BLOOMSDAY IS COMING!

At 1:30 p.m., on May 1, 1977, over a thousand runners participated in the inaugural Bloomsday Run, which was billed "Run With the Stars" in posters announcing the event. Olympic gold and silver medalist Frank Shorter crossed the line first, followed by Herm Atkins of Seattle and founder Kardong.

The success of the first year's race led to an even greater turnout in 1978. Publicity generated by a sanctioning dispute with local AAU officials also helped the race expand to over 5,000 runners. By its second year, Bloomsday was already enormous by any standard, and a victory by Boston's Bill Rodgers helped spread the event's national reputation.

In subsequent years the Bloomsday field continued to grow, reaching 57,300 in 1988 before leveling off for two years. In 1991, Bloomsday took another jump to 60,104, and in 1996 the event reached its all-time high of 61,298.

During years of explosive growth, volunteers helped devise systems to deal with bottlenecks at registration, the finish area, T-shirt distribution, and throughout the process. Those systems have allowed Bloomsday's size to increase without compromising the experience: each runner receives a postcard with time, place and finish position; T-shirts are given only to finishers; and every finisher is listed in the Souvenir Results Booklet distributed on Tuesday following the race.

From Bloomsday Run online

This race happens on a Sunday morning in early May -- but I am seriously trying to figure out how to walk/run as part of this huge Spokane celebration.

We'll see.
GHT