Bix Recap

Bix. Bix. Where does one start?

Of course, I raced. As much as I could. And I followed up the race with a beer and a bright yellow-ish Twinkie. Balance, people. Balance.

It all started when we (my mom, aunt, and cousin) woke up at 6 AM on Saturday morning, preparing for the busy morning ahead. While one would assume that this is enough time to dress, eat, and drive nine miles to the race, one would be completely wrong in this case...(!)

My aunt is known to be THE DILLY-DALLIER. Because of this, we didn't park the car until FIVE minutes before a race (BIX) with 12,000 participants. Seriously. Parked about an eighth of a mile away, I jumped out of the car and yelled to my fellow family of runners, "I'll meet you at the running statues!" Hopping puddles and dodging other dilly dalliers (and their 'victims'), I got to the starting line right as the national anthem ended.

Okay. Here we go.

A couple of minutes later, we were off and running. Kinda. If practically walking up a hill is running.

Oh, the Bix got me again.

No, it wasn't the pouring rain that kept me down. Nor the massive, never-ending hills. People. People brought me down. All of the flippin' people running and/or walking slowly. All of those people who should've lined up toward the back of the corral. Just like last year, I was cursing and running on the sidewalks, and then on the grassy boulevard. I saw a few people trip over other runners (and literally fall). And then I saw the glow of Antonio Vega, Ryan Hall, and Lisa Koll, making their final push to the finish line. That distracted me for about ten seconds or so...

My hill training came in very handy for this race; I was able to run "through" the hills, only to be practically stopped by others who (again) practically walked once they got to the top of said hills. At about mile five, I finally got some room and was able to pick up some speed. While I didn't reach my goal of running under an eight-minute mile pace, I did improve my chip time by a few minutes.

And I did partake in the Twinkie. Twinkies just aren't as good as they used to be...

As I waited for half an hour for my other family members, shivering in the rain while drinking beer and gnawing on my crappy Twinkie, I thought about the whole race experience. So weird, when you think about it. 12,000 stinky runners/walkers, as happy as can be, drinking beer and gobbling Ho-Ho's in the pouring rain.

While pissed about my time, I was one of those happy runners. Weird. Running is a paradox.