To complete this month’s quota, I figured I would mention I recently earned another medal for my running collection. I basically train year round for one key race a year and that race is the Bix7 held in Davenport Iowa. For those who have never experienced it, the event is 7 miles (actually 2 miles if you choose to do the QuickBix) in some difficult hills. The first 7/10ths of the mile is basically straight up followed by ~2 miles down and then the smaller but definitely harder hill short of the turnaround and then reversed. This year I finally lined up at the start without much injury for a change and that coupled with favorable start temperature led to a P.R. for me. Usually the temperature and humidity are through the roof due to the late July start, but thanks to Global Warming (smirk) we starting the morning at 57 degrees (yes, I was shivering when I got out of the car) and warmed up to around 87 by mid race. I’ve ran it in the past over 90 with 23 people going to the hospital that year.
The best part of this race is all the spectators that come out to cheer you on along the road. Lots of bands are also playing around the route to help cheer on the 15K or so runners. Of course there are also those participants who sacrifice themselves (at least their dignity) to run in costumes. Standouts this year included 2 young men running in diapers with pacifiers, the annual appearance of the Elvis’ and the Oscar Mayer Wiener. The wiener cracks me because he is in full costume and I can’t figure out how he actually makes it around the 2 mile Quick Bix. If you want to get a dig on my wife, mention the fact she lost to the wiener one year. There was a valid reason for this, but I am not going to reveal it because it is my favorite thing to kid her about. For the record, Linda also had a P.R. in the Quick Bix but I am contributing that to performance enhancing drugs.
Almost forgot, similar to a site that has been burned into my retinas last year, this time I was subjected to a 6’4″ or so guy running in a bright blue spandex wrestling outfit and as far as I can tell, that was it. While working hard to make it up the return hill, I took a brief look up the hill to see how much further I had to go. Expecting to see some key landmarks I was instead met with this guys butt about 3 feet in front of my face. Imagine if you will what this site consisted of about 5 miles into the race. I had to mentally poke my eyes out just to keep from puking on the spot. Fellow male runners, please stop the spandex on long runs or minimally put some shorts over it. This warning does not apply to hot looking ladies.
Tomorrow starts the 361 days of training until next year’s race!
