Notes
Bix 7 in the Quad Cities. I've done this race 3 or 4 times in the past but it has been 6 or 7 years since I raced it last. The meant I had a good idea of the course but not a perfect memory of all of it. Nutmeg and I started a little back from the elites and front of the race so it took us about 15 seconds to cross the start line. Then we weaved up the big hill, which honestly kept my mind off of just how big the first climb is. Nutmeg and I were so focused on finding gaps that I really didn't think about how much work I was doing. Overall I thought we got up it pretty well and were passing 100s of people through the first mile. We hit the first mile in 6:08 which as I think about it now means we were actually sub 6 through the first mile with a big hill and weaving around people. This may explain why the next few miles started to get me out of my comfort zone quicker than I expected. Nutmeg and I were running together and I was doing my best to relax and stay right with him, but I could tell it was just a hair faster than I could get completely comfortable with. I hung with him and would get some spots where things would feel better for 20-30 seconds but then my back would start to get tight again. It wasn't cramping or slowing me at the moment, just the concerning feeling for what might happen later in the race if I keep trying to push through it. This went on for the next couple miles, but it was fun running side by side with Nutmeg still passing people. The steep climb around 3 miles was bigger than I remembered and I fought to get up, but then started to get tighter on the downhill. I decided to give Nutmeg a few steps here and try to relax a little more and this helped a great deal. I ran the downhill at my own pace and let Nutmeg get 5-10 feet ahead of me. Chase Moser came up to the two of us right around this point and was ready to roll. After recovering on that downhill for just a couple hundred meters everything started to feel better. I pushed back up to Nutmeg and Chase shortly after the turnaround and started to follow Chase on the steep climb. I crested with him a couple step ahead of Nutmeg and then started to lose Chase on the downhill. I was feeling a good rhythm though and hit the long gradual hill feeling strong. I ran with the woman in 10th for most of the next 2 miles of climbing. We continued passing people and I think I got to a point where Chase was staying a consistent 40-50 feet in front of me. I think I fought hard to get to the 6 mile since I knew the last one was downhill and fast, but this meant I was ready to be done and didn't get after the last mile very hard. The big downhill hurt a lot and my side was cramping up by the bottom. I didn't really chase anyone the last quarter mile and was happy to cross the line. Nutmeg ran the second half well too and finished just after me. We both negative split a race that has a lot of work in the second half. 19:35-19:12.
Overall I'm really happy with the race. My goal going in was between 40-42 and I beat that by quite a bit feeling strong for most of the race. I did finish 20-30 seconds behind a lot of guys that I'm used to being ahead of in races, but based on my training and our start position I think I can handle that this year. In order to really race those guys I think I would need to sign up Elite in the future like all of them do. Based on the results it looks like Nutmeg, Chase and I were 3 of the highest non elite finishers.