Bix participation runs in the family

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By Ashley Jamison-Love | Saturday, July 26, 2008 7:46 PM CDT | () comments

For 30-year Quad-City Times Bix 7 veteran Marsha Cottrell, the Quick Bix on Saturday was a new experience.

Cottrell originally began running the Bix 7 because her husband, Tim Cottrell, was a runner.

She ran when her daughter, Jessica, was just a year old and in a stroller.

This year, Cottrell ran the Quick Bix with a new partner, her 5-year-old granddaughter, Xianne McChensy.

“She ran her first race in a sling on her mom’s chest when she was only 3,” Cottrell said after the race, sitting under the statue of Bix Beiderbecke in the Quad-City Times parking lot. “She slept the whole time.”

Both Cottrell and McChensy sported bright pink shirts and black headbands with the phrase “i run like a girl” imprinted on them.

“(I) run faster than a girl,” McChensy said.

Both were proud to have completed the 2-mile Quick Bix course in 41 minutes.

While Cottrell and McChensy celebrated their completion of the race, another celebration took place at the end of the 7-mile race.

Angie Gillespie of Davenport celebrated her 34th birthday by running her fourth Bix.

“Today is the coolest day of the four years I’ve ran,” Gillespie said. “The food is also a lot healthier this year.”

Judy and Emily Edens sat eating popsicles in the shade of the trees while cooling off and waiting for their daughter/sister, Elise, to finish the Bix.

The youngest member of the Edens family chose to run the full race, while the rest of her family ran the Quick Bix.

Elise, 13, “told me she didn’t want to mess around,” Judy Edens said.

Emily, 16, completed the Quick Bix for the first time with the help of her father.

Emily suffers from complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS, which leaves her wheelchair-bound some of the time.

“I can walk most of the time, but some days I get up, and it just hurts too bad, so I wheel around,” Emily Edens said.

She was diagnosed with the syndrome two years ago, at the start of her freshman year of high school. “What a way to start high school,” Judy Edens said.

Emily wheeled her way through the 2-mile course, using her arms to power her. Her father pushed her uphill, Judy Edens said.

“I wish it was all downhill,” Emily said.

She got involved with the Bix by watching her grandfather run for years.

“He died two years ago, and when that happened I thought I should get into it,” she said.

While her condition prevents her from running the race, she kept in great spirits while wheeling her way through the course.

“Just because I’m in a wheelchair doesn’t mean I can’t,” she said.

Emily is a junior at Moline High School and looks forward to completing the full Bix next year.

Ashley Jamison-Love can be reached at (563) 333-2660 or at ajamison-love@qctimes.com.