Another Bix 7 path: Race security also about friendship and family

That path starts in the parking lot of the former Quad-City Times office in downtown Davenport, where runners gathered after the Bix 7 to relax and replenish. That's where Amari Harris was working security and doing her best, as she put it, to fill the area with "good vibes."

Before the Bix 7 got started, Harris bumped, shimmied and shook to every single song played over the loudspeakers placed in front of the Palmer Chiropractic tent. She smiled the entire time, and invited every passerby to dance with abandon.

"This is my first year doing security down here at the finish-line area," said the 31-year-old Davenport resident. "The last couple of years I was up at the intersection of Bridge and Kirkwood encouraging and directing the runners.

"I was the lady with the bullhorn. I loved doing that. People would come up to after the race and tell me how much my encouragement meant to them."

Harris barely stopped bumping to talk.

"I love helping out on race day," she said.

Accomplished friends

As Harris danced and talked, the path led to Debora Mbombo, who danced up to join in the conversation.

They met at 392Caffe.

"That's the best coffee shop ever," the 24-year-old Mbombo said. "And it was a wonderful way to meet."

"I had a messed-up leg, and I was sitting in there and I saw Debora and she was just so beautiful," Harris said. "I had my friend Destiny go over and say hi to her and ask her to come sit with us.

"And then I didn't think we were going to be friends because she got up and left. But then we connected and now we are friends."

The friendship is deep. Harris and Mbombo have traveled the country together and even visited Guatemala.

Mbombo said both she and Harris are "creatives" and she thinks that drew them together. Harris has written a children's book entitled "Daddy Dinosaur Gets Deployed" that is available through Amazon. Mbombo is planning a podcast focused on people she meets.

"I'm just curious," Mbombo said. "I'm really curious about what people care about and their lives. I just want to know more about human beings."

Grateful for the Bix

Mbombo and Harris were figuring out where they needed to be when Kristina Fye crossed their path. The 10-year-old held one of the Bix 7's famous post-race popsicles in her right-hand.

It was blue, and so were her lips.

"It's blue raspberry," Kristina said. "It's literally refreshing."

While Mbombo and Harris enjoyed the review, Kristina's father found his way to our path.

"Kristina is one of my four children," Marc Fye said. "This is her first Bix. I like to get her involved and show her that it's fun to volunteer."

Marc Fye said Saturday marked his first Bix, too.

"Amari (Harris) and I have been seeing each other for about a month and she asked me if I wanted to be a volunteer, too," he said.

Then he described how he met the Bix 7's bullhorn-turned-dancing queen.

"We met at the Bittner (YMCA in downtown Davenport). She was outside in her car one day and she asked me about my workout. And then we went to the Body Pump class. It just went from there."

Marc Fye explained.

"I have four children and they don't have a mother because she died from cirrhosis of her liver," he said. "I've been in recovery. I work now at One-Eighty as a ... supervisor. That was where I got clean and now I'm helping others."

Marc Fye said he did two nine-month bits in prison before he finally sought help.

"I really was a slave to the drinking," he said. "And then my kids' mom died and it kind of just became really clear that I need to stay sober and stay alive.

"I'm grateful to be alive. I'm grateful for today. And I'm grateful to be at the Bix."