The Bix 7 2010

Awesome. That's all I can say, really, it was AWESOME. More on that later, let me preface with a few other quick notes.

Last night Morgan went to Mary's while we went to a wedding for one of my coworkers. It was a very unique wedding as there were several twists on lots of traditions that definitely made this wedding their own. One of them was that they had a "sweetheart table" at the reception and ate dinner alone, just the two of them. Their bridal party sat among friends and family and it was kind of neat. I don't know if I would have liked that for my first wedding, but when we renew vows someday (so I can have another beautiful wedding to my love), that might be an option! :) It was REALLY nice to have Mary watch Morgan so I/we weren't worried that Morgan was screaming the whole time as she's got some serious stranger danger right now. :-( We made it home around 9:30pm and got to watch a spectacular lightning show on the way home.

We went home relatively early so that we could both get sleep for today as we both had events to go to. Adam had a city golf scramble/best ball tournament and I had the Bix. For those of you who don't know, the Bix is a 7 mile race near here in the Quad Cities (specifically Davenport) and it's quite difficult. See this website and take a look at the course - a few of the hills are killer. Website: http://www.bix7.com/2010/. To find the course, just click on FAQs on the right and scroll down. It has a 3Dish course to look at.

My complete intentions in this "race" were to walk quite a bit and run on the downhills. I anticipated walking more than half way and maybe running about 3 miles of it. I signed up in the walking group b/c I thought my friend, Kelly, had done the same and I had anticipated walk/running it with her the whole time. She had signed up for the group ahead of me, so we were not together and it was going to be hard to find her among 18,000+ other participants. I was a bit bummed but got in line (in the POURING rain, mind you) and waited for a half hour until the race started. PS. Turns out the pouring rain kept the temps down and me cool during the race, so I was actually kind of glad it rained. Not so much for the puddles, I mean shoes, I ended up running in at the end, but meh, minor in comparison to the heat/humidity that they had initially predicted.

So the race starts by running up this giant hill (Brady St. Hill) and then a nice, downhill for a few miles. I was really excited and actually was thinking I'd be running more than I thought as I stood in the rain waiting to start. I'm not going to lie - I might have completed more than 7 miles of race b/c of all the darting that's involved around people who are slower than you. So I ran about 1/2 way up Brady and walked the rest of the way. Then I started running and made it to mile marker 2 before I took a little power walking break. From then on out, I just ran at a rather slow, decent pace b/c I had no idea what it was like to do 7 miles of anything (save for maybe a bike ride) and walked when I needed or another killer uphill came along. I made it to mile 3 and was thinking awesome! Pretty soon this will be the longest race I've ever done (outside of the 5k I did in March with Denise)!

So I'm running and FINALLY get to the turn-around and knew the worst was yet to come - most of the way to the turn-around is downhill or flat. You know what the opposite direction will mean, then. Shortly after the turn-around, I saw my friend Abbie and her daughter and that gave me an extra boost to keep going. Throughout the whole thing I never really felt out of breath or like my lungs hurt which was completely foreign to me since that's usually what ends up happening when I run. After a while after mile marker 3, I noticed my hip flexors (the worse of the two) and hamstrings were starting to get sore but I kept going. I was starting to think that mile 3 was taking forever when all of a sudden mile marker FIVE came up! Yeah! I was a mile further than I thought! I decided to power walk a majority of mile 6 b/c I still had to run back DOWN Brady St. Hill and didn't want to be one of the embarrassed ones who biffed it b/c their legs had nothing left...so I'm going and going and all of a sudden Brady St. comes into sight. I was shocked by how fast the rest of it went. I was careful to save some for the hill and made my way down it fine. Turned the corner, made it to 1/4 mile away, 1/8 mile away, and then sprinted the rest of the way. I'd done it! The clock at the finish said 1:27 for time and I was thrilled. Kelly had been shooting for finishing in under 1:30 (hour and a half) and I'd done it! She was behind me, as I'd seen, talked to, and then passed her around what I assumed was mile 4.

I felt SO good at the end. My hip flexors are going to bug me for a few days as they hurt pretty bad right now. My right piggy toe also hurts b/c I think I got a blister that rubbed off around mile 6. Otherwise, I feel great. I'm SO glad I did it. It was actually really fun and later I got home and checked my actual time, and I ran it in 1:21 (and some seconds)!!! 81 minutes!! I'm so proud of myself I could burst. I think that a lot of my ability to do it was due to Stroller Strides and sticking to my guns these past few weeks about working out to try to shed these last baby pounds. Part of me wonders if I need to get used to them. I'm still going to try and keep working out, but today is just about enjoying a new accomplishment. Which allowed me to guiltlessly enjoy a turtle sundae at Culvers after dinner. :)

That said, I'm totally, completely, 100% doing this again next year. And the next. Adam's joining me. Morgan will join in 2 summers and run the kid's Bix. My goal next year will be to go under 1:20 depending on training and things. I can't wait to make it a family event!!