Fast start requires patience

Wayne Foster arrived first at the Bloomsday starting line – 4½ hours early.

The 42-year-old showed up at 4:30 a.m. to make sure he would be at the front of the massive pack.

A 24-ounce cup of coffee from 7-Eleven helped him stay awake for the 9 a.m. start.

“Starbucks wasn’t open yet,” the Army reservist said.

He was in the first nonseeded group – the yellow-start runners – with other Bloomsday participants who had a time of 1 hour, 12 minutes or better in previous races.

Foster’s best time in two decades of participation was 48 minutes. Sunday he ran it in 58 minutes, 34 seconds.

“It was good, but it was real hot,” he said.

It’s a tradition for runners in the yellow group to arrive early to hold a spot as close to the front as possible.

Foster stripped down to his tangerine spandex shorts and shirt, tied a car key to his Asics shoes and was more than ready to run.

Lyle Umland, 29, joined Foster at about 5 a.m. after driving in from Coeur d’Alene.

He wanted to make sure he was at the front of the line, so “when it starts, you go.”

“It’s easier,” Umland added.

Other yellow-group runners trickled in closer to 6 a.m.

Dave Huebner arrived at 5:45 a.m. and easily found a spot up front.

“I’m running the race for God as a thank-you for getting me out of a wheelchair,” Huebner said.

The 35-year-old caregiver used a wheelchair for about six months after he shattered both legs in a motorcycle accident.

Huebner’s femurs are made of metal. He finished the race in 1:22.

“It wasn’t as good as I wanted to do,” he said. “Last year I finished up with a lot of pain. This year there wasn’t any pain.”

A veteran runner, Ron Giachetti, wearing his bright-red Elmo gloves and smiley-face boxer shorts over his tie-dyed spandex, was hard to miss.

“I try to always wear something unusual,” Giachetti, 55, said. “It’s fun. People honk and wave. They roll down their windows at stop signs and comment. The outfits help take my mind off the pain.”

Giachetti, who is in the same Army reserve unit as Foster, said Sunday’s run would be just another day of jogging for him. The 55-year-old runs four or five miles a day.

He finished in 61 minutes.

“I had fun,” he said. “It was great.”