Notes
Bix 7, 37:28 and 60th overall
1st half 18:50, 2nd half 18:38, 83rd at halfway split
5:35, 5:11, 5:25, 5:22, 5:31, 5:26, 4:45
The weather forecast in the days leading up to this were saying it would be temps in the upper 70s, sunny, and humid. So I was preparing for a bloodbath, but thankfully it turned out to be much more manageable with temps around 70, overcast, but still really humid. My main goal was to try to run 5:20 pace, 37:20, since that was what I ran at the Fifth Season Race on the 4th and with the Bix being a longer distance on a tougher course that would be really good improvement
The race started and I really focused on keeping it chill up the 1st big hill. Once we crested it I started moving a bit but I really wanted to make sure I didn't get out too hard the first 2 miles. Picked up the effort and pace from .5 to 2 miles, but there were lots of people still passing me. Chris and I were generally running together and going back and forth a bit the first couple miles too. I tried to keep it chill again on the hill before the turnaround and just after the turnaround, I had been working hard the first 4 miles but was definitely holding something back. Once we made the right hand turn to start the long climb shortly after the mile 4 split I thought to myself 'alright time to go to work'. I increased the effort those next couple miles and made a ton of passes running 5:31 and 5:26 those 2 miles. I was redlining pretty hard once we made the left turn back onto Brady but was able to blast it back down the hill as usual. Passed 3 more people in the final stretch for a solid 2nd half of the race
My goal was 37:20 and I was 1 sec / mile off hitting that so I was pretty happy with how this went. A 12 second negative split means I ran the race really smart too. I felt quite weak on most of the super steep hills, but the more slight inclines that a lot of this race is I felt like I was able to find a good rhythm and measure my effort well. This isn't a spectacular result by any means but it's another sign of steady improvement which I will take