2025 Quad-City Times Bix 7 a reunion in Cheetah print, trash bag ponchos, and just a bit of rain

The race, for my family, is a reunion. My uncle comes from Houston, Texas, more years than not to walk the race with my dad. It’s become something of a tradition.

This is my fifth time running and reporting for the Quad-City Times. And the number of similar stories I hear while reporting, of families reuniting over the Bix, never fails to amaze me. Even on a soggy, soppy Saturday like 2025 Bix day. 

Take Sierra Stucky, 27, who lives in Colorado Springs. For Christmas, she surprised her dad, Judd Stucky, 56, who lives in Plainview, Minnesota, with a Bix race entry. He always had fond memories of the Bix while he attended Palmer College and brought Sierra to run it too when she was in Junior High and High School in Plainview.

"We were talking about it last summer, and we said "Oh, that was so fun when we did it, we should do it again," Sierra Stucky said. "So, on Christmas morning he opened it up, and it was the entry."

Sierra’s youngest sister, who’s 9 years old, ran in the Junior Bix Friday night, and they all stayed with family in Moline.

It’s also a bit of a homecoming to Iowa for Sierra. Sierra ran and then coached cross country at Iowa Central College in Fort Dodge. Now, she works for the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs planning activities and helping athletes in-residence. She meets athletes in wrestling, figure skating, Paralympic skiers and snowboarders, basketball players and swimmers.

The pair hadn’t counted on rain for Bix, but they made do. They each cut holes in the tops of trash bags for their head and arms for make-shift, throwaway ponchos.

“It’s a dad thing,” Judd Stucky said.

Or take sisters Stella, Erin, and Clara Ashdown, from Erie, Illinois. Erin, 20, and Clara, 19, are home for the summer from college, and decided to tackle the Bix again, in style.

They each donned cheetah-print shorts and T-shirts designed to look like they had a cheetah suit coat, tie, and rock-hard abs.

“Cheetahs are fast, that’s why we went with the Cheetah print,” Stella Ashdown, 17, said. “The abs we just thought were funny.”

They all did cross country or track, but the sisters agreed, while holding back laughs, they weren’t taking the race too seriously.

“We’re in college and we came back home to run it with her,” Erin Ashdown said, pointing to Stella. “And so, we decided to make it a fun thing where we dressed up. We’re not taking it very seriously. We’re just going to do our best.”

Melissa Serenda, 48, of Iowa City started running the Bix about a decade ago. She’d started out running 5ks when she started reading about the Bix in the Quad-Cities.

“I thought I could never be able to run it because it was seven miles and I was struggling to get three miles at a time,” Melissa Serenda said. “So it was my big goal race. And then I ran it and the hills killed me. I hated it, and I loved it. And then came back a few more times.”

Then, she got her sister, Kristen Serenda, 50, of West Chicago, and her mother Liz Kwit, 68, of Bolingbrook, Illinois, to get in on the action, too.

“We started out watching her, and she told us about the Quick Bix,” Kristen Serenda said. “We thought that was right up our alley.”

The Quad-Cities is a convenient meet-up spot between Chicago and Iowa City, and the three reunite in the Quad-Cities frequently, including the past few years for the Bix and its festivities.

Melissa Serenda’s next big goal race was the Quad Cities Half Marathon, which she said is now among her favorite races with its along-the-river route.

“It’s just a really fun event, and we’re thrilled to do it,” Kwit said of the Bix. “We’re sorry about the rain, but we’re still having fun with it. People are so nice, the volunteers are so wonderful.”

“It’s so nice to have a city just embrace a race as a huge event, as a premier event for the city,” Melissa Serenda said. “Especially for smaller races.”

Nine-year-old gets out of her comfort zone

The first year I can find a record of me doing either the 2-mile or the 7-mile is in 2008. At 9 years old, I finished the Prairie Farms Quick Bix in a blistering (ha) 29 minutes and 24 seconds. I was 20th of 38 finishers in my age division of 7- to 9-year-olds … . I probably walked with my mom and took off when I saw the finish line.

As a side note: you can now look up Bix race times and records dating back to its very first year in 1975. In February, the Bix announced it had worked with Athlinks to digitize race records from 1975 to 1995, which had previously been available from recorded newspaper copies. 

Plenty of young Bix-ers lined up Saturday morning, making the race a family affair.

Lexi Sharp, 9, admitted she was a little nervous at the starting line of the Bix. This was her first time doing the 2-mile with her family, but the last few years her brother, Elliott, 11, has been coming along and she didn’t want to miss the fun.

“She’s never wanted to do it before, but now that he’s been doing it with us, she decided she wanted to do it all together,” said Christine Lindner. “She wanted to be included.”

Blue Grass man solves Rubik's Cube at each mile

And there’s always someone cool to spot along the route.

Jeffrey Sloan, 30 of Blue Grass, ran up to a volunteer holding a flag line to separate the runners on Kirkwood at the second mile marker, and asked the volunteer to scramble his Rubik’s Cube.

Sloan, even with the distraction of a reporter asking him questions, solved it in just a minute or two.

“Today, I am just running the Bix and I’m just doing what I want to do. Just kind of being weird out here. I’m wearing a kilt and every mile I’m out here, I’m going to be solving a Rubik’s cube,” Sloan said.

Sloan said he was looking for people along the route to help scramble the cube, for more of a challenge.

He finished the race in an hour and 33 minutes, according to the Bix results.

As for his fastest Rubik’s Cube solve? Just 25 seconds.

If you can believe it, he wasn’t the only kilt-wearing runner out on the course on Saturday. For Dietrich Muhs, 27, of Eldridge, shorts just aren’t his thing.

“I hate shorts, and the only other thing I really wear is jeans,” Muhs said. “So to stay true to my very odd conviction, many years ago, I purchased a kilt. I’ve sort of been going with it because it’s actually really nice.”

Keeping dry... or not

Susan Nicholson, of Davenport, kept dry while cheering on runners with a fun-colored, wide-brimmed hat she bought at OK's Discount on Locust Street. 

Nicholson, who turned 70 in June, comes to her cousin's house on Kirkwood Avenue and always cheers the runners. 

"The runners are so beautiful, and so brave," Nicholson said of why she keeps coming back to support the Bix. 

For Wanda McBride, 74, of Sterling, Illinois, the rain doesn't bother her too much. She worked as a mail carrier in Dixon for 29 years. 

"I learned to deal with it," McBride said with a laugh.

Ryan Teel was helping runners with the opposite of staying dry, though in a different way.

He set up a margarita and bloody mary bar and a band. He usually has some kind of food, too, but didn't this year because of the rain. 

"I've been doing this for 15 years," Teel said. "What's new is the rain."