Hot Chocolate 2025

I’m wrapping up my year with my fourth annual Hot Chocolate 10k

Once again bib pick up was at the fairgrounds and while it was in a slightly bigger area it wasn’t as entertaining (I’m looking at you neighboring cattle show from 2024)

There wasn’t that much in terms of giveaways at least not that I took. 

I grabbed my bib, hoodie, & promotional tee shirt as well as a chocolate covered marshmallow and a sample of polar cider as well as a few chocolate pieces

There was other merchandise I waffled on getting at the expo and than waffled on getting again at the stage area

My OOTD was my 2025 Wine & Dine shirt because while Olaf was enjoying time “in summer” snowman are seasonal …I paired it with my red BLogilates skort and crowned crimson witch accessories 

As you can see I was in coral L this year (10k/15k corals were I-M)

We parked at 7 AM and arrived at the convention center around 7:11 AM and it was then I realized I should have looked at the course map. There has been a lot going on in my personal life in the moment and I made an assumption that the course was the same and well… you know what happens when you assume…

At 7:21 AM we FINALLY finished the walk to the actual start and after using the port o let and pinning my bib I was in my spot at roughly 7:39 AM

It was 61 feels like 62 and while on par with last year I didn’t regret wearing long sleeves (though I did cuff my sleeves a bit before I even started but that was mainly to make seeing my garmin easier)

I crossed the start around 8:06 AM and about ten mins later THE 15 min mile 15K PACER + SWEEPERS WERE ALREADY PASSING ME!

This felt a bit off considering I had started just behind the 11 min mile 15k pacer not to mention at least the past two years they didn’t pass me until I was approaching mile two. 

In the back of my mind I pondered if I’d be ushered to the 5k turn point though two mins later once I was finally onto Bayshore the end of the 5k line was passing me from the other side.

Two mins after this I saw an entering sign

And just as I snapped a photo my current song ended and silence! I went to check and my music app crashed. 

I spent the next three mins turning my phone off and on even if it messed my tracker up.

I reached mile marker 1 in 17 mins and after my music app was still messy I tried to see if Pandora world work. It did. 

Two minutes later was the first water stop. I skipped it as I had a full water bottle still and didn’t notice if it also had treats.

Another five mins and I noticed some of the early 10k finishers walking up the other side of the road.

Another five mins later was my first “you’ve reached your skip limit” message on Pandora. It hadn’t even been a mile and my momentum was waning without a curated playlist.

I reached mile marker 2 in 18 mins (35 total) 

Eight minutes later there was the second water stop. This time I took water as well as some gummy bears.

Another four minutes later was my second skip limit alert and in the next five min span I got two more and I was really hitting a mental wall and wondering if just switching to a podcast would have helped or hurt my vibes.

I finally reached mile 3 in 17 mins (52 mins) 

About two minutes later there was a wild rush of rebooting my phone again and FINALLY getting my music app working, hitting the 5k map and then the official 10k turn around 

About eight minutes later the first 15k pacer on the back end passed me (9:30 minute mile for the record)

Another six minutes later was water stop three for another cup of water and more gummy’s

I reached mile 4 in 17 mins (1:09:00) and mile 5 in 19 mins (1:28:00)

Four minutes later was the final water stop where I got another water and some chocolate melts as well as trashed my bottle.

Eleven minutes later I reached about where my 10k PR would have been time wise and if I were on that pace my finish line needle drop would have been fun (though what I got was no slouch as you will soon see)

I reached mile 6 in 18 minutes (1:46:00 total)

And officially finished in 1:50:01 which was two minutes under last year and I wonder how much would have been shaved off it I wasn’t fighting with Pandora for the better part of two miles.

RUN THE YEAR

1829/2,025

UPCOMING RUNS

Feb 21st Gasparilla 15K

Feb 22nd Gasparilla 8K

March 7th Promise Run 5k

March 21st Keel Farms 5K

April 17th Springtime 5K

April 18th Springtime 10K

PRs

• 1M {15:26} 3K {30:59} 5K {42:46} 8K {1:13:59} 10K {1:42:52} 15K {2:19:09} 10M {3:01:51} HALF {3:54:55} FULL {7:08:15*} *virtual full run in increments

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