For five decades, the streets of Davenport have seen people "run with the best." Today marks the 50th running of the Quad-City Times Bix 7. Thousands of runners and walkers will climb the daunting Brady Street Hill before continuing to the full 7-mile course or the Prairie Farms 2-mile Quick Bix.
Volunteers unload a pallet of 80 bags of ice in the Quad-City Times parking lot ahead of the Arconic Junior Bix on Friday. The 50th Quad-City Times Bix 7 is set for Saturday morning. Race Director Michelle Juehring said there’s no race quite like the QC Times Bix 7.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment of the collective efforts of so many people and something that all of us can feel proud of,” she said. “I’m just so very grateful to have a small role in this huge event.” Quad-City Times Bix 7 Race Director Michelle Juehring thanks the city council for the city's support of the race and events and for proclaiming the week of July 20-27 to be the 50th Quad-City Times Bix 7 week.
This will be Juehring’s 21st year involved with the race, she said, and her fifth as race director. Originally from Wisconsin, Juehring said when she moved to Davenport it felt like she was in a bigger city, but that it had a hometown feel to it — a sense of community. And race week, she said, is exactly like that.
With everyone that is involved, such as the volunteers, sponsors and participants, the race QC Times Bix 7 embodies a sense of community. “There’s just so much beauty in the fellowship of everyone coming together,” she said. “We start together when that gun goes off and everybody goes at the same time.
" When the first Bix 7 was held in 1975, it marked the largest gathering of runners in the Quad-Cities at a steeping 84. Founded by John Hudetz of Bettendorf, he had gone off to compete in the Boston Marathon in 1974. He returned home wanting to create something similar in the community with his friend Brian Owen, the Dispatch-Argus/Quad-City Times reported.
The two decided over lunch one day to start an organization that would be known as the Cornbelt Running Club. Now, 50 years later, the club is one of the most successful organizations of its kind and one of its races is known to runners across the globe. The club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting running and walking in the bi-state area.
Paul Schmidt has been involved with the club since 1996 and has served as president since 2003. He also is the assistant race director for the QC Times Bix 7. The first Bix 7 he ever ran was in 1986, he said, and he has not missed running in a single one since.
Brady Street Hill can be daunting, he said, especially when standing at the bottom, but for him the race was always about challenging himself. "But as the years go by, and you get a little bit older, or in my case, a lot older and slower, it's about all the friendships you make and the family and the camaraderie and just the experience of it being more than just a race," he said. And a race that once only had 84 people running it, has ballooned.
At 8 p.m. Friday, Juehring reported that 16,500 runners were registered for Saturday's race.
That's the biggest turnout since 2016. Registration was open until midnight Friday so numbers could creep even higher. "Fifty-years of people pouring their hearts and soul into this — running, walking, whatever they can do," Schmidt said.
Planning for the 50th QC Times Bix 7 began about a year ago, Juehring said. A committee was created, which includes race director emeritus Ed Froehlich. Froehlich was the race director for 40 years, stepping down in 2019.
But Froehlich came out of retirement to help plan. Thinking he was only going to be race director for one year, Froehlich said, he didn’t think the race would become as big as it has. In 1980, he said, they were able to bring in long-distance runner Bill Rodgers because the United States was boycotting the Olympics in Moscow and Rodgers did not get the chance to win gold in the Olympics.
And since then, Rodgers has kept coming back to run in the QC Times Bix 7. The following year, they also brought in Frank Shorter, Froehlich said. Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Bill Rodgers and Meb Keflezighi, are introduced prior to the start of the Genesis Brady Sprints, Thursday, at the finish line on Brady Street in Davenport.
On top of Rodgers and Shorter coming to the Bix, there also is Joan Benoit Samuelson. The American marathon runner was the first women’s Olympic Games marathon champion, winning gold in 1984. She ran the QC Times Bix 7 in 1983 and will be running the race for the 34th time today.
And the race numbers just kept doubling year after year, he said. “It just got into my blood,” Froehlich said. “It’s just something that, if you have a passion for it, you just keep striving to do better.
” Ed Froehlich ran the Bix 7 only twice before becoming the director of the event. And being on the same course as elite runners, Juehring said, is one of the best and most inspiring parts of the race. "Our tagline is run with the best," she said.
"And you are truly on the same course, and you see them." And change kept coming for the Bix 7 in the early 1980s. In 1981, the Bix 7 and Quad-City Times hatched a deal in which the local paper would become the title sponsor and has been for the past 44 years.
Dan Hayes, former QC Times editor, said it’s been a thrill to be a part of the QC Times Bix 7 all these years. Hayes was the editor at the time when the local paper became the title sponsor for the race. When the paper became the official title sponsor, Hayes said, that is when they started to push Froehlich’s priority — getting the community involved.
“Ed always believed that if you can get crowds, you’re going to get runners,” Hayes said. Davenport mayor Thom Hart (left) chats with race director Ed Froehlich and Times editor Dan Hayes during the early years of the Times’ sponsorship of the race. Rodgers, one of the most decorated long-distance runners, is running the race for the 44th time today.
Rodgers won the first time he did the race. So he came back and won it again. "This is one of the toughest (road races) in the world," Rodgers said.
"It's a hard as hell race." Two of the biggest names of the Bix 7 race, Frank Shorter, left, and Bill Rodgers address the crowd prior to the start of the Bechtel Trusts Senior Bix on Tuesday, July 23. And though the Brady Street Hill looks daunting, Rodgers shared it is a physical challenge but it's also more of a mental challenge.
"You just have to think you can do it," he said. But the best part of the race, he said, are the people. For Froehlich, the sprints are one of the most exciting events and the event he loves most.
He got the idea from something he remembered seeing as a young kid living in Des Moines, he shared. He was about 11, he said, and was passing through an area and saw a track meet on the street and kids running in their bare feet sprinting and seeing lots of spectators on both sides. "When I got involved with the Bix, I said, 'we need something like that'," he said.
"And then I thought of Brady Street Hill and that would make it so unique, sprinting up that hill." When the Quad-City Times became title sponsor, Hayes said the role for the paper became pushing community enthusiasm. The community support, all the different sponsors, live music and people throwing house parties along the course is what helped make the race what it is today, Hayes said.
"It's just, the community spirit, that's what I think pumps up a lot of people and pumps up me," Hayes said. Visit Quad Cities CEO Dave Harrell talks Quad-City Times Bix 7 impact during a press conference Monday, July 22, 2024. Miss some of the special Quad City Times Bix 7 content from the last 50 days? We got you covered.
Click the link the below to find all the content in one place. To the world beyond the bounds of eastern Iowa and western Illinois, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 probably just looks like a world-class road race. When the Quad-City Times Bix 7 began in 1975, the race started with runners charging up the Perry Street hill.
The Quad-City Times Bix 7 isn’t just about running and physical fitness. When you enter the Quad-City Times Bix 7, you have a decent chance of getting wet before the day is over. A year-by-year look at the Quad-City Times Bix 7: Bill Rodgers has run the Quad-City Times Bix 7 a total of 43 times and he still has a little trouble finding the words to describe how special.
.. It takes a lot of people to orchestrate a road race, even a small one.
When the race has been among the largest in the Midwest for the past 40...
You can tell Dr. Lynn Schmidt-Dolan doesn’t really feel as though she belongs on the same list as superstar runners such as Joan Samuelson, Ca..
. John Hudetz had no idea what he was starting back in the middle 1970s. By the mid-1980s, excitement for the Quad-City Times Bix 7 had built to the point where local runners couldn’t wait to get out on the course a.
.. A year-by-year look at the Quad-City Times Bix 7: Most of the elite distance runners in the world say the same thing.
At most road races they see the spectators at the starting line and again ...
You might think that now that her competitive running days are behind her, life might be slowing down for Joan Benoit Samuelson. Not many sports events have had the same title sponsor for more than 40 years. Very few road races have maintained a close relationship with t.
.. Mark Nenow spent most of the 1980s wearing out running shoes, frequently logging 140 miles a week.
He is only 5 feet, 5 inches tall, but Ed Froehlich became a giant in the world of road race directors. In its first 49 years, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 has had its share of moments that have been, well, sort of strange, not the sort of thing you..
. From the Counting Crows to T-Pain, here are 12 concerts you shouldn't miss in the Quad-Cities area this summer. A year-by-year look at the Quad-City Times Bix 7: The Quad-City Times Bix 7 has commemorated its rich history with an array of statues in an area known as Bix Plaza, at the point of the Quad-C.
.. Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers are buddies now.
To some, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 is a world-class race. What Devin and Kelsey Allbaugh have done in the Quad-City Times Bix 7 the past few years is fairly amazing. For more than four decades, Dr.
Jeff Bassman oversaw the recruiting and organizing of volunteers for the Quad-City Times Bix 7 and through the years that evolved into a huge undertaking. Sprint races are supposed to have tight, almost-too-close-to-call finishes. A year-by-year look at the Quad-City Times Bix 7: When it’s all over, after you’ve run or walked or crawled seven miles or two miles, it’s time to party.
Don Fish’s knee really hurts. Both of Gary Fischer’s knees give him problems. Steve Clark has an aching back.
Ed Lillis’ hips creak with every step. Once the runners and walkers in the Quad-City Times Bix 7 reach the top of the daunting Brady Street Hill, their work has just begun. Kellyn Taylor and Biya Simbassa each ran the Quad-City Times Bix 7 for the first time last year.
One of its earliest participants remembers it as being “the coolest running circus of kids and people just everywhere ...
It was very cool.’’ Th..
. In the late 1990s, Quad-City Times Bix 7 officials realized that not everyone was enthralled with the idea of running seven miles up and down ..
. It began with popsicle sticks. Meb Keflezighi remembers the first time he came to the Quad-City Times Bix 7, back in 2002.
There are people who seemingly won’t allow anything to keep them from participating in the Quad-City Times Bix 7 each year. Maybe it’s because the Quad-City Times Bix 7 is held in the same month as Independence Day at a time when people are feeling especially patrio..
. A year-by-year look at the Quad-City Times Bix 7: In 2002, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 made a bold and innovative move that was so popular it has chosen to do the same thing a half dozen times t..
. Fiona O’Keeffe added her name to the list earlier this year. Ed Froehlich didn’t build the Quad-City Times Bix 7 into a monstrous and magical event all by himself.
He had help. Lots of it. Frank Bay has heard it a few times.
Not too often, but every now and then someone will question why he continues to run road races at his adva...
A year-by-year look at the Quad-City Times Bix 7: Kenya has been the dominant distance running country in the world for more than 50 years. So, it was inevitable that after the Quad-City Times..
. Clayton Young had the second fastest qualifying time entering the U.S.
Olympic marathon trials earlier this year, but he still was considered ...
Since 2004, at least one local entrant in the Quad-City Times Bix 7 has been chosen each year to take a shot at getting to the finish line ahe...
Along with running in all but one of the Quad-City Times Bix 7 races, Kerry Gannon holds one other distinction in Bix 7 lore. The Quad-City Times began having an official T-shirt in 1976, in its second year of existence. It tweaked its logo considerably through the fi.
.. The Quad-City Times Bix 7 continued to produce unique T-shirt logos in its second quarter-century of existence, often using caricatures of run.
.. It’s a lot shorter than the regular Quad-City Times Bix 7.
It’s not necessarily easier. Here are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about the Quad-City Times Bix 7 and related events in Davenport. The race is 8 a.
m. Saturday, July 27. Karl Ungurean, who died in December 2022, is going to be centerstage from now on.
A life-size statue of him has been installed in Bix Plaza and it will be unveiled in ceremonies Monday at 6:30 p.m. as the Bix 7 prepares for its 50th running later in the week.
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