All she did was run the 7-mile course in 54 minutes, 17 seconds to win the women’s 65-69 age group by a margin of about 6 ½ minutes.
Samuelson, who won the women’s open championship four times in the 1980s and has won the Bix masters title 15 times, said she is likely to be back next year.
“It will be 2027, and it’s the Bix 7, and I’ll be 70 years old, so I’ll probably be here,’’ she said.
Michael Mallon, of Davenport, crosses over the Quad-City Times Bix 7 finish line on Saturday, July 25, in Davenport.Â
Davenport’s Michael Mallon had a great day Saturday. He broke the course record for the 60-64 age group, covering the distance in 41:53, knocking 58 seconds off Jerry McGrath’s 1998 record.
Mallon also was part of the first men’s masters team competition, helping the Quad-Cities Faster Masters to the championship.
Another record
The only other age-group record that was established Saturday was by Priscah Cherono of Kenya, one of the elite runners in the race. Cherono, 46, recorded the fastest time ever by a woman between the ages of 45 and 49 — 36 minutes, 11 seconds.
The previous record, by Barbara Filutze, 41:29, had stood for 33 years.
Familiar names
The men’s age group champions included such familiar Quad-Cities names as Devin Allbaugh, Mason Tope and Ben Lloyd. Also winning, in the men’s 55-59 division, was former Quad-City Times sportswriter Lance Bergeson.
Team success
Running Wild Elite, which included Allbaugh, Joe Langridge, Steve Froeschele and Max Murphy, was the runaway winner of the men’s team competition. All four of those men were among the top 35 finishers in the race.
The women’s winner was Driftless Distance Pink, which included runners from three states — Caroline McMartin of Pella, Iowa; Brisa McGrath of Mahomet, Ill.; Dani Thompson of Sun Prairie, Wis.; and Jenna Wolfram of Barrington, Ill.
