Kenyan Linus Maiyo was 19 years old when he first came to the Quad-City Times Bix 7 in 2003. He made a big splash that year — giving the race’s all-time winningest runner John Korir (with five victories in Davenport) a serious run for his money.

Maiyo has enjoyed similar success every time he has returned for the event.

He was runner-up in 2003 — taking the race to the wire and getting out-kicked by Korir. He was second again the next year, again to Korir, who beat him by 16 seconds.

He returned the next year and finished third behind first-time champion Gilbert Okari and Korir.

Without actually finishing the job, Maiyo has been exasperatingly close to mastering the 7-mile course that has broken many an elite athlete in its 33 years.

In a year when the majority of the elite field will be seeing the difficult out-and-back course for the first time, Maiyo might hold the trump card, a wealth of catalogued knowledge, most of which was learned watching the back side of Korir in front of him.

“I feel like I belong here,” Maiyo said in a phone interview Wednesday from his training home in Philadelphia. “I think that it is a big advantage that I’ve run here many times. They (the first-timers) will find it much more difficult running here and I’ll be more focused.

“When I came for the first time in 2003, John Korir knew that course better than me. I learned from him. I’ve been working on changing how I run that course.”

He’s hoping to use those lessons served up by the hard-finishing Korir on Saturday morning against a pack of newcomers, some of whom might choose to use Maiyo in the same way he used Korir in 2003.

Maiyo will be the entry with as much previous success as anyone in the field this side of American and Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi, who won the 2002 race.

Maiyo, 24, won’t have many peers when it comes to memory of the Bix 7 course or stored tactics that are available for recall in the heat of the race, on a morning that is shaping up to be favorable for a run at the course record.

Mild temperatures might give a young, speedy bunch of foreign athletes the push they need to break John Korir’s nearly decade-old record of 31 minutes, 52 seconds.

Moroccan Ridouane Harroufi, 25, might be one of those front-runners having a good circuit this season.

He won the Bolder Boulder 10K and was second in the Steamboat Classic 4-miler in Peoria in 17:55. Another first-time Bix 7 runner with quick legs to keep an eye on might be 26-year-old Simon Ndirangu.

He won the Carlsbad 5K this year in 13:28. Keflezighi shouldn’t be counted out either. He is training for November’s Olympic Trials marathon in New York City, but he is prepping for a short European track season as well, getting plenty of speed with his mileage.

It’s Maiyo with something more to prove, however, looking to make this the year he finally breaks through in Davenport. Two weeks ago at the Crazy 8’s 8K in Kingsport, Tenn., he was outkicked by Ndirangu down the homestretch.

“I have to figure out who are the guys who will be up there,” Maiyo said. “I think the nice idea that I have is to go before they realize it. I have to shake it up before it becomes the time to sprint.

“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been training for it. I think this year could be my year.”

Sean Moeller can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or at smoeller@qctimes.com . Comment on this story at www.qctimes.com.