Hot Chocolate 15/5k (Volunteering)

This was suppose to be my race-aversary (sp?). The very first race I ever signed up for was the Hot Chocolate 15k in 2011... and it took alot of me to not sign up this year. After alot of debating, I decided to skip out on it. And after all the complaints this year, I think I'll skip out next year too. Instead I registered for a 5k ($30) and a Half Marathon (Chicago Half sale price $35) for the price of one 15k race. (deal or what?) I still wanted to be there race day since a bunch of friends were running it and I wanted to cheer them on and volunteer.

(Thanks jebus for daylight savings time change)
I got up at 4:30am and got ready, left my house by 5am. There was no traffic at the time, but there was a random driver on I-55 driving in the wrong direction, going towards us. (WTF) yeah...
Drive: 15 mins, no traffic

Parking: We were stationed at mile 7 to volunteer, and got easy metered parking a few feet from the 7 mile mark. (25cents an hour) Of course we had to wait till the course reopened in order to get out of there.. but no complaints about that.

As soon as we met up with our leader, we began carrying boxes of water & cups and started filling. It was cold. I was freezing and sleepy. But I packed some left over halloween candy to fuel me through the cold morning :D (har-har). They also gave us warm sweaters, which we had to wait for because they had ran out at our station... (no surprise there) but we still got them after a while of waiting. It was about 6:45am when they finally decided to give us hand warmers, the things you shake and they warm up. Lifesavers.

They took them 10 mins after 7am to finally start up the timer by our station and I noticed the race had started late.. uh oh.  (Not a good sign)

We saw the first runners across lake shore, the still needed to pass the turnaround. Once they did, first male crossed the 7 mile mark around 35 mins. (5 min pace, Super fasttttt)

1st male

2nd Male, he looked like he was in pain..

3rd Male, nice shoes dude

2nd Female

1st Female, 6 min pace! Jeez.

I had not looked at the course map for this years race, and honestly thought it was the exact same course as last years. Was I wrong. For one, running down lake shore is kinda boring, compared to how they did it last year, but that's just me. They had changed a pretty decent course and ruined it. Nice one.

Anyways, I got to see some of UIC Run Club's runners and Chicago blogger too! I had missed the blogger meetup... Maybe next weekend @ the Navy Pier Perfect 10 :)

I can't believe I was screaming for almost 3 hours at that water station. My throat hurt like hell by the end, but I loved it. I just wish I had brought a poster and a cowbell haha people at my aid station weren't so enthusiastic... So I kinda had to scream my lungs out. Idk if it helps runners push through (since I always listen to music during races, I don't really pay attention to what goes on around me).
Does it help?

Well that was that. I had a great time volunteering and cheering on runners! I have no regrets on missing out on this race.  I knew for a fact I would have PRed my 15k distance. (avg pace in 2011 was @ 9:30.. and it was my first race, I could do it in my sleep now, basically lol) So I didn't really need to race this, it was kind of a given I would be happy with whatever my time was. I'm really excited for the next two weeks on my running calendar.
Chicago Perfect 10 next Saturday (Nov 10) and the Long Grove Turkey Trot 5k (Weds. Nov. 22nd). Woohoo!!

Sayo-nara Hot Chocolate.. maybe if you add more things to give me, and better goodies I might consider registering for your race next year.. Maybe.
And change the course. And maybe even a medal would be nice.
Lowering the price would be nice too..

McSpeedy and I