Omaha is... flat?

During my college years, I dutifully returned to Omaha each summer and worked a couple of jobs. My main gig was full-time as a janitor. Twice at an elementary school, and one summer at a junior high.

This was back in the day before we could buy handy items at Home Depot that remove crayon from walls. The head janitor at one school taught me that using lighter fluid, the kind that you barbecue with, worked pretty good. I used a lot of chemicals back then. I also cleaner boiler rooms that were so nasty I had to throw away my clothes and I blew black snot for two weeks. Just what every vain 20-year-old woman wants.

Those years taught me humility, and how to be a bit more self-sufficient -- when you're the janitor, there's no I'll-just-leave-this-for-someone-else-to-pick-up. You're that person. No matter how gross it is. 

I also rode my bike to and from work each day, about seven miles one way. My parents said hey, you want to use the car, you're going to pay for the gas. Since they had a 1976 gas-sucking Malibu station wagon, I got my cheapo butt on a bike instead. 

That's how I learned that despite Nebraska's famous flatness, Omaha is not. Omaha has quad-burning hills. I'm bragging, but I had buns of steel back in the day from those rides.  

So when I signed up for the Omaha marathon earlier this year, I figured, hoo boy, I better train for hills. In very flat Chicago, this has meant running through a stuffy parking garage once a week in the early morning hours, or doing back and forths across this hill. A bit mind-numbing.

So, imagine my excitement when the Omaha marathon folks posted this new course map this week and described it as FAST AND FLAT. Woohoo! Go Omaha! Husker nation!

Maybe I will skip the parking garage next week.