DreamBig 2013 - #15 Nebraska

STATE #15 - Omaha, Nebraska
City of Papillion Half Marathon
Finishers: 578

March 16, 2013
I can't remember how I made it work, but somehow I got off work early on Thursday and got on an earlier flight up to Omaha to hang out with Kali. Kali wasn't really working this day but rather was at a Deloitte event in the press box of TD Ameritrade Park. After picked me up at the airport, I used one of Kali's coworkers name tag and ticket in order to get into the event where I spent the afternoon watching baseball, eating free BBQ and meeting fellow Deloitte coworkers. Pretty much my normal when I visit Kali in Omaha.

The best past about getting to Omaha on a Thursday was that I finally got to participate in the Taco Ride! What is the taco ride you ask? Well the Taco Ride is another example of why I love Omaha and the random fun things they come up with in the Midwest. The taco ride was recently (2015) featured in a Jenny O's ground turkey commercial and takes place every Thursday night. Starting in Council Bluff, Iowa the ride goes 10 miles along the Wabash Trace Nature Trail to Mineola, Iowa where everyone stops for taco specials. Halfway into the ride is an area called Margaritaville where everyone steps and - well parties.

So! I hadn't ridden a bike in a while but Mr. McElroy let me borrow a bike for the adventure. We grabbed a case of BudLight Lime and a bike cooler and met Kali's boyfriend and friends at the starting trailhead. We had a great little ride along the trail and made the normal stop at Margaritaville where I shot gunned my first beer (yes, I'm 25 and have never shot gunned a beer). So post beer shot gun, we were on our way again.

I was riding behind Kali and noticed that the straps of the bike cooler were dragging a little too close to the gears in the back and I wanted Ryan, Kali's boyfriend to come check on it. As I mentioned, I had not ridden a bike in a while so when I turned to call back to Ryan, instead of just turning my head, I turned my entire body and before I knew what was happening, I had flipped over the handlebars and was laying in the ivy in the trees along the course.

After everyone stopped laughing at the pink blur who went tumbling into the bushes, I assessed my damages and didn't think anything too major was wrong. I had busted up my forearm and elbow pretty bad and hit my hip very hard as well. So not to ruin anyone's fun, I dusted myself off and we carried on. We made it to the restaurant and at that point I didn't really want any tacos... I wanted a pain reliever and to go to bed. I think someone finally found me a Tylenol. On our way back, I think is when I realized my cycling potential because I literally put the pedal to the medal and flew back to Council Bluffs in the dark craving to get off the bikes. Taco ride gone wrong.

March 17, 2013
On Friday, Kali and I got ready and went into the Deloitte office to work for some of the day. Oddly I know a good chunk of the Deloitte Advisory team in Omaha so we had people stopping in all day to say hello. Our friend Alex came and hung out with us for a while so I could show off my cool new boo boos.

Business Casual Boo Boo

We grabbed lunch with a bunch of coworkers and made plans to meet up with some of them later for dinner. This is also when the trend of me winning things in Omaha continued. At work they were raffling off two tickets to a Creighton baseball game on Saturday - and low and behold, Kali wins them!

I've got friends in low places - jk Juan

We got dinner before the boys met up with us later that night and did a little bar hopping before going home to attempt to get a good night sleep.

March 18, 2013
Feeling a little lazy and slow, we did our best to just hydrate and nap for most of the day.

We made the trip out to Papillion to pick up our packets and made a trip to the sporting good store to buy matching headbands and hats and shirts.

We had tickets to the baseball game so we slowly peeled off the couch and made our way to the game. We stayed for a while until we decided to go on a bit of a sightseeing tour to do the whole "Walk to Remember" scene where you are in two places at once. They have a walking bridge where you can be in both Iowa and Nebraska at the same time.

Hungover Gameday

Two Places at once!

Once we had worn ourselves out, we went back to Kali's apartment to continue napping for the better part of most of the rest of the day, we shared a fancy meal at Fazoli's with pasta dishes and never ending breadsticks and made our way to sleep.

March 19, 2013
Ready to rumble, we got up and made our way to Papillion for race day. It was a pretty small race so we basically parked at the starting line. Kali, as always, decided she needed to go to the bathroom the second before the race started because she likes to see me sweat by playing the "last possible minute game". My hip was not feeling all that great seeing as I had busted off a bike 48 hours ago and the bruising was slowly taking its toll, but I figured I had come all this way and I wasn't about to let a little boo boo stop me from racing

Pre Race ready to rumble

The race started and I couldn't help but love the course because it is just what you would expect from Nebraska - we literally ran through cow and corn fields.

Nothing was all that scenic but the best part of the race was that Kali's boyfriend, Ryan, would randomly just pop out from behind trees along the course to cheer for us. And then not too far away would be Kali's parents there to cheer us on as well.

The race took us around some farmland and through some small towns and on to a trail. We ran into a friend of Kali's knew who joined us to chat for the last half or so of the race.

It was great to see how many place Kali's cheer squad showed up at! It was drizzling a little but not enough to make things unbearable.

We were still doing well cruising at a decent pace when Kali decided to take an energy gel she had with her. I had never tried them before but after seeing the extra burst of energy it gave her towards the end of the race, I made a mental note to try them out.

The end of the course felt like it was switchbacks up a mountain before we reached Papillion High School where the race ended on the track. It was like hell getting up that hill and Kali finally took off ahead of me. Waiting at the top of the hill was our friend Karin cheering and giving us the last boost of motivation we needed to push through the last half mile or so.

As always, when you think you see the finish, usually you end up doing some windy twists and turns before you finally finish. I finally made it to the track and across the finish line excited as always to have finished another race with my friend!

Half #4 for Kali - Race #15 for Ash - and running out of fingers!

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 15 states down, 35 more to go! #DREAMBIG

We later got brunch with Kali's family in from out of town before I caught a flight back to ATL.

That went well...

15 states down, 35 more to go!
#DREAMBIG