Will Run For Chocolate

Who doesn't run for chocolate? A friend on mine "liked" the Hot Chocolate 15K/5K page on Facebook a while back, and the name prompted me to check it out. I saw that there was a race in Dallas, so I signed up for it almost immediately, thinking I could talk at least one of my friends into running it with me. I did manage to talk a friend into doing it with me, so yesterday we packed up the car and headed on the road toward Dallas. The only time I have ever spent in Dallas has been for volleyball tournaments, and this was my first time driving there myself. I must say that my opinion of Dallas grew much more favorable, and my time spent there, though it was less than 24 hours, was really great.

Kayla and I stayed with a couple that I met at Crooked Creek Ranch in Colorado two summers ago. They were adult guest hosts and truly just the most incredible people. It turns out that one of their nieces is actually in my Wyldlife group, so when Luke saw that I tweeted something about coming to Dallas, he was quick to offer up "Hotel Davis" as a place for us to stay.

Anyway, we left Austin around 12:30pm, and got to the Cotton Bowl to pick up our packets at the expo just around 4:00pm. The weather was beautiful, and I had a great time visiting Fair Park, as it was my first time to ever see it.

There was some traffic (as is usual in Dallas, right?) so we got to the Davis' house a little before 5:00pm. We sat at their kitchen table just chatting away until about 6:45 when they took us to dinner at their favorite restaurant - Picasso's. If you live in Dallas, you should definitely check out this place. The atmosphere is great, the food is wonderful, and our company was obviously the best. I opted for the veggie burger and it was delicious, but every single plate of food I watched them bring out looked great, so that was really no surprise.

Once we got back to their house, Luke and I spent some time reliving our days at Crooked Creek, watching different videos, skits, and promos, and just had an all-around great time, while Kayla helped Paula address a very large stack of Valentine's Day cards. I was sad to leave them this morning, but I know that we will see them both again very soon.

Now, onto the race. The race was scheduled to begin at 8:00am, so after eating a quick peanut butter and banana breakfast, Kayla and I left the Davis' house at 6:30am, so that we would be sure to get to the race by 7:00am. 

The Dallas Skyline at 6:45am

We figured we were allowing plenty of time to get lost, park, and to just chill out and relax before the start of the race. Not so much. We got literally a mile away from where we needed to exit and sat in traffic for ONE HOUR. I was not impressed with that, because I hate feeling rushed for things, but we ended up making it JUST in time for the race to start. After a stressful beginning, the race turned out to be a lot of fun. It was a good course - a bit hilly at times, but not enough to wear me out like the Run for the Water race I did in October - a great view of the Dallas Skyline, and just a really fun atmosphere. It also didn't hurt that this was the finisher's mug.

It included hot chocolate, pretzels, marshmallows, a banana, a rice krispie treat, and wafer stix that were all meant to be dipped in the fondue they provided. You would think we were five years old the way we were eating that chocolate! Well, Kayla went ham on the chocolate, I couldn't, but I enjoyed all the goodies sans chocolate.

All in all, it was a really great race, and it felt good to run that long of a distance in an actual race setting, as it was my first since that darn toe injury. A great race accompanied by even better company. And my weekend is not even over yet, as I'm off to meet my parents and brother who came to town just to take me to a delicious birthday dinner at Eddie V's. See y'all later!