I just wanted to start out with a scan of the program cover. I noticed this yesterday. I was born in 1975 and I will turn 35 this year. The Bix 7 was started in 1975, but this year is the 36th annual race? Did they run an extra race one of these years or am I just a year older than I thought? (or I may just be bad at math!)
Well, as many of you know, yesterday was the Bix 7 race Davenport, IA. I do not really know how (or why) I got talked into doing this race, but I did it, and completed it and now I am nursing a couple of sore ankles and a sore foot back to health today.
I drove to my parents house in Maquoketa in Friday night in order to meet my sister, Sue, she is the one who wanted to get into the race, and I was easily swayed into doing it because it was right around the time that I was starting the Brotherhood journey. I really had my heart set on having some Obie's Tacos, but we ended up having some Pizza Hut Pasta's to get our carb load for the evening.
I then tried to get to bed, but ended up tossing and turning. I can never get a good nights sleep in any bed other than my own, but I don't think it helped that I kept thinking about the fact that I had to walk/jog 7 miles in the morning. 5:00 am came very quick!
We started to drive down to Davenport at 5:30 am. But first we needed to stop in Dewitt and pick up my neice, Allyson. This would be her first Bix 7 run as well. We ate a Snickers bar from the gas station for our breakfast and continued on our way.
We arrived at the race course around 6:40 am and walked around to take some pictures of me in the Shirt at the starting lines. Here is a picture of me in the shirt at the starting line of the walkers!
The next picture shows the Brady Street hill in the background. This is a wonderful hill that has an 8-9% grade to it and it is about one-third of a mile. Isn't that a wonderful way to start a race?
After we finished walking around for a bit, I felt something on the bottom of my shoe. I thought it was just a pebble at the bottom but when I looked I saw it was a screw. What a great thing to have at the bottom of my newest pair or running shoes! This was the first time I took these shoes outside. I was lucky that I had a swiss army knife in my truck because I could not just pull this out. I had to actually unscrew this screw from my shoe.
We then headed to the starting line. It was raining, but the storm was forcasted to be through the area before the start of the race. The tv station and others were telling to hold off a little bit before the lined up. However, the rain did not let up at all during the race. Here is picture of Sue, Allyson, and me lined up and ready to go. And one of me right before the start. (Notice a few more people starting to congregate)
The race started after the singing of the national anthem, and instead of a starting gun we received (right on cue) one of the loudest and longest booms of thunder that I ever heard. And then the race started....
But I waited...
and waited...
and waited...
then started to see the runners go up the Brady Street hill...in about a minute the road was deserted and then it became a massive wall of humanity....
then I waited...
finally the orange fence was taken away from in front of the walkers and we were off!
During the wait at the beginning we some costumes. A birthday cake, the "Running Elvis'", a group of Marilyn Monroes, and then Mario and Luigi!
My sister claimed that it was a tradition for everybody to run up the hill. In my stupidity, I did that. We made it up the hill. That SUCKED! We then continued throughout the race by walking and jogging. When ever we saw the next mile sign we would jog to it and then we would throw in a few jogs to a stop sign. I figured we ran at least 2 or 2.5 miles of the race.
There is a great atmosphere around the race. There were a few parties and bands by many of the houses we went by, I did like the one that had the Iowa Hawkeye fight sone on a loop as you went by. There was a huge Slip and Slide set up on a hill, it was probably a 2 story drop down that hill. I opted out of the slip and slide since I was already soaked. But I did see Mario and Luigi in line to do it. The turn around point had a great view of the Mississippi River. About the 4-mile mark we walked by the Hostess truck passing out Twinkies and Ho-Ho's....WTF? When then saw a bunch of guys in Santa hats doing the bench press in the middle of the street. And Mario and Luigi showed up to do that too...wait, weren't they behind me? We reached mile 6 and were ready to head down the Brady Street hill when I see Mario and Luigi run by me...I did not make the run down the hill as my ankles started to hurt then. But we did turn the final corner and I had to run the final 1/8 of a mile (after the three of us posed for some pictures by the MarathonFoto.com photographers).
I then crossed the finish line at an official time of 1:47:07. But thanks to this handy computer chip
that was placed on my shoe my real time was 1:41:05. I was getting close to my 90 minute goal, but I did not train on any hills and I did not plan to be soaked throughout the entire race (which felt like 10 lbs was added to my clothes). But I was happy with the results. I mean who isn't proud to come in 10,102nd place?We then headed to the finish line for some food, but I was really dissappointed with the selection. Hostess had a huge selection of goods, as well as Coke. Where was the bananas and apples and Gatorade? We wandered around and then made our way back to the car to head home. All before 10:30 am.
A final picture of my of my Bib number.
My sister did tell me that I do need to come back next year and to the Bix 7 again, because did not get the "complete" expierence. I did not see the crowds and most importantly I did not get to run in the heat. So I suppose I now have a goal next year at the 36th (or is it 37th?) Bix 7.
Here is a link to the race: 2010 Bix 7.
TODAY'S WEIGHT: 312.5 lbs.
