COLUMBUS, Ohio — Downtown Columbus trades race bibs for fondue mugs on Sunday, November 15, when the SKECHERS Hot Chocolate Run returns to McFerson Commons Park with 5K, 10K and 15K races finishing in chocolate. The Columbus Dispatch reports the central Ohio edition of the national series starts at McFerson Commons, 218 West Street, and sends runners along the Scioto River and through some of the city’s most familiar neighborhoods.
The morning is staggered by distance. The 5K, open to ages 8 and older, begins at 7:30 a.m., while the 10K for ages 10 and older and the 15K for ages 12 and older both begin at 8:30 a.m., according to the Dispatch. Every finisher’s reward is the series’ signature post-race mug loaded with fondue and dippables — the treat that gives the event its name and much of its following.
From the start beside the Scioto, the courses pass through downtown Columbus, including the Brewery District, German Village, the Arena District, Victorian Village and the Short North, the Dispatch reports. That routing makes the run as much a rolling tour of the city’s core as a race: brick streets in German Village, the arena blocks a few hundred yards from the start, and the Short North’s arches before runners turn back toward the riverfront.
The weekend actually begins a day earlier. The Hot Chocolate Expo, free and open to the public, runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, in the Battelle Grand Ballroom at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, 400 North High Street, where runners pick up their packets and browse race gear, according to the Dispatch.
Registration stays open until noon on Saturday, November 14, unless the races sell out first, with prices ranging from $64 to $84 plus fees, the Dispatch reports. Organizers say the run will not be canceled for rain alone; if severe weather threatens on race morning, participants will be notified. Runners can register and find full details at hotchocolate15k.com/city/columbus.
The Columbus stop is one of 17 live cities in the Hot Chocolate Run Series, which also offers a virtual event for runners elsewhere. The series has built its identity around an intentionally indulgent finish — a contrast with the usual banana-and-bagel post-race spread — and Columbus runners have turned the mid-November date into an unofficial start to the city’s holiday-season event calendar.
That calendar is filling quickly around the Arena District. One night earlier and a few blocks away, Huntington Park opens its first-ever holiday lights display for a 43-night run — Columbus Clippers Light Up Huntington Park for 43 Nights of Holiday Displays — giving downtown visitors a lights walk on Saturday night and a chocolate finish line on Sunday morning in the same neighborhood.
The weekend also lands in the middle of the city’s five-day Celebrate Kindness campaign, which is serving free meals at YMCA locations across Franklin County on Saturday — the same day as the race expo. We detailed that effort in Columbus Stretches World Kindness Day Into Five Days of Meals, Grants and Giving.
The three distances are designed to pull very different crowds onto the same course. The 5K’s 7:30 a.m. start and age-8 entry floor make it the family option, the 10K splits the difference, and the 15K — at a little over nine miles — is the longest November training run many Columbus runners will log before winter. All three converge on the same finish at McFerson Commons, which means the park fills steadily from the first 5K finishers onward and the fondue line is longest, and happiest, by mid-morning.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
Confirmed: the races are Sunday, November 15, at McFerson Commons, with the 5K at 7:30 a.m. and the 10K and 15K at 8:30 a.m.; the expo is Saturday at the Greater Columbus Convention Center; and registration closes at noon Saturday or at sellout. Still open: the final road-closure list around the courses on race morning, which the city typically posts close to event day — drivers heading downtown Sunday morning should expect rolling restrictions along the route neighborhoods named above.
What happens next is simple: packet pickup at Saturday’s expo, then an early, sweet start on Sunday. For a city easing into the holiday season, a finish line that hands you a mug of fondue is not a bad way to begin it.
Photo: McFerson Commons in Columbus, by Ɱ, CC BY-SA