Peace be the Journey
Yes, that's another Cool Runnings reference. Hey, it was a good movie! Anyway, it's time to blog about the Bix, so if you don't like running, too bad, you gotta suffer =)
Bix7 is a 7 mile run in Davenport, IA. We got reservations to stay at a hotel called The Lodge, which coincidentally was a former Jumer's Hotel. It had this classic 17th century Black Forest theme to it that was just amazing, but I'll get to that in due time.
So we're getting ready to leave Champaign. I'm driving down Neil St towards Meijer and it's getting hot in the car, so I flip on the A/C. Guess what, no dice. So Ryan decides to roll down the window, presses the button, and boom, no window. So I look at my window lock button, noticing that it's unlocked, and I pop it in and still, no windows. At this point I notice that ABS and Airbag lights are on (indicating that they're not working, which makes me unhappy). I'm still driving, now sweating quite profusely, and at every stoplight Ryan and Chris pop open their doors and let air in, looking completely ghetto and redneck in the process. So, we get to the Meijer gas station and I fill up while Ryan looks for the fuse box to check if we blew one. Pop the hood and open the box. We decide, hey, we'll just switch a fuse we don't need with a fuse we do and we'll be ok, so we sacrifice the wipers, plug the switched fuses in tight, close the box, finish pumping, turn on the car, and...
Holy Shit! My A/C works, my warning lights go off, the windows work, AND the wipers work! (Turns out the fuse was loose, not blown)
So, 3 hours later, we arrive in Bettendorf at the Lodge and we're all staring at this building that looks like a Bavarian castle that we're going to be staying in. Walking in, you saw nothing but darkly stained woodwork, antlers, and large gold-framed Baroque-style paintings. We check in, then head out to the RiverCenter in Davenport to pick up our race packets. Don't ask where we parked. We spent half an hour in a casino trying to get our money back! We were hungry, so we decided to go to this bar just across the street from Castle Brunvoldt (Indiana Jones: Last Crusade). Conveniently enough, the place was called the Old Chicago Pub, and had REALLY good pizza. We got the double-decker pepperoni deep dish which is 3 layers of cheese and 2 of pepperoni, and let me tell you, it was spicy delicious-ness! Highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Bettendorf. Take exit 2 off of I-74, turn right, then right again at the first light.
So, now we actually get to our room dead tired and wanting to sleep, make sleeping arrangements, kill the lights and THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP! Yeah, you guessed it, we were 2 floors above the hotel's restaraunt/bar and they were partying on Friday night! I sleep like a baby and was complete oblivious to the sound. Ryan and B don't. So B goes downstairs to complain about the noise and is offered a room on the second floor. So Ryan (shirtless - OW OW!!), B, and I stumble to the elevator and down to the new room. Sleeping arrangements made, lights out, and SWOOOOOOSH, SWOOOSH, WHIRRRHHHRRRHR, BUZZZZZZ. Yeah, that's right folks, the elevator machinery was right behind us. And oddly enough, the same painting was in both rooms, with a mother and a daughter posing, staring out but not at you. When you saw it, you thought they would come out of the picture in the middle of the night and strangle you. Very disconcerting.
Anyway, race day comes and we drive our barely awake arses to the riverfront and start warming up. Very nice scenery. No complaints =) 20 mins of pre-race instructions and music (20 sec of actual instructions) and we're off. 1:26 after start, we cross the starting line behind 1-2 thousand people. B takes off to run with the competitive people. Ryan and I stay together weaving through traffic listening to Takin' Care of Business for 2 miles, then he says see ya and drops back. I'm sitting back nice and comfy running 7 min pace weaving through traffic listening to the bands along the race route. Couple of HS/College kids were out with their band around 3.5 miles in, playing the riffs to Eye of the Tiger which motivated me for the next mile which was awesome. At this point, about 10 Kenyans leading the pack fly by the opposite direction making me think... damn, I'm slow as hell. Turns out we were about a mile and a half behind them and I was running sub-7 pace at this point!
So, around the loop, back up the hill at mile 5 (NOT 6, where I was told it was) and 2 miles of cruising to the end. Elvis was out cheering people on. I asked him to sing, but he didn't. So, I'm cruising, hit a big downhill with about 1/2 mile to go and realize, holy shit, I missed the 6th mile marker. Well, I didn't. They were reading times off, but no banner overhead like at all the other mile markers. So I just stride out down the hill passing like 50 people in 200-300m then around the corner to the finish. I got passed by like 10 who were sprinting like crazy, but my strides were holding through to the end, and I did my share of smoking down the stretch too. I think people just get tired and don't care. I didn't. I was more concerned with the 3 splats of breakfast on the pavement and was trying to make sure I didn't lose mine.
Final time, adjusted for the waterfall start was 52:01 (unofficially, ie, by my watch). Not bad for not having run 7 miles at one point since last summer! It's just under 7:30 pace which isn't bad for the shape I was in and the amount of pain I had afterwards. B clocked in ~49 min and Ryan at ~60 min, but he had a massive blister on the ball of his left foot that didn't look happy. We got free shirts and medals for participating, which was cool, so it was a good time.
Results are in!
Chris ranked 588 (top 4.93% of finishers) coming in at 47:07
Jon ranked 1431 (top 12.63% of finishers) coming in at 53:51
Ryan ranked 3731 (top 28% of finishers) coming in at 1:00:56
Bix7 is a 7 mile run in Davenport, IA. We got reservations to stay at a hotel called The Lodge, which coincidentally was a former Jumer's Hotel. It had this classic 17th century Black Forest theme to it that was just amazing, but I'll get to that in due time.
So we're getting ready to leave Champaign. I'm driving down Neil St towards Meijer and it's getting hot in the car, so I flip on the A/C. Guess what, no dice. So Ryan decides to roll down the window, presses the button, and boom, no window. So I look at my window lock button, noticing that it's unlocked, and I pop it in and still, no windows. At this point I notice that ABS and Airbag lights are on (indicating that they're not working, which makes me unhappy). I'm still driving, now sweating quite profusely, and at every stoplight Ryan and Chris pop open their doors and let air in, looking completely ghetto and redneck in the process. So, we get to the Meijer gas station and I fill up while Ryan looks for the fuse box to check if we blew one. Pop the hood and open the box. We decide, hey, we'll just switch a fuse we don't need with a fuse we do and we'll be ok, so we sacrifice the wipers, plug the switched fuses in tight, close the box, finish pumping, turn on the car, and...
Holy Shit! My A/C works, my warning lights go off, the windows work, AND the wipers work! (Turns out the fuse was loose, not blown)
So, 3 hours later, we arrive in Bettendorf at the Lodge and we're all staring at this building that looks like a Bavarian castle that we're going to be staying in. Walking in, you saw nothing but darkly stained woodwork, antlers, and large gold-framed Baroque-style paintings. We check in, then head out to the RiverCenter in Davenport to pick up our race packets. Don't ask where we parked. We spent half an hour in a casino trying to get our money back! We were hungry, so we decided to go to this bar just across the street from Castle Brunvoldt (Indiana Jones: Last Crusade). Conveniently enough, the place was called the Old Chicago Pub, and had REALLY good pizza. We got the double-decker pepperoni deep dish which is 3 layers of cheese and 2 of pepperoni, and let me tell you, it was spicy delicious-ness! Highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Bettendorf. Take exit 2 off of I-74, turn right, then right again at the first light.
So, now we actually get to our room dead tired and wanting to sleep, make sleeping arrangements, kill the lights and THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP! Yeah, you guessed it, we were 2 floors above the hotel's restaraunt/bar and they were partying on Friday night! I sleep like a baby and was complete oblivious to the sound. Ryan and B don't. So B goes downstairs to complain about the noise and is offered a room on the second floor. So Ryan (shirtless - OW OW!!), B, and I stumble to the elevator and down to the new room. Sleeping arrangements made, lights out, and SWOOOOOOSH, SWOOOSH, WHIRRRHHHRRRHR, BUZZZZZZ. Yeah, that's right folks, the elevator machinery was right behind us. And oddly enough, the same painting was in both rooms, with a mother and a daughter posing, staring out but not at you. When you saw it, you thought they would come out of the picture in the middle of the night and strangle you. Very disconcerting.
Anyway, race day comes and we drive our barely awake arses to the riverfront and start warming up. Very nice scenery. No complaints =) 20 mins of pre-race instructions and music (20 sec of actual instructions) and we're off. 1:26 after start, we cross the starting line behind 1-2 thousand people. B takes off to run with the competitive people. Ryan and I stay together weaving through traffic listening to Takin' Care of Business for 2 miles, then he says see ya and drops back. I'm sitting back nice and comfy running 7 min pace weaving through traffic listening to the bands along the race route. Couple of HS/College kids were out with their band around 3.5 miles in, playing the riffs to Eye of the Tiger which motivated me for the next mile which was awesome. At this point, about 10 Kenyans leading the pack fly by the opposite direction making me think... damn, I'm slow as hell. Turns out we were about a mile and a half behind them and I was running sub-7 pace at this point!
So, around the loop, back up the hill at mile 5 (NOT 6, where I was told it was) and 2 miles of cruising to the end. Elvis was out cheering people on. I asked him to sing, but he didn't. So, I'm cruising, hit a big downhill with about 1/2 mile to go and realize, holy shit, I missed the 6th mile marker. Well, I didn't. They were reading times off, but no banner overhead like at all the other mile markers. So I just stride out down the hill passing like 50 people in 200-300m then around the corner to the finish. I got passed by like 10 who were sprinting like crazy, but my strides were holding through to the end, and I did my share of smoking down the stretch too. I think people just get tired and don't care. I didn't. I was more concerned with the 3 splats of breakfast on the pavement and was trying to make sure I didn't lose mine.
Final time, adjusted for the waterfall start was 52:01 (unofficially, ie, by my watch). Not bad for not having run 7 miles at one point since last summer! It's just under 7:30 pace which isn't bad for the shape I was in and the amount of pain I had afterwards. B clocked in ~49 min and Ryan at ~60 min, but he had a massive blister on the ball of his left foot that didn't look happy. We got free shirts and medals for participating, which was cool, so it was a good time.
Results are in!
Chris ranked 588 (top 4.93% of finishers) coming in at 47:07
Jon ranked 1431 (top 12.63% of finishers) coming in at 53:51
Ryan ranked 3731 (top 28% of finishers) coming in at 1:00:56
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