I completed my first 5k! We left for Milwaukee on Saturday after I got done with work. We realized we picked up a nail in one of the tires after we picked up our race packets at Miller Park. So, it was a couple of hours of stress trying to get a tire place that wasn't closed already to get it fixed. Plus it was cold, and I was starting to feel stressed because what if it rained for the run?!? Luckily, there was a mall by the tire place we got to, so I distressed with a white mocha while I got a mani/pedi to repair the snaggle toe I got from accidentally ramming my flip-flopped foot into Mike's sturdy, steel-toed Doc Martens.
We got my nails fixed, we got the tire fixed, and met up with my friend and her husband back at the hotel when they finally arrived! We went out to dinner at Cooper's Hawk, and Passion fruit sangria is a newly acquired friend of mine! We stayed up really late drinking in our hotel room and playing Candy Crush on my iPad. (Yes, I gave in, and sprinkled donut candy on sprinkled donut candy does amazing things we learned!)
This was not the best recipe for preparing for the 5k, I was exhausted the next day. Running outside is completely different from running on a treadmill. There's no clock to tell you how long you've running, or to tell you how many miles you ran or how many you have left. There are impossible inclines. I am dependent on the little timer, I can look at it and say "Ok, I have 2 minutes left in this run interval, I can do this!" It also was harder to gauge how fast was too fast to prevent tiring out too soon. So, I started picking landmarks, like the port-a-potties, or the curves in the route that I would either run until I reached, or start running again once I got to that point. I tried to run as much as I could, but the inhalation of colored corn starch or whatever that stuff is, put a damper on my ability to breathe, especially while running. So, I resolved to run as much as I felt that I could, and just have fun. The segment of the route where you are passing people on your left and you could high five people on the other side was the most energizing for me. I gave lots of high fives as I ran, and they kept me going.
My friend and her husband finished before us, so they were waiting for us as we approached the finished line, and were cheering us on. It made me smile. We admired each other's blue teeth, and blue spit as we tried to clear our mouth of the blue coating. The blue color station was super heavy on the dust. Blue snot, blue spit, blue teeth....it was quite attractive only if you were trying to attract a smurf. Luckily, we were able to get out of there pretty quickly and get back to the hotel to shower up. It took forever to scrub off that blue! I'm still stained a bit in certain places.
We went to eat at this place called the Safe House in downtown Milwaukee. I'm not going to discuss much because its a secret, but it was definitely a good time. :)
We were completely pooped by the time we got on the road. I managed to not fall asleep because I was engrossed in my book, Orange is the New Black. We started watching the series on Netflix, and when I found out it was a book, I had to read it. I started it on the way up to Milwaukee, and finished it this morning. It was a really good book, and I was really thankful actually to realize some of the drama on the show was not how things really went down in the book. I still want to watch the show because they have done a good job of creating an interesting storyline and characters out of bit and pieces of the book. I highly recommend both the book, and the show.
Let me get back to the 5k. There were a lot of people just walking, some running, some doing a mix like me. I want to do this 5k again next year when it comes to Chicago, I do. I want to be able to run the whole thing. I was disappointed in myself a bit that I didn't run more. I wasn't running faster. But then, I had to remember, I was still going to finish sooner than the people who walked the entire way. I also have my next 5k to look forward to that is timed, so I have to keep working. I so wanted to be able to run like so many people I saw who made the running look like it was easy and effortless. It's going to take some time, I may not even be at that point by November for the Hot Chocolate 5k. But I want to get there hopefully by next summer.
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