The 27th running of the Quad City Times BIX-7 race was quite an interesting one, especially for this first-time entrant. There were almost 16,000 participants for this year's race. That's about the average number of those who have been entering this race over the last few years. During the race's 25th anniversary running, there were 25,000 participants.
This was a race that featured seeded and elite runners. But I started in the back of the pack, along Second Street in downtown Davenport.
This was my first-ever trip to Iowa as well. I have been to the Quad Cities before, only to be in Moline. I was quite impressed with downtown Davenport, especially the pre-race party that took place the night before. It is a big event in the quad cities.
The next morning when I arrived in Davenport all dressed for the race, I noticed lightning in the distance. 90 minutes before the race, it started pouring and there was lots of lightning. I didn't want to not run the race--that would have been a wasted trip. Fortunately the rain stopped 45 minutes before start and we were all lining up in our areas in a four-block section of downtown Davenport along Brady Street.
The first mile of this race is a large hill. It really wasn't that intimidating. Consider you're with 16,000 runners, that first mile is more of a walk rather than a run, since you are with wall-to-wall people. Once we turned from Brady Street onto Kirkwood Drive, then it started to thin out. That was when my tendons were bothering me. Normally they are stretched when I'm going up hill. Well, I did for about a mile. I thought I needed to last six miles and I had to play conservative.
By the end of the second mile, the sun came out and it was starting to get humid. The first part of the course was wet from the rain. Now it was wet from all of the water that was used for drinking and even those who had sprinklers were showering us with water. We had to keep cool and that was the only way to do it.
The humidity was getting to about 94 percent and the temperature was approaching the early 80s. I was enjoying every part of the distance. I really wasn't worried too much about my time, considering that there was heavy traffic throughout the entire course where I was. In mile 3, I noticed that the first place runners were returning. These were mainly Kenyans who come to the BIX for the challenge. They got the loudest cheers from the crowds. This was the first race that I ever had a group of people watching throughout the entire course and not just one section.
There was even music, ranging from jazz to classical to heavy metal. There was the occasional recorded disco stuff as well. Even some of the DJs from the local radio stations were on the course broadcasting and playing music as we passed by.
I finished with a time according to my watch of 1:43:33. The Quad City Times listed me with a time of 1:47:55. The difference in time is attributed to the amount of time it took me to get from where I was on Second Street to the start line on Brady Street.
I had a lot of fun at this year's race. I don't know if this will be an annual event. But at least I can tell my friends who run with me on Saturday mornings that I did a BIX-7.
