hit a button on the app to start your leg for it to record your leg. So not only did you have to run with your phone (some people don't) you had to have you phone out, app on, start the leg and then store your phone at the start of your leg. Could use a ton of improvement, but it was functional.

All good things must come to an end, and we were are so excited to see the final leg member of our team round the last corner and head towards the finisher chute. The whole team hopped onto the course and ran in with him in one big, beautiful line of orange with an overall finish time of 3:51:11. After pictures and beer and celebrating at the after party, we made our way back to our cars (just a short walk) and left Uptown Charlotte feeling victorious, ready to do it again next year.

I arrived on Friday in order to hit up the Health & Fitness Expo held in the Savannah Convention Center. Since our hotel was on Bay St. we only had to make a short walk down to the river and then take the free ferry across. FREE! Super convenient! The Expo is super well organized. You receive a link to your Bib number a few days before the event so you can walk right over to the correct area to get your bib. Or, there is also an app that you can get your information from. After getting your bib, you head over to get your shirt/shirts. You can switch out sizing if necessary, but mine were true to size. After you get your gear, you then enter the shopping/display section of the Expo. Lots of cool booths and displays to check out and the race merchandise is amazing. You also can get your wrist bands for beer so you don't have to mess around with them on race day and also check in for your VIP experience if you opted for it, or Run Club if you signed up as one like we did. Run the Rock ended up being the 3rd largest club in attendance which scored us some cool perks, extra beer tickets, 2 VIP passes and a free entry into a 2020 race for a member the group - we'll be doing a drawing for it, fingers crossed I score it!!

Saturday morning was race day for the Marathon and the Half Marathon. Since we were able to walk to the start this year, I got to sleep in a bit. Once we made it down the .25 miles to the start, everything was really well organized. The Waves were clearly marked and there was music playing to pump us up. Lots of port-a-potties on site, or several of the hotels had their lobbies open. The national anthem was sung a few minutes before the race start and then we headed into the corrals to take position.

The course is really awesome. You run through some really nice areas of Savannah including the beautiful historic district. The course is super flat with really only 2 hills that I can remember, near the start and finish, but they were super tame compared to what I am used to running. Spectators line the course and every 2 miles or so there is a band to keep you going. There are lots of aid stations with water and Gatorade Endurance and a few have SiS gels even, so if you don't want to carry at all during the race you don't have to. Especially near the end of race, there are spectators that give out beer, water and other beverages to help motivate. For example, my Russian friend had a Tequila shot at mile 11. And one of my friends thought he was grabbing a water and nope, it was Vodka! It was a surprise, but he did hit a new Half PR so...

So, how did I do? I am crazy excited to say that I shaved almost 9 whole minutes off my last year’s time for a 1:56:50 finish!!! I was pretty stunned actually when I crossed the finish! Months of hard work had paid off in a big way. It was so amazing. The whole walk down the finisher chute, I just kinda zoned out as people gave me a medal, took my picture and handed me drinks (water, Gatorade, chocolate milk and pineapple juice) and snacks (pretzels, trail mix and fruit cups). By the time I got out of the chute, I snapped back to reality and started looking for my friends to celebrate! We grabbed our free beers and rocked out to the band on the stage. Really awesome after party, one of the best I’ve been to in fact. It was an AMAZING race day.

This was my 2nd time running Tobacco Road, but my first time on the Marathon Course (I ran the Half last year). Man, what a great race. It is small enough to make you feel like you are getting individual attention with small touches like the RD shaking everyone's hand at the finish line, but large enough to be exciting.

I drove in about 2.5 hours and stayed at the host hotel for the Expo, which was super nice and had a few perks for runners like free reception the night before and free late check out for runners. The Expo was small, but well organized and a few cool things this year like a visit from Jeff Galloway who gave a talk and was gracious enough to chat with and take photos with anyone who wanted to. I'm always too self conscience for that, but two of my friends got their bibs signed and he greeted them like old friends.

Perhaps my least favorite, and only real issue with Tobacco Road is the parking situation. There are really 2 parking options (3 if you count getting dropped off) 1 - purchase 1 of a limited number of parking passes and 2 - parking at a remote lot and taking the shuttle in. Pretty straight forward, but both require you to arrive by 5:30 am for a 7:00 am start, which I feel is a bit too early. I rode with a friend with a parking pass and arrived right at 5:30 where we sat in the warm car for 45 min before getting out to use the ample port-a-potties and looking for other friends. We lined up at the start about 15 min before the race and pacers were well positioned for both the Half and the Full distances.

The first 2.5 miles of the course was on road and had a few hills. Nothing I hadn't trained for, but a bit hilly nonetheless. Both the Half and Full start at the same time and cover this distance together. When you arrived the trail, the Marathoners turned right, while the Halfers tuned left. The right trail was hard packed dirt for the first few miles, then half hard packed/half asphalt so you could choose which surface to run on. There were a few road crossings that we well managed by police and support stations heavily manned with cheering people and water, Gatorade, gels, and Stroop waffles. At mile 7 (and 11) there was a Mimosa station that had bacon too. You ran to about mile 9, then turned back to where you started, where you were at just around mile 14. Then you crossed the main road (well manned with police) and started on the Half course. This side was all hard packed. You ran to about mile 19, then turned back to where you came onto the trail. Just past the turn around point, there was a huge spread of all kinds of goodies - cookies, snacks a ton of stuff that I didn't stop to check out, but was super nice. There were several port-a-potty stations also along the course. Once you came off the trail, you made you way back to Thomas Brooks Park down the same 2.5 miles you came in on. I felt the hills a bit more the way back, but nothing terrible, just gently rolling.

Lots of excitement at the finish that was a bit of a blur to me to be honest, but there was a beer garden, free pizza, water stations, chocolate milk and I'm sure lots of other things I missed. Tons of volunteers were on hand for anything you needed. And the huge medal was gorgeous! I plan on wearing it for quite awhile!

Overall, it was an amazing race for my first Marathon. I would highly recommend it for you 1st, 5th, or 50th!