This is Bix weekend in the QuadCities. Bix Beiderbeck (sp?) was a famous jazz musician years ago. Davenport has hosted a jazz festival every year for a long time in honor of him. Back in the 70's a road race called the Bix7 was added to the festivities. Our family has participated in the Bix most years since we've lived here. On Friday evening was the "Jr. Bix" consisting of a bunch of shorter races for kids. Adam and the 6 year olds ran a half mile race. Anna and Lizzy each ran a 70 yard dash. (See pictures below for more details about each of their races). After the race there's a big party where they serve free hotdogs, drinks, ice cream, and other healthy stuff. There's also a carnival for the kids. I think there are somewhere around 5000 kids and their parents that participate every year. Adam and Lizzy even made it on TV during their races! We all had a very fun time!
On Saturday morning, I ran the Bix7 road race. It's a seven mile race up and down the hills of Davenport. It's a huge race and this year drew over 20,000 runners including some of the best in the world - I think there were a few Olympic medalists running this year. This is the fourth time I've run the race and I ended up with my 3rd best time. I wasn't quite in the shape I should have been in to be running seven miles, but I had a good time anyway. The first mile you practically have to walk - there are just too many people to really be able to move much. I finally got through the first mile in about 12 minutes. The second mile is usually my best one - the crowd is thinning out enough to run some and it's mostly downhill. I finished that one in a little under 8 minutes. The third mile continues downhill for about the first 3/4 mile - then comes the killer hill - it's only a 1/4 mile, but very steep. That hill always wipes me out completely. At about that point, I started sputtering along just trying to keep going. At the half way point (3.5 miles) I was at 32 minutes total (by the way - that's about exactly the time the winner was crossing the finish line). Miles 4 and 5 I was hurting so bad and moving so slowly that I might as well have been walking. They're both almost all uphill and not very fun at all. Mile six levels off for the most part and I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel so I picked up the pace a little. Mile seven is the funnest one - not only is it the end of the race, but it's a steep downhill for most of it. I was able to finish the last mile fairly strong and even remained concious when it was all over (barely). I think I came in about 5500th place.
The rest of yesterday I was kind of numb - headache, sore muscles, exhaustion, but I'm feeling quite a bit better this morning. Below are some pictures of our fun time this weekend.
3 comments:
Running sounds like so much fun! I don't know why I don't do it more often.
Agreed - that is exactly why I don't do it at all. Hats off to you Greg!! That sounds like a killer race and surely would have been the death of me!
You have such neat activities in your area. We are so impressed with the family friendly things. We just got a new 2nd counselor in our Bishopric. He is a runner. He placed number 41 in this years Boston Marathon and won his division in the days of 47 10K last week. We say we just can't keep up. He's a real neat young man, a physical therapist and his wife is a nurse midwife. They have a 16 month old. They went with us (rest of bishopric) to girls camp and poor Isaac cried the whole hour it took us to get home. He was so tired. They were pretty upset since it was our first outing since he was called.
We all felt so sorry for the baby. He went to sleep about a block from their home.
One other comment on running. It seems as though I never see anyone smiling while they run???
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