Notes
My third Bix. The past two years its just been Lyle, Nick, and I, but this year we had Lucas, JB, and Tommy coming along as well which was awesome. Tradition is that we pick a pop artist and listen to the the whole way there. So far we've done One Direction and Justin Bieber. This time we listened to Ed Sheeran the whole way there. That man makes some BOPS let me tell you. We slept at Nicks grandpas house (God bless that wonderful old man), and we were packed into a small room for 6 people, with most of us on the floor. As a result, I didn't sleep great, maybe like 4-5 hours, but I felt fine the morning of the race. The Bix is an extremely hilly race, and besides the final 400ish meters, you're either going steeply uphill or downhill. For example, my first mile was a 6:30. Second mile was 5:15ish. Felt like the same effort for both miles. First mile was just uphill bobbing and weaving through people trying to get to an opening so I could get to pace. The race is an out and back, and when I was just reaching the third mile, the elites were already coming back which is a little demoralizing. I crossed the halfway point at 20:09 side by side with JB. For those of you reading this who don't know JB, he runs for the track team at Baylor and has always been primarily a speed guy. So I knew if I had any chance of beating him, I would have to push hard on the second half to try to take the kick out of him. I opened up about a 20 meter lead, and just kept pushing until the final mile which was a long steep downhill into a straightaway. I went hard on the downhill, but towards the bottom, JB flew by me and I didn't have it in me to keep up with him. His last mile was sub 5 according to his watch, putting me at roughly 5:10ish for my last mile so I'm not too upset that I couldn't hang on with his monster kick. My final chip time was 40:01. A little bummed I didn't get under 40, but its still a 92 second PR off of last year so I can't complain. This was also my highest placing at the Bix, with a 121/8005. Everyone who came in our group ran great. JB clocked a 39:52, Nick ran a 4 minute improvement from last year and a lifetime PR at 42:00, Lucas and Lyle ran just a little over 42 while also using the bench press and slip n' slides that were set up on the sides of the course, and Tommy, with his one week of training, ran a 52:30. Successful race/trip for everyone. Overall winner ran a 32:37 so I've got about 8 minutes to drop for next year before I can get that sweet sweet prize money.