Lost bet puts runner in cheerleader outfit as Bix 7 delivers host of colorful stories

Dennis Griffin, 81, walked his 46th Bix 7 Saturday. He started running the race in 1980, 21 years before I was born. He remembers the early days when the race was small and Frank Shorter ran near him.

"It's something I can't give up," Griffin, of Moline, said about the race. 

He wore a bright neon yellow jersey and visor. 

This year, Griffin walked with his daughter, Jill Roselieb, 55. She called herself Griffin's "sidekick." She has run and walked the Bix 7 on and off for 12 years. Some years, she has convinced her father do the Jell-O shots and bench press. 

"But never the Slip 'n Slide," Roselieb said. 

Other runners are a third my age. Eight-year-old Amber planned to run the 2-mile Prairie Farms Quick Bix with her father. But she woke up Saturday and wanted to run the 7-mile course, instead.

Her mother, 33-year-old Ashley Lewis, had been diagnosed with heart failure at age 26. Over the past seven years, she had grown her endurance and ran the Bix 7 this year. 

Her father, Myles Lewis, 36, ran with his daughter while Ashley ran ahead.

"She's the one who motivates me," Lewis said of his daughter. "And her mom motivated her."

Even past mile five, Amber was pushing ground on her father, a six-year runner. He told Amber, who held an orange freeze pop, to "keep motivated" and "keep pushing."

Not everyone felt as eager.

Jacob Flater, of Moline, stood less enthused at the starting line. For the past decade, he has competed in a fantasy football league with friends. Every year, they select a punishment for the worst performer.

“This is my punishment,” Flater, 35, said.

He wore a tight Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit as part of the punishment.

"I picked the wrong group of guys this year," Flater said of his fantasy football choices. "It was a tough year."

Flater exercises but doesn’t often run. At the starting line, he said he planned to walk. There was no use stressing, he said. He joked he was most excited to pay his punishment, earn humility and to just “get it done.” 

Thomas Short, 29, also would not have run the Bix 7 without the cajoling of his friends.

"He forced me," Short said, pointing to the man next to him. 

"How?" I asked. 

"Coercion," he said.

Short, originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, is stationed at First Army Headquarters at the Rock Island Arsenal. His friend, Dre Andreas, also is in the military at the Arsenal. Unlike Short, Andreas enjoys running and thought he might run the Bix 7 this year. This was his first time. 

Before the race, Short said he was just "excited to finish." I asked the pair if they were at least looking forward to events like the Slip 'n Slide, the bench press or the beer. They were unaware of what I was talking about.

Boy, were they in for a treat. This reporter would have gladly spun on the Slip 'n Slide, benched her weight in gold and downed a Jell-O shot or two, were I not diligently reporting on the sights and sounds of Davenport's greatest road race. 

The race started with a bang — and then a shuffle — as the crowd moved up Brady Street before their chips activated at the starting line. As runners ran up the steep slope, the street became a sea of music, calls for beer and spectator cheers.

An announcer pointed out a man in a banana suit.

I spent the entire race looking for him but could not find the banana man in the sea of thousands.

Runners on Kirkwood Boulevard might have enjoyed the race too much; some nearly with their compatriots as they turned around on Kirkwood Boulevard when they almost missed the Slip 'n Slide.

At the bottom of the street, as usual, a crowd of about 20 stood cheering as participants completed the infamous bench press. Across the press, the Quad City Irish Rugby Club handed out Busch Lights and called for any takers to "shotgun" the bottles -- a practice of quickly downing a beer.

Brittany England, 38, and Scott Wolff, 44, drove the five hours from their home in Columbus, Indiana, to run Saturday's race. 

The couple first ran the race in 2024 when England trained for the Dopey Challenge, a four-day endurance event in Walt Disney World that includes a 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon.

The couple adored Bix 7 the first time: the expo, spectators, the side events and the famous runners like Bill Rogers.

The pair have been racing since 2019, when England trained for the Cleveland Marathon. England said that year opened the floodgates, and now the couple regularly travel to races. The couple is running a half-marathon in every state. 

At the Bix 7, the pair ran in Christmas socks, hats and shirts, going for a "Christmas-in-July" theme. They did not run hard. They remembered the Slip 'n Slide and the beer from two years ago and sought to take part in the excitement.