The Bix

I've returned from Iowa and am now able to write a little recap of the Bix, which was one week ago today. At the packet pickup on Friday, I glanced at the list of participants and thought that it seemed kind of small compared to previous years. Well, I was wrong. There were over 15,000 people in the race, so the start was a madhouse. I parked up at Central High School and was dismayed to find out that it cost $5 to do so. Then, of course, down at the starting corral there weren't nearly enough port-a-pots. I saw a row of maybe 20 with a loooong line waiting for them. Fortunately, after wandering down an alley, I spotted a dumpster and was able to urinate behind it without being in plain view.

I got a pretty decent spot in my corral, and after the gun went off it only took about 10 seconds for me to cross the starting line. Brady Street hill was rough, but once it flattened out I felt a little better. I drank water at all the water stops. At the end of Kirkwood, right after turning on to Jersey Ridge Road, I saw Meb pass in the other direction. Fam came along in second place, but there was a big gap between the two. Right around this point is when I struggled a bit. I really exerted myself going up the hill on McClellan, and my stomach didn't like that. After cresting the hill, I gagged a couple of times and had to walk. But I was back on the road in less than a minute. I hit the turnaround and then the halfway point; my split was 25:58. I felt pretty good until I hit Kirkwood again. That gradual hill is a killer. But very few people passed me, and I actually passed quite a few. Just when I thought that I would never get to the end of Kirkwood, the hill flattened out and I passed the place where my parents were watching the race and cheering me on. I really made an effort to stride out going down Brady Street, but a handful of runners still left me in the dust. By looking at my watch, I saw that I had a shot at breaking 52 minutes, so I kicked hard down the home stretch and clocked myself right at 52:00. I later saw that my official time was 51:59. I can't complain about that!