As it snowed down on Milwaukee and traffic came to a halt on the city streets, I (along with 56 other runners) ran the Icebreaker Indoor Revolution Natural 5K at the Pettit Center. I’ve done a lot of my longer training runs at on the indoor track. It’s kept me dry when it was pouring out, cool when it was hotter than hot out, and warm when it was zero degrees out.

I signed up for this with my partner in crime running, Nesa, waaaaaay back in summer when it was first announced. It’s an indoor 5K — how hard can it be??

Well, it wasn’t too hard. I did pretty good. I was shocked beyond belief that my bib was #6.

The lowest numbered bib I can find in my stack is #17 (Ragnar Chicago) and then #338 (Superun 5K). How in the heck did I score a single digit bib???

Anyhow. I really wasn’t all that excited about the 5K, mostly because Nesa was going to be in DC with her mom (unexpectedly, because that is how life is, UNEXPECTED). So it wasn’t until about 10 am that I realized I couldn’t use headphones on the track, which meant my super cool iPod Nano Nike+ lady wasn’t going to be able to report to me where I was in my run. Also? I HAD NOT CHARGED MY GARMIN!!!!! No charged Garmin = no lap counter = I am a failed runner!

What did I do? Left a message on the answering machine for my 10 yr old daughter to CHARGE MY GARMIN!!! CALL ME IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT! And then I sent her an email too. (She was off of school, home with my husband, who I didn’t think would take this Garmin charging challenge nearly as serious as I needed it to be)

I got home from work, then quickly planned my runner outfit …. and yes, I did pull my Rock n Roll Strip at Night shirt out of the laundry basket, but I swear no one could tell it already had  5 miles worth of sweat in it. I dragged my husband and kid to the event, he even drove, which is good because I was texting back and forth with Nesa the entire way. And then we arrived … AND SHE WAS THERE!!!!

SURPRISE!!!!

Oh, I skipped the part about how I ate a gajillion malted milk balls at lunch …. don’t do that before a 5K. Unrecommended.

I ran the first lap WAY too fast, slowed down a bit for the next few laps, then had to take a walking break to recover. Running on a track is one thing, but being in a race on the track is another. It was really hard to tell where I was on the “course” as well as how fast I was going. What a mental game. I did kick it in for the last lap though, so that was good that I had a push left in me (MALTED MILK BALLS CONTAIN SUGAR). I didn’t break any records, but I’ll take my 33:23 (according to my Garmin), I think the record shows 33:24. I’m not going to debate 1 second.

And then we all went out to dinner and had a great time.

Tomorrow I’ll be at the water table bright and early to crew for the runners doing the full marathon. I’m so glad I choose 11-ish laps over 94-ish.