Hot Chocolate 15K, 5K Attract 31,793

On a beautiful day to run in Chicago, the red-hot Hot Chocolate 15K and 5K runs has huge turnouts. Run on wide streets for the first time, the congestion had to be less than in previous years. Winning a close battle in the 15K, Emisael Favela,34, of Berwyn, shaved 90 seconds off his 15K PR with a winning gun time of 48:11. That was three seconds better than runner-up Christopher Rapp, 23, of Urbana (48:14), and nine seconds better than third-place finisher Matt Field, 26, of Wheaton (48:20). Roudnig out the top five were Matt Flaherty, 26, of Chicago, in 49:29, and Charlie Kern, 42 (top master), of Elmhurst, in 50:09. Women's champion was Nicole Camp. 26, of Willowick, OH, in 53:11. She won by a landslide as second-place finisher Leah Scharl, 34, of Clarkston, MI, came across in 57:21. Third was Marisa Mele, 25, of Naperville, in 57:36. These are all gun times, not chip times. There were 13,430 official finishers in this amazing event. The 5K had even more, 18363. Todd Quednau, 29, of Chicago (16:36) and Racheal Marchand, 25, of Valparaiso, IN (18:03), were the winners. Based on times I saw, the course might have run long. Any comments on the 5K course or the 15K course for that matter?