One advantage of the weekly Bix at 6 training runs is options with one's traveling party.

Run alone? Run with a friend? With a significant other? Or in a large group?

All of the above were on display Thursday in Davenport as Bix 7 entrants continue to prepare for the July 25 race.

Brandon Engle, a 24-year-old from Moline, chose the lone wolf route, needing only the accompaniment from his iPod nano to help him through the

7-mile course.

"It allows me to focus in on what I need to do, I don't have the distraction of someone else," said Engle, a 10-year Bix 7 veteran. "I guess if you have a stressful work week, it's nice to get out and throw the iPod on, just go for a jog."

Some participants use a companion - or in the case of Eldridge's Zach Warm and Eric Payne, a brother-in-law - of close-to-equal speed to keep pace.

"I like running with him through the early miles, because that's where I struggle (there)," Warm said. "Then I tend to pick it up later in the race, so we kind of balance each other out."

There have also been several groups of high school friends running together, including six Rock Island High School cross country athletes who start at the same time, then compete against the others throughout the course.

"You get to know the course and see some old faces," said Topher Leiby, who graduated this spring. "You can see where (teammates have) improved; you don't see everyone over the summer so you see how they've been training."

The husband-and-wife combo has been popular, as well. Matt Roll, 31, and Jess Roll, 29, of Davenport both compete in Bix 7 each year but make a habit of training alongside each other.

"Pace helps for me because he's a lot faster than me," Jess Roll said. "And it's more enjoyable that way. (Our baby's) at the babysitter tonight, otherwise we'd have to train separately because of that."

Many racers have created their own babysitter (literally), right out on the course.

Perhaps a more unique sight - and yet one that's becoming increasingly popular - is the runners who dare to push a child (or even twins) in a stroller as they make their way through the hilly course and humid climate.

Jeff Paul, who took third place in last week's Quad-Cities Triathlon, tried it out in 2008 after his wife, Jenn, gave birth to daughter Payton on June 1, and the couple enjoyed it for a second straight year.

"This is good training," Jeff Paul said. "It's probably 30 seconds per mile harder to push (the stroller), I would guess. We've done a few 5K races with her and that's fun."

Jeff pushed the first half of the race, handing off their first child to Jenn at the turnaround point. It's a running family from Le Claire, Iowa, and the hope is Payton gets an early introduction.

"It's fun to push her," Jeff Paul said. "I think she knows what's going on, she knows we're working out, and she's going to want to get out running some day."

Qualifying begins

The first of three qualifying runs up the Brady Street hill portion of the course took place Thursday, as a couple of returning medalists took charge with trial victories.

The top three finishers from the men's and women's Open divisions (age 39 and younger) and Masters divisions (age 40 and up) advanced to the main event, which takes place July 23, two nights before the Bix 7.

Dillon Smith, 24 from Rock Island and a former Augustana College track athlete, won the Men's Open qualifier, completing the quarter-mile ascent in 1:06.

"To me, this is just a bigger challenge than running the 400(-yard dash)," said Smith, who took third in the 2008 race. "When you come here on the big night, there's a lot of people here and it's fun to run it."

Eighteen-year-old Stephanie Brown of Downs, Ill., who will run track at Arkansas in the fall, set the women's pace in 1:11. Brown lost the 2008 final run by a fraction of a second to Northern Iowa's Lauren Carruthers.

"It's more of my cup of tea, because I'm more of a middle-distance runner," Brown said. "This is a beast, but it's kind of my thing."

The second and third qualifying races, which meet at 5th and Brady, will be at 7 p.m. the next two Thursday evenings in coordination with the Bix at 6.