If you are a regular reader, you know that we’ve posted a few entries on the “Hot Chocolate” 5K race that took place last weekend in Chicago. Overall, it was definitely a fun race. We had a beautiful day, and we, being 5K runners, did receive chocolate fondue afterward. And don’t worry, this blog is about other things besides this race. But we just thought that what we’ve been hearing deserved one last entry.
Now it’s only been a few days since the race took place, but after talking with some friends who ran it, some volunteers who helped run it, and reading some other people’s thoughts online, we’ve heard some fishy things:
The hot chocolate was BAD. This one I actually know for a fact. I tasted it after running the race and it didn’t just taste watered down. It tasted plain rancid. Like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. I thought it was just me, but actually have heard from a number of people that they experienced the same thing.
The chocolate was MIA! This race boasted “24,000 ounces of Hot Chocolate, over 200,000 assorted pieces of Hershey candy, and 18,000 ounces of warm chocolate fondue!” I saw the hot chocolate, and I did get some chocolate fondue. But I did read on a fellow fitness blogger’s site that she did NOT get any chocolate fondue. They were already out of it by the time the 15Kers finished. And what about the 200,000 assorted pieces of Hershey’s candy? Where was all THAT? All I saw were a few people walking around with backpacks filled with candy, handing them out. Weird. Did we miss it?
The goody bag gear was disorganized. If you signed up by a certain date, you got a windbreaker and fleece hat. If you signed up in a different batch you got a sweatshirt (which was pretty awesome) and I thought, a fleece hat. No where on the site did it say you’d receive anything different. Unfortunately some of my friends got the fleece hat, while others got a white running hat, and still others got a brown running hat. I paid $40 for this race. Call me spoiled, but I wanted the fleece hat. And if I wasn’t going to get that, I would have liked to get a head’s up.
Finally, where exactly did my $40 go? Was there a “good cause?” Maybe there was – I just didn’t notice? Maybe there wasn’t one at all. One of our readers wrote in to say this: “I’m glad you had a fun time. I wanted to let you know that I work with a group of inner city children who ran the race. They paid $20 instead of $40 but they did not get a goodie bag of any sort. I contacted the race director and he blew me off, even though I said I would pay for the gear. Just want you to know …. that you should reconsider running it next year.”
Yikes!
I did have fun. I loved my chocolate fondue. But there were some things that were definitely off about this race. We participate in these kinds of fitness events in order to get outside, meet people, and exercise in a fun and new environment. But we also want to know that we’re getting what we paid for and what we were told, or at least that our money is going toward something that’s meaningful. Perhaps the Hot Chocolate organizers were unprepared for the huge amount of people that would sign up. Let’s hope they do a better job next year!
