You may recall from October that I was chosen as an ambassador for the Hot Chocolate 15/5K event in Atlanta, GA. I enjoyed promoting the event, RAM Racing was a great company to work with during the months leading up to the race!
The past weekend the BadassBabes made our trek to Atlanta to participate in the HC15K. Our ride there was nothing short of epic.
Off we go!
After resting a bit on Saturday we headed for the expo, thankfully it was located across the street from our hotel. We didn't have to spend much time outside in the 30 degree weather! The expo was small, which we expected but was packed full of fun and treats! Once everyone had their packet and bib, we headed out to do a little shopping. We attempted to shop around the Atlantic Station area, did I mention it was 30 something degrees? Yeah, it was cold! We opted for indoor shopping at Lenox. There were many good sales and the Badass Babes found some sweet deals! We ended the evening with a little surprise birthday dinner for Erin / pre-race dinner for everyone else!
Packet Pick Up
The Badass Babes... love this photo!
Lovely dinner dates!
The alarm went off at 4:30am on Sunday... 4:30am! We had been warned of terrible traffic getting to Turner Field and decided we didn't want to get caught up in all that. So we loaded up the Suburban with the Babes and off we went. There was no traffic...we arrived at Turner Field at 5:30am, we left the hotel at 5:15...FAIL! We could've slept another hour, this brought on much silliness for the next few hours in the car together! The clock finally struck 7:15am and it was time to wish our girl Ashley well in the 5K. Then the rest of us made our way to the start line for the 15K. Thankfully the race started right on time and we didn't have to stand around in the 30 degree weather for very long. We wound our way through the neighborhoods of the midtown and uptown areas of Atlanta. It was a beautiful run, very hilly but fun! The last few miles were on the downtown streets past the beautiful gold domed Georgia Capital. The finish line was just outside the former outfield fence of the original Braves Stadium, being a Braves fan I thought this was very neat.
I finished with a 15K PR of 1:36 and headed straight for my finishers mug full of sweet treats. They call it the "Sweetest Race" and they lived up to their name. We received a mug full of goodies, including the best Hot Chocolate that I have had in quite a while.
Let's do this!
Yummy!
My BFF and I with our CHOCOLATE!
The best finish photo!!
Overall the experience was awesome! RAM Racing knows how to put on a great event from the ease of registration to keeping everything so well organized on race day with 20,000 people at the event. I hope to be able to keep working with them in the future as ambassador for the next event in our area. If you have a chance to run a Hot Chocolate 15K near you, I highly recommend participating!
After a quick shower we all changed into our awesome HC15K sweatshirts that were part of our goodie bags! Then we had a yummy lunch and the Badass Babes made our way down I-85 south back to Tallahassee. This time we had two cars so we split up. I'm certain we left our mark at the gas station just north of Lumpkin, GA. The fake argument between myself and Shannon had everyone rolling!! The poor people in Coolidge, GA are probably still talking about the three girls running around the white car during a fire drill, oh yeah at a green light!
Who wouldn't want to spend
4 1/2 hrs in a car with this crew?!
We LOVE our sweatshirts! Thanks HC15K!
Starbucks in the CNN Center before we left town!
This weekend provided much downtime and laughter that we all needed. It's been a stressful few weeks for the Badass Babes and we let loose! Next up for us is the 26.2 with Donna (half marathon) in Jacksonville, FL on February 23rd. The stories from that road trip are always good so stay tuned!
That sounds like such a fun race!
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