Couple’s Love Runs Through The Years Pair Met While Training For First Bloomsday

They met on an indoor track at Spokane Community College.

He watched her circle the gym, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. And he fell in love.

Michael Arnold eyed his love-on-the-run, Margie Longbottom, for several weeks before making his move.

“I kind of went over there and asked her if I could run with her,” says Michael Arnold, 46. “She said ‘Sure.’ One thing just led to another.”

Like dating. Meeting her parents. Running Bloomsday together. And getting married.

Two decades later, the Arnolds still run together. They are among an elite group of 150 people who have finished all 19 Bloomsdays, and they’re one of only a few couples who will complete their 20th race this May.

In their north Spokane home, the Arnolds proudly display a blanket on which they’ve pinned their 19 race T-shirts, including the special 10th-year shirt.

Torn and faded, the shirts are lasting relics to the family; they’ve stuffed the rest of their Bloomsday souvenirs - old photographs, newspaper articles and race tags - into a brown paper bag.

In the colorful cotton quilt, they’ve pieced together their memories of running, and of falling in love.

Those memories started on that indoor track nearly two decades ago. The Arnolds recognized each other from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where both worked. She held a clerical job on the third floor; he was a truck driver and delivered linens there.

But it wasn’t until the Bloomsday enthusiasts started jogging that they became friends.

“It was part of our dating experience,” says Margie Arnold, 41. “We wouldn’t have really gotten to know each other if it wasn’t for running.”

After the first race, Michael Arnold began courting his future bride. They went to the movies, hockey games, and started meeting regularly at the track for evening jogs.

Arnold chased love for a few months until the day he summoned enough courage to propose. He chose an appropriate place - the track.

“Since we both had running in common, I thought that would be the place to do it,” he says.

Margie Arnold, who now works as a speech pathologist with Central Valley School District, won’t soon forget that moment.

“We were both tired and hot and sweaty,” she says.

By the time he asked, she was too excited to care how she looked. She rushed home, grabbed the phone and told her girlfriends and family the news.

The couple married after Bloomsday 1978 - a short 10 days later. Michael Arnold says they “just wanted to keep the string going.”

Bloomsday soon became a family tradition. In fact, one of the Arnolds’ daughters finished the race before she was born.

Margie Arnold was pregnant with Michaelyn, who’s now 11, at Bloomsday 1984. “I remember having a horrible back ache,” she says. But not enough pain to miss the race.

That was the only year her father, Garth Longbottom, ever did Bloomsday.

“I walked with her to control her so that she wouldn’t run,” Longbottom says. “I had to slow her down a few times.”

Meanwhile, Michael Arnold had zoomed well ahead of both.

Running has rubbed off on the kids, too. Michaelyn, and her sister, Allison, 14, both have run Junior Bloomsdays and Bloomsday races.

Despite their love for the annual festival of fitness, the couple say they’ve never been hard-core athletes.

Margie Arnold never joined any school sports while growing up in Spokane; her husband was a defense on his high school’s hockey team in his hometown of Hershey, Pa.

For the Arnolds, Bloomsday is more of a fun family affair than an athletic endeavor.

“You kind of get caught up in the mass of humanity, the community spirit,” Michael Arnold says.

He says his most memorable Bloomsday is the first one, in 1977.

Arnold remembers the sweltering midday heat. It was about 84 degrees and he was running mad through downtown Spokane, maneuvering his way through a pack of about 1,200 runners.

There weren’t as many spectators back then, he says, which is why he was surprised to see a few of his buddies sitting along the curb gulping beer.

“They flagged me over and said ‘Do you want a beer?”’ he says. “I took a couple swigs. That got me to the finish line.”

The couple says they’ll stay committed to Bloomsday, and each other.

Says Margie Arnold: “The couple that runs together stays together.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Bloomsday memories Best Bloomsday times: Michael Arnold crossed the finish line in 59 minutes; Margie Arnold’s best is an hour and 10 minutes. Favorite training spot: Riverside State Park. “We used to run a five-mile trail there,” Margie Arnold says. Bloomsday tip: “Be really patient, especially if you don’t like crowds,” Margie Arnold says. “It’s not worth it to jog in front of somebody and risk getting hurt.” Why we like Bloomsday: “You see all these people out there all basically doing one thing - bettering themselves,” Michael Arnold says.