The Chocolate Race

Today was the Chocolate Race.  We have all been looking forward to this for awhile.  We had friends from Detroit come up to run, Mike and James ran the 5k and I ran the 10k.  It was a great time!!!!!!  I was happy with my time of 1:10.05.  My goal was under 1:15 so mission accomplished!


We spent the night a hotel in Niagara Falls.  Mike and James had to follow me up later than expected.  James had baseball Saturday morning and broke his finger.  Mike had to take him to the ER to get it xrayed and splintted.  Once they got up there the fun started!  We enjoyed a great dinner with our friends and then Mike and James went for a swim in the pool.

This morning we got up early for the race.  James and I made everyone t-shirts.  So we all had bright shirts to wear for the race.  It was a great day.  It was a bit chilly before the race and being on Lake Ontario there was a bit of a breeze.  Here are a few pictures taken before the race.

I started my 10k 15 minutes before Vicky, James, and Mike started their 5k.  It was a good start for me.  I got in a good groove and felt really really relaxed.  The first 5k felt great.  At about 5.5k I did grab some water and walk for about 1:30 to drink it.  I got right back into the run and felt good.  I did have to get more water at the 7.5k mark.  That was another minute or so walk.  I really started feeling strong at that point.  My legs were feeling really good and I was able to pick it up just a bit.  The last 2k felt amazing!  I just let myself go and ran it gradually getting faster. 

Here we are at the finish with our medals.

After the race we got lots of chocolate!  We had chocolate milk, chocolate croissants, chocolate brownies, chocolate truffles and chocolate martinis.  James was so cute.  He asked the bartender for a chocolate martini without alcohol.  The bartender gave him chocolate milk in a martini glass.

After we got done indulging in the chocolate we went back to Niagara Falls and did a few things that we hadn't done before.  We went on an Aero Car out over the Whirlpool.  That was pretty cool!  Being out above the water like that and seeing the whirlpool.  James enjoyed it.

Afterwards we went to the Butterfly Conservatory.  We saw a lot of butterflies!  Some even landed on us.  It was pretty cool!

It was a fun weekend.  We are already talking about when we do this race next year!