Chocoholic 5K Race Report
I’m glad I happened to see a group on Facebook posting about this race – it was well run, and we got a lot of bang for our buck! $25 + registration fees got us:
- a cute cotton shirt
- a finishers medal
- LOTS of post race chocolate and Kringle
- entry in to the Chocolate Festival
The Chocoholic 5K was in Chocolate City, USA (aka Burlington, WI), the home of Nestlé, on Sunday May 28. I originally planned on going to it alone, but when I mentioned it to some friends at Efit, they were interested. So I made it a group event and ten of us (plus two kids) ended up running! Awesome!
When I signed up for this race, my intention was to run it faster than my last 5K (25:08). But I didn’t train for that, so I planned to do a tempo, and hopefully average under 8:20s.
I’m glad I wasn’t expecting much for speed – the weather was a bit challenging. It started raining an hour and a half before the race, and continued for the entire race. Luckily it wasn’t a downpour during the race (just before) or windy!
Waiting in the rain at the start. I am actually in this photo, but I’d be surprised if you could find me!
I ran without headphones – on purpose this time
The race began in a park and had two bridge crossings, which I was cautious not to slip on*! We ran on streets for a bit, through the Chocolate Festival (by all the smoking employees, thanks, guys) then on a sidewalk along a commercial road. I was surprised (and slowed down!) by the incline there!
The fun was at the end. The majority of the last mile was on a crushed stone trail that had A LOT of deep puddles in it, thanks to the pre-race rain. Most people ran on the grass to avoid as much of the water as possible, but I ran straight through the puddles. I was happy I had decided to wear my regular shoes, and not my racing flats. I was also happy to get off the trail and on to the street and paved trail for the finish!
I finished in 25:19, and ran positive splits – 8:03, 8:19, 8:34 (eek!). I really thought I’d run the last mile a bit faster since it was flatter, but running on the wet trail didn’t help. I still met my goal and averaged 8:18s! The course measured a bit short on my Garmin (3.05), but that doesn’t mean much.
The rain stopped shortly after I finished (of course!) and I had fun cheering all my friends in at the finish line!
The post race treats were awesome – boxes and boxes of snack size candy bars, trays and trays of Kringle, and bananas. We all hung around for the raffle (someone from our group was the first winner!) and awards. The top men and women got candy bouquets! Unfortunately, the chip timing on the bibs got messed up due to the rain, so they couldn’t do age group awards on-site, but I saw later that I placed second in my age group.
We had originally planned to go to the festival after the race, but since we ran through it and saw it was basically a carnival (with rides and games), we passed, and drove back toward home and had lunch at HuHot instead! Nom.
I’m happy I mentioned this race to my friends and that so many people wanted to do it! It was fun to have a big group there, and especially, to cheer people on at the finish! I’m going to look in to other races this company does – I wonder if they’re all this fun and affordable?
*In the post race survey they mentioned they’re going to reverse the course next year to avoid congestion on the bridges
Themocracy
That looks like so much fun! I’ll have to add it to my radar for next year, I love candy races. Congrats on your AG placing!
Definitely do! Thanks!
I would totally do this again! I would have been bummed if you had done this by yourself (less chocolate for me, obviously)!
I actually noticed on the way out that the chocolate festival was across the street, along the river – the crappy carnival was NOT the entire fest (which would be really disappointing). I looked it up on Insta later and it looked decent so we’ll have to check it out next year 🙂
LOL! I am happy you could come!
We noticed that when we came in and I wondered if it was the Chocolate Festival. Jen said she saw a sign that it was an art fair – it looked a lot better than the carnival!!!
According to Google Maps (which I can obviously trust after Sunday LOL), that’s where the Chocolate Fest was supposed to be. So maybe it was both?
Ha ha ha! Yeah, maybe the carnival latches on to the festival. I noticed when we were driving in that Google Maps showed the Chocolate Festival as a permanent fixture in town 🙂
This sounds a TON better than the overpriced, terribly run Chocolate race I did, with awful customer service!!!! Stay away from Hot Chocolate 15k. This race sounds awesome!
Ha ha, oh yeah. A lot of people thought that was what I was doing when I told them about this race. Ha ha ha. No gracias 🙂
This sounds like the best race of all time. The post race food spread in particular sounds exactly up my alley! I’m surprised the weather was so bad, though – it was really nice here all day Sunday, aside for a brief, 10 minute popup thunderstorm in the afternoon!
Oh yeah, you should have seen how many chocolate bars people were taking – bags fulls! And they could have taken more!
The storm was so random. It was a completely sunny day where I live too! So when I was telling Steven about the rain he was like “what rain?” Ha ha.
Nothing says “chocolate festival” like smoking employees! 🙂 Anyway, congrats 2nd place and on pretty much nailing your goal exactly despite the narrow bridges and the rain. I’ve never heard of HuHot before. I might have to check it out next time I’m driving through those parts. I usually eat at Culver’s for a quick bite on Wisconsin road trips.
Ha ha ha. My thoughts eeeeeeeeeexactly 😉
Thank you! Hopefully the next one I will reach my goal with more even pacing.
OMG. HuHot… drool. It’s not quick, but it’s filling. It’s basically one of those “Mongolian Grill” places where you fill up a bowl with your uncooked meats/carbs/veggies/sauce and they cook it for you. So damn good.
What a great race theme, and how fun to have a big group of friends do this race together! Congrats on 2nd place – dang, in the mud and rain, and on a trail? Awesome!
It really was! 🙂 I am looking at another one from them called “Get Lei’d 5K.” Can you guess the theme?!
Thanks!
Oh I would totally do the Get Lei’d race!!! Totally jealous that you have a Hawaiian-themed race available!!!
You’re cordially invited to visit for it! It’s Anne’s Going Away 5K. It’s on July 22 🙂 Come stay with me in the country 😉 And get Lei’d!
Thanks for the invite! Dang, I’d love to come. What a great event for Anne, too!
That sounds like the perfect low-key race. Were you able to partake in any of the snacks and refreshments afterwards? I’ve never had kringle!
I looked for you in the starting line photo, even going so far as to check what color your shirt and shoes were in the next photo. Alas, I am apparently not a super sleuth.
I was able to have a banana! And I brought home a few chocolate bars for Steven 🙂
If you look for the purple shirt and red visor under the umbrella, you will see me. Part of me. Ha!
That sounds like a fun race! I love even more the price!!
Yeah! Hard to beat that!