Notes
The Bix 7. I really had 0 clue what to expect. Me and Jay warmed up together and started the race together. After the gun went off we took it pretty easy going up the Brady street hill, which we were told to do. I had the biggest smile on my face, because even though we were going up hill, I had forgotten how much I loved to race. Halfway up I ran into a rival from high school, Bob Schultz's son Joey, so I ran with him until the turn around. It was pretty much downhill the way out. The whole time all I could think was, don't overdue it the first half, you still have to go back up all these hills. Somewhat I negative split this race. Near the turnaround I started to see some of the leaders. The first one was Joy Ripslinger, I shouted for her and yelled, " Go Joy, I love you!" and I think she heard me because she yelled it back, just kidding but how sweet would that have been? Then I saw the elite pack hauling up the hills. The Eli came by and I shouted words of encorougement. I can't remember if Kailas came before or after, but I did the same to him. Kailas beat all of the elite women, which is a huge accomplishment. After the turn around I decided to pick it up and see if Joey would go with me. He didn't. Right there I thought that I had beaten him, but there was still a lot of race left. I tried to race pretty hard from miles 4-5. After that my legs felt dead. Joey passed me! There were moments after that in the race I couldn't see him at all. I just kept thinking to myself, just jog it in your race is over. Then I suddenly put a surge in to try to finish the race tough. I caught back up to Joey before going back down Brady street. Going down the hill was all I needed. I went for it. I was booking down the hill. At the bottom Joey wasn't in sight, but he has kicked me down before in the last 200 meters before. I started to kick with about a quarter mile left. I wasn't looking back, I had beaten him. There was a 6 second gap between him and me. I am so looking forward to the battles him and me will be having this fall. After the race Jay told me he was only about 15-20 seconds ahead of me at the end. He passed me way at the beginning and I didn't see him after that. It was a really fun race. Afterwords I meat up with rest of the guys. We did our cool down and walked back to the car. After we came back and watched the awards. We were all like fangirls getting pics with all of the pros. There was one pro who said she went to Wartburg way before our time! Our first pic was with some elite men. The winner, Sam Chelange, Haron Lagat, and one other pro who wore army gear, but I didn't know his name. Also Lagat gave me his number because he wanted the pic, so we are basically best friends now. Then we got a pic with the female winner, Aliphine Tuliamurk, she remembered Kailas at the end. We got a pick with Sam Rivard, who Eli was basically in love with. As we were walking away I was talking to Eli and we saw Joy Ripslinger. He said how it would be cool to get a pick her. I turned around and asked. I gave Karl my phone to take a pic of me and her, and he was turned looking for someone to take a group pic! I was like Karl! Take the picture! Then we got a group one after. All in all this was one of my best race experiences yet. I had a blast, and it felt so good representing Wartburg the way we all did there. I 10/10 recommend the Bix.