Hot Choloate 15k/5k Race Recap!

The day of our RACE!!!! I've been waiting to do this since I found out about it months ago and it's finally here! YAY! The wait is coming to an end!

Before I start, did you know what's great having best friend doing a race together? We switch of driving to the race/expo and it's my turn to drive. Lindsay and I live only 5 minutes for each other and we start the they off by leaving the neighborhood by 4:20 A.M. Then I went to pick up one of my friends, Josh, who I asked to join us.

Lindsay, Lisa, and Josh

Let me tell you when we got out of the car to walk where the tents are, it was so freaking COLD!!!! It's seem like my fingers and toes was about to fall off. I think everyone of else was wearing three layers of tops. Guess what we did when we got to the tents, we found where the heater was located. Haha!!

Keeping ourselves nice and toasty!

There was a schedule Zumba at 6:30 before the line up of the corral. So we left the tent to join in to the Zumba fun!!! It was a lot of fun and it warm up our muscle. After that we lined up in our corral. Lindsay and I were assigned to Corral F but we moved back to Corral I. It took a while for each corral to go and all that warm up we did with Zumba was gone, by just standing around.

When its was our turn to run pass the start line, Lindsay and I split up. She want to walk most of the way and I want to run. So Josh and I left to run together....but that doesn't last very long. We got separated up on a bridge when there were a few people who had fallen down. Josh went to ask if one of the ladies who had fallen was ok and I didn't know at that time and I can't stop for long or I would get pushed. There was a crazy amount  of people. I wish I could have taken more pictures along my race but if I would have my fingers would have fallen off!

Josh finish the race first, he passed me and I didn't know it, and I met up with him so we can wait for Lindsay before we picked up our FINISHERS CUP!!!!

Let me tell you about the Finisher Cup. We got a cup of hot chocolate and a side of hot fudge. We also had a banana, wafer, rice crispy treat, and a bag of pretzels so we could dip it into the chocolate. It was yummy!!! Lindsay and I were so hungry that we finished eating our before we remember we needed to take a picture. Thankfully, our friend Josh did remember to take the picture.

Overall the race was a lot of fun and I can't wait for next year's Hot Chocolate Race. I know what to expect next year. If the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k are going to be in your area, I would recommend doing it.  :)

Hot Chocolate 15k/5k Expo and Volunteering Recap & Giveaway Winner!

Volunteering at the Hot Chocolate 15k/5k Prep

Saturday morning Lisa and I reported to Turner Field to help with preparations for the race! The first thing that happened when we got to the volunteer site was get our AWESOME sweatshirts that say "Will Volunteer for Chocolate," and at 20 degrees when we got there we sure did need the extra layers!

Our job as volunteers was to assemble the finishers mugs. Each mug had to have a bag of pretzels, wafers, a rice crispy treat, and a hand sanitizer wipe. We also had to make about 20,000 of these! There were about 50 volunteers there during our shift and we broke into smaller groups and made an assembly line putting the finishers cups! This lasted about 5 hours and then we were off to the expo!

The Expo!

The race expo was located at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, and for those who haven't been there it is HUGE! This was our first expo which was really exciting, so we spent a few hours there. 

The expo was one large room in the World Congress Center filled with booths for other races and companies like Skirt Sport. For some reason we didn't think that there would be booths with clothes and shoes so we did not expect to go and spend money! There were some amazing deals there on our favorite running gear, like 50% off shoes, Skirt Sport clothes, Sweaty Bands headbands, ect. So we browsed and walked around the expo looking at all of the items that we wanted but didn't buy since we weren't expecting to spend money. 

As you can image that only lasted so long. Lisa and I purchased race entries to the 80's Rad Retro Run, which is on May 10 (the day after my 21st birthday!). The expo also had music, chocolate covered marshmallows, and hot chocolate of course!

Below is the goodie bag that we got with packet pickup. I also got a free coffee mug (with a coupon from another blogger when I signed up)

Giveaway Winner

The winner of the giveaway is Tara! Tara if you would send us an email with your information to claim your prize, it will be on its way to you soon!

The race recap will be up soon so be sure to check back for that! (The blog post after that will have a giveaway too!)

Our First Race Prep- Color in Motion

After we started running and working out on a regular basis the next logical step was to pick out some races to attend. So right off the bat we registered for three 5k's: Glotronika, Color in Motion, and the Hot Chocolate 5k.  Glotronika was scheduled to happen on October 26. This past weekend we got the unfortunate news that not enough people had registered and the 5k was CANCELED!

Well, we moved on and thus started to prepare for the next race, Color in Motion. Color in Motion is a fun run where the volunteers have packets of colored cornstarch and everyone throws the powder everywhere throughout the race. So this race is coming up on November 16th, so it was time to start our race day prep.

For anyone who hasn't seen/heard of a Color Run there is a rule stating that the participant must wear a white top and white pants. However, as Neon Princesses we needed some neon in our outfit. Then the idea came to mind of matching neon tutus for race day. After a quick trip to our local JoAnn's the creation of the tutus began.

So using basic neon colored tulle our race day tutus were completed.  Now all that is left to prepare in our outfits for race day are the clothes that we are running in. We didn't want to take a chance on ruining our nicer running clothes so we are planning on going to Target and getting some cheaper white running shorts for race day, and we are planning on wearing the provided race t-shirt, and old running shoes. 

Here are our completed tutus!  (FYI the glitter tulle is super messing Lindsay's boyfriend was not happy with finding glitter EVERYWHERE in their room. That's why I didn't want to make them in mine hehe --Lisa)

Lisa

Lindsay

So good pointers that we will be following for race day include:

• Bring a change of clothes
• Bring a clean towel 
• Bring wet wipes
• Bring a bandana or something to cover your face and/or eyes during the race

These are the tips that we found and thought of. Please chime in and let us know any other tips, and your experiences with color runs. Next time we will be talking more about how we budget.