While this isn’t strictly Disney related, it does involve running, which I know a lot of readers are interested in, and Hershey Park, which is also a theme park… so close enough! This past weekend I participated in the Hershey 10k in Hershey PA.
We arrived the evening before and picked up my race packet, which took all of two seconds. Very efficient! I got a long sleeve tech shirt and my bib, which I loved the design of. There were some coupons and pamphlets in the packet, as well as a 6.2 Hershey window cling!
For dinner we of course had to do Italian so I could get my pasta in. We had an early reservation at the Trevi 5, an Italian place at the Hotel Hershey. The hotel is gorgeous and very fancy, but the restaurant was a little more relaxed. They started with delicious bread and olive oil. I got an unsweetened iced tea and was super excited to see that they had Stevia sweeteners, as that is more natural and my sweetener of choice. I’ve never seen it offered in a restaurant before so it made my night a little bit (I always carry some in my purse just in case) – hey, it’s the little things! And for my meal I had the lobster rigatoni, which had some nice big chunks of lobster and of course delicious pasta.
We spent a quiet evening in our hotel room and got to bed early so I could wake up around 6am to get ready for the race. I’ve been sick for the past couple of weeks with a cold and a really bad cough, so I was a little nervous about running. I hadn’t been out for a run in two weeks because I was trying to re-cooperate. We drove to Hershey and got there around 7am, with the race starting at 7:30.
It was a little bit chilly, and very windy! I actually met another DisBride (Disney Bride, from a facebook community I’ve been in for years) there! It was awesome to finally meet her and she did an amazing job on the race! I started off faster than I probably should have, given my cough, but I was okay for about the first two miles. I carried a 32 oz. water bottle with me and I’m very glad I did because I needed a lot of water. The course is pretty flat, which is nice. After about two miles I saw my husband cheering me on, which is always encouraging! After about 4 miles you’re off the road and actually go into Hershey Park. You run all around the park, which is pretty cool, and through the boardwalk, and then back out. The finish line is by the stadium.
I was so excited to finish with a new PR, my fastest 10k time ever! I finished the race in 1:07:30, which is a 10:53 min/mile. Crazy to think that if I wasn’t sick I might have been able to do even better than that! We got our medals, which were really cute and had the Hershey ferris wheel on them. We also got snack packs and water bottles. The snacks included pretzels, a giant delicious oatmeal raisin cookie, and lots of Hershey candies!
Jason and I had talked about going into the park after the race, but it was so windy neither of us really wanted to spend the day standing around outside. So we ultimately just drove home and took a nap! I personally love the Hershey 10k race, it’s my favorite non-Disney race, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to do it every year!
It was a great race, a bit windy for my liking though!
I agree, I definitely could have done without all that wind!