one sweet race

The Hot Chocolate 15K is billed as America's Sweetest Race.

I first heard about it from my friend EB while we chatted at the park one fine September morning. I went home and immediately told my go-to running gals about the race and we all verbally signed on.

And then reality set in.

9.3 miles??

And then fear crept in.

What if we can't do it? What if we fail?

KMac and I quietly tried to back out, hoping T would forget about it.

Two and a half weeks before the race, the inevitable happened: she held us to our verbal agreement.

[Actually she said she was running it with or without us and in that moment we knew we had to go...there was no way we were letting her run that race by herself!]

So we filled out our registrations and booked our hotel. We fit a couple of long runs into our workout schedules. And then we packed our bags and we were off.

And the race was sweet, indeed.

Sweetness is...

giggling your way through an I-forgot-my-iPod-in-Hudsonville crisis

scrambling out of bed at a very early hour, lacing up your running shoes and knowing there is nothing else you would rather be doing at that very moment.

enjoying the beauty of a big city on a sunny, crisp fall morning while Needtobreath blares in your ear buds

running side by side with two of your dearest friends on God's green earth

feeling like a real runner as you navigate through aid stations and suck down Hammer Gels

channeling the support you received ahead of time from your family and friends as the run begins to get hard (my bro-in-law's words became my mantra around mile 5: "Kill it, sis.")

passing the 5K marker and realizing that a distance that seemed hard 8 months ago felt like a warm-up

seeing the 10K marker and knowing that you are running faster than your last 10K race time...with 3.1 miles still to go

facing a hill head-on at mile 9 and not slowing down, because you know you've got this, you've trained for this

finishing strong - and finding out that your last 5K split was the fastest of the three

enjoying a well-deserved runners high while basking in your achievement {1:25:33}

knocking #6 off of your Year 32 list

and, of course, sweetness is...

being handed chocolate bars, fondue and hot chocolate just past the finish line for your efforts.