This was my fifth Bix 7, and the fourth in the past five years. The last one before that? 1980. That was quite a gap but in those intervening years I was no closer than 500 miles (for two years) and other than that it was 1,000 to 3,000 miles away. In 2022 and 2023 we were still in Colorado but I felt compelled to come back and run this now epic Midwest classic road race.
My debut back in the day was inauspicious, I don’t even have the time and place but I remember the day as being rainy and that a good portion of the course (maybe 3 miles of it) were on cobblestone. I had just run a PB of 1:09 for the 20K the week before but developed a sore hip a day or two later but made the trip to the Quad Cities anyway because I already had an entry. I stayed with the late Gregg Newell and ran it more as a tempo effort in right around 40 minutes, but don’t remember if it was over or under that.
It was the day that Bix hit the big time. I its previous five editions a good local/regional ex-college runners from the year had won, including Gregg, John Lodwick, and Jim Eicken. In 1980 the race invited Bill Rodgers, still at the height of his career, and things just took off from there and the event became an icon for American road racing.
Returning in 2022 I won my age group with a 44:07 which was an age record. I came back the next year and ran 45:15 on a very hot day for another age record, and last year I got walloped and lost my age record by 45 seconds. But the racing and times are all in fun so I wasn’t broke up about it.
Training Post-Half Marathon
I took a few days off in late June after the half marathon, but did some light cycling and stretching and then eased back that first week. That was followed by by weeks of 55, 61, 65, and 63 miles (including Bix race week). Maybe these were a few miles under goal but I also did not want to rush into it this summer. I got in some long runs of 14-16 miles, with and without tempo work, and a few decent workouts. These included a couple of tempo runs, 10K effort reps, and couple of hill sessions. Bix was on my mind as a mid-summer event, but also I wanted to work through it. So on race week I did a long (10 mile) tempo effort at marathon pace and I just did an easy 4.5 miles on Friday before we headed to the Quad Cities (about 6 hour drive including stops).
Friday-Saturday
The drive was easy enough, although it is always a bit weird to go through Iowa where my family lived from 1968 through the 1970s. But by 1978 I had one foot out the door as my breaks from college were out of state. For whatever reasons, I have spent much of the subsequent years sort of downplaying the Iowa roots. Colorado is home, but I cannot deny the formative decade in Iowa.
We had we stayed and had dinner in Moline, where I had worked for a summer. We met our son kind of late in the evening but got back to the hotel by about 10 PM. I slept okay and we were up by 5:30. After a week of really mild temperatures (+/-60 at night) and lower humidity things were warmer than anticipated, but it wasn’t oppressive. It was 68 degrees and 91% humidity at the start of the race.
My past three efforts at Bix had more of a taper and I did not know what to expect on race day. I did find out that unfortunately my age group rival Steve was injured and would not be running this year after doing so well last year. So I felt that I could win the age group, but with a big race like this you never know who might show up. This time I made sure we lined up a little farther ahead, but we were still in the orange corral and probably 10 rows back from the front row. Fortunately, it was just about right not like last year when I was too far back and spent the first 1 or 1.5 miles dodging and weaving around people to get into a proper pace flow.
There was a little bit of that, groups of friends running three-four abreast so you had to way around them. I felt okay going up the hill, and really this was the least taxing first mile I recall from previous efforts. My watch clicked a 6:38 (compared to 6:55 last year), but it was about 5 seconds before the mile marker. The second my flowed rather well and I felt great! I was still passing a lot of runners but my breathing was under control. That was a 6:13 and had thoughts of maybe getting back under 45 minutes for the full 7. I felt good in mile three with the big downhill and then the tough climb that starts at 2.6 miles, but I was disappointed to split that in 6:38. I wasn’t dying but it sure felt more like a sub 6:30.
The leaders sped by on their return (nearing 4 miles for them about 3 for me), there was a huge pack of men and the lead women a couple minutes back . I enjoyed the long downhill before the turn-around and knowing that I’d be facing nearly 20 minutes of uphill discomfort once we headed back towards downtown. I split half way in 22:46, just about 5 seconds ahead of where I was last year. Nevertheless, this point I was not confident that I’d meet last year’s time. Last year I remember really pushing over the second half of the race, but this year I did not quite have that gear. I was not uncomfortable (this was the easiest feeling second half of my Bix efforts) but at the same time I could not find another gear. A handful of runners passed on that 3K stretch on Kirkwood and I did not go with them. However, I was also picking off runners here and there. Overall, holding my own.
The tough 4th mile was in 6:30 and the tougher fifth mile up the grind was in 6:35, and mile 6 (still climbing but mostly gradual inclines) was a 6:40 and I split 10K in about 40:40 soon after turning onto Brady Street and the downhill.
At about 10K (note, my arms and shoulders are not nearly that big!)
This is the best part of the course! But I was a little slow on getting my legs rolling, in previous years I ran the last mile between 5:40 and 5:50, this time it was 5:59. According to Strava however, I had the best kick this year with a final 400 in 1:18–egged on by a 20 year old runner who kept encouraging me.
Final result 45:29, with a 2-3 second negative split, and 2 seconds faster than last year. I won my age group easily (but did lose the 60-64 age group record to a friend/and a Quad Cities local). I was pleased with the effort and the result. Check off another Bix. I don’t think I’ll run it next year but plan to be back in 2028!
Post race with our son, with the Mississippi River and Davenport in the background.
rrunnin234 