By Nicole

Last March, I ran the Hot Chocolate  5k with my husband and my friend.  This is a race recap that is obviously a long time coming.  But, sometimes.... well.  Things take a while. That explains why I'm still putting photos into albums from when my 10-year-old was three.  Ahem. So, back to a race that was only seven months ago... not seven years.  Yay! Once I heard about the Hot Chocolate, I knew I had to run it.  For the chocolate at the end, of course! We live four hours from Seattle, so we drove over the day before and hung out at the Space Needle. We watched Jack the Giant Slayer on IMAX and then turned in for the night. Race day begins early... really, really early. That morning we just walked to the race start with a few other runners we met in the lobby.  Lots of people we met were running their very first 5k.  What a precedent!  My first 5k was our town's local Fourth of July Fun Run.  Twenty-five people, no water...

I haven't planned out my runs in a very long time.  Even when I was training for the NODM the first half of this year, I didn't write down what I should have been running.   Since I have downloaded the Run4Good app and plan to enter Another Mother Runner's challenge for October runs, I'd better stay on my game.   Sunday:  No run.  Stack firewood and do farm chores. Monday:  2 miles, tempo Tuesday:  3 miles and 20 sets of stadium stairs Wednesday: Rest Thursday: 3 miles, slow and steady Friday: 2 miles tempo, 40 sets of stadium stairs  Saturday: Rest The boys practice football T, Th, Fri.  Monday is a crockpot dinner, so I can run really quick before we eat. Friday might be crazy.  My sister is getting married Saturday, and I am doing the cake.   Who am I kidding?  The whole week is going to be crazy.  What better time to start a running plan?

Okay, I know it's technically "running season" all year round, but for me and my husband, it starts the end of January or middle of February when we begin officially signing up for the races we are going to run each month.  Through the holidays, I kind of slack and don't really have a big run coming up.  But March through October, we've got a schedule. Here's what we have planned so far: March 3 - Hot Chocolate 5k in Seattle !  This is my first Hot Chocolate run, and I am excited!  Mostly because we get chocolate at the end, but also because the sweatshirt is awesome. March 16 - St Paddy's Day 5k in Tacoma .  We ran this last year.  I had trained (half-heartedly) for a 5k and accidentally signed up for the 10k... so I ran it anyway.  Not smart.  I died.  And I wore an actual sweat shirt, which was also a bad idea.  It just soaked up the freezing rain and made me heavier and more miserable.  Hated that run.  Loved the shir...