7 simple steps to beating the Bix 7

Font Size:

By Sean Moeller | Friday, May 02, 2008 |

July 20, 2003

The Quad-City Times Bix 7 annually draws more than 15,000 runners and walkers. They come to the race maybe out of habit or out of curiosity. It’s also quite possible that many people run the Bix for neither reason. It could be that they circle the last Saturday in July -we can say that once again this year -because they’ve yet to conquer a course that routinely shucks the fastest to the curb and leaves a hill print on their chest as it moves on to the next victim. The 7-mile distance -an oddity as race distances go -coupled with notoriously hot weather, make the Bix 7 an almost unsolvable problem. A familiar proverb says to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. If the Bix course is your enemy, the best way to combat it is to know it inside and out.

THE FIRST MILE: It’s not the most comforting thing to see at the starting line, but at least the Brady Street hill is the first bit of race that has to be conquered. As seemingly insurmountable as the climb appears, the trip is not all that taxing if a smart attack is used. The 400-meter faux mountain is the only element holding back the world’s fastest road runners in the first mile of a race that usually heats up shortly after the top is achieved. A slower-than-desired march up is nothing to panic about when you hit the mile mark after rounding the corner onto Kirkwood Boulevard. Bill Rodgers, the 1980 and ‘81 Bix champion, has the course map singed into his frontal lobe, and even he said he doesn’t push up Brady. "I think it’s one of the most mentally challenging races," he said from home. " Bix takes from you, but it also gives."

THE SECOND MILE: This is the mile that starts to open the pack up, separating those content to simply finish from those chasing the clock. In 1998, when John Korir broke the course record on a 62-degree morning with a trace of humidity, the front-runner, Ondoro Osoro, stormed over the Kirkwood concrete, running a 4:12 second mile to set up Korir’s eventual 31:51.99. The race will open up and the crowds will spread apart, finally giving participants a little knee room. It also is the longest entirely downhill stretch of the race, taking a dip underneath a line of shade trees. The second mile is a treat, but the out-and-back nature of the course makes it quite obvious that the second meeting with Kirkwood won’t be as pleasant.

THE THIRD MILE: You’re still feeling the gradual decline beneath your shoes at the 3-mile mark. That feeling sticks with you until you snake a left on the backside of the Village of East Davenport and begin your tussle with a hill that would make a moped buckle. The Middle Road hill then gives way to the McClellan Boulevard hill. Once you’re all the way up, a slight downgrade reprieve takes you to the end of the third mile and the turnaround. It’s best not to turn your legs loose on the downhill, because it’s only going to make things harder when you realize that everything you’re coasting down has to be trudged right back up. A couple of water stops can make this mile more manageable.

THE FOURTH MILE: You’ll recognize the scenery when crossing the 4-mile mark, as it is directly across from the 3-mile mark near the top of McClellan. At that point, only a small part of the hill is left to ascend but your legs will be stinging and awaiting the other, tamer side of Middle Road that they didn’t see the first time. The most reassuring (or depressing) aspect of this portion of the race is that you will be seeing those ahead of you circling back toward the finish line. You’ll have had Korir and Meb Keflezighi buzz past long ago with Catherine Ndereba and Colleen De Reuck doing the same a few minutes later. It’s then that you first start to sense what makes the Bix so special. It’s also on McClellan where some of the most ardent swarms of spectators plop lawn chairs and cheer on strangers and nonstrangers alike. "The out-and-back is something that’s very special with the Bix," said Rodgers who will be running the race for the 24th straight year. "Most races are loops or point-to-point. We’re taking up the whole road. You have nonstop action at this race. This is a perfectly designed race course."

THE FIFTH MILE: Now you’re going down Middle Road, dropping 73 feet in elevation in a little more than 500 feet, picking up speed and well over halfway done. The steepest inclines now are in the past, but the next two miles give runners and walkers a handful with deceptive difficulty. In the fifth mile, depending on how much energy still is left and how serious you’re taking the Bix, there are plenty of good opportunities to move up. Throwing in a surge or two at this stage will jet you past more people than you can imagine as the race has weakened almost everyone on the course. Charging up a foothill or using the base of Jersey Ridge Road as a spring forward goes a long way toward improving your finish before the difficult second-to-last mile takes hold.

THE SIXTH MILE: As was warned earlier, Kirkwood plays the role of friend and foe in equal parts. You’re now faced with the foe. It’s mean and cruel, and there’s nothing anyone can do to make it any better. It’s an eternity before you make the left-hand turn onto Brady for the final mile-and-a-half. You’ll be staring glass-eyed and cotton-mouthed straight ahead hoping for the next intersection to be the one. Or maybe it’s the next intersection. Or the next one. It goes on forever, doing it all with an increase in slope. Mind you, it is ever so slight, but this increase affects you like Brady never would. "By then, you’ve run six miles. You’re tired and tuckered out," Rodgers said. "That’s where I’ll run out of gas. I’ll stop for water on that part."

THE SEVENTH MILE: Beginning at St. John’s Church, the seventh mile goes under the skybridge connecting Palmer College of Chiropractic and plummets down Brady Street before a left-hand turn onto Third Street and a welcome finish two blocks later. You’ll be hearing names of finishers and knowing for the first time -barring a catastrophe -that you’ll be one of them. There really is very little to say about the final mile. It’s the last one. You’re not thinking about much because it’s over. You’ve made it. "The Bix is the quintessential summer road race," Rodgers said. "To me, it’s one of the great, great races in America."