Becoming a "Blade Runner": My Journey: The Sweetest Race on Earth! Hot Chocolate 5K

What an amazing weekend! This semester has been insanely busy and exhausting and the timing of this run couldn't have been better for me.

So... Signing up for this run, I had no idea how big it was going to be. I think we were all a bit in shock when we got to the expo and saw the line to get in. Luckily I have a highly entertaining group with me. We danced to stay warm, and my crazy mom kept the party going getting on stage with the DJ dancing and ripped off layers of clothing while a crowd gathered watching :) She was named the "Official Party Girl of the Hot Chocolate 5K." We shopped the expo and then hit up Michigan Avenue.

It never crossed my mind that 40,000 others would be joining me today... It sort of felt like a marathon taking over the streets of Chicago today :) I guess it also never crossed my mind to check the race start times, because we all weren't exactly thrilled to get up at 5:30am. We waited in the corral for a good hour (freezing) before starting and because we were with Anni Cusack, made a ton of new friends. The race itself was awesome. They shut down all the streets and we walked and ran through the city, and ended back at Grant Park. We all rocked our homemade headbands and stuck together as a team. We crossed the finish at a sprint :) and headed straight to the tent for our official FINISHER'S MUGS!

Mom and I cleaned up, rested and went shopping up in Lincoln Park this afternoon, completely exhausting ourselves, however saving a little bit of energy for Houlihan's tonight to meet some of my friends.

It was so nice running with my amazing mom and our awesome friends! We waited for this for what seemed like forever and I'm so happy that it went so well. Overall... Amazing team, amazing race :) Next up (and I think last up for 2012 in Chi-Town. brrrr) is the Grant Park Turkey Trot 5K!