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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

39th Bloomsday draws about 45,000 runners

Sunny skies drew a big crowd for the 39th annual Bloomsday run. As of Friday there were 44,880 registrations, but organizers expected as many as 1,500 late registrations. Bart Haggin, 78, has run every Bloomsday since the second race in 1978, and finished fourth in his age group last year. “I have been first. Not since I turned 70, though,” he said while waiting for his starting group. Haggin has also run the Portland Marathon, and qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2008. “It’s a tough course,” he said of Bloomsday. “It’s kind of your benchmark.” As groups of runners got underway, Chari Snider cheered them on with a homemade sign reading, “Run like a zombie is chasing you.” She was there with her grandmother, Alberta Moore, to cheer on her mother, who was running for the first time. “It’s a big joke in our family that you don’t run unless something scary is chasing you,” Moore said. She said her daughter was planning to get up the notorious Doomsday Hill by pretending she was being chased by the walking dead. Laurie Melvin, 44, is the site captain of water station No. 12 at the top of Doomsday Hill. “You have to kind of put your head down and just go,” she said of tackling the hill. She expects to go through 48,000 cups of water at her station alone. There are 2,000 cups in a box and 24 tables. Each table will go through about one entire box. “We worry about heat exhaustion and dehydration,” she said. Michael Lynch, 37, of Seattle, performs with the band Strykewater at the corner of Broadway and Lindeke. He grew up in Spokane and brought his 3-month-old daughter Grace for her first Bloomsday this year. “We’re going to make it a family tradition for her,” he said. “I remember doing my first Bloomsday when I was 6.” Debbie Gilchrist, 62, lives at the 10-kilometer mark. She’s been cheering on Bloomies for about 30 years. “It’s fun looking for family and friends,” she said. She was on the lookout for her son Josh Gilchrist, 37, who’s run the race five times as a kid and five more as an adult. Meantime, she encouraged other racers. “Home stretch! Way to go!” The finish line at the north end of the Monroe Street Bridge was lined with spectators and volunteers. National Honor Society students from Lewis and Clark volunteered as medics, though an hour into the race, they said their services hadn’t been needed much yet. Dylan Riggs said he was volunteering with his classmates in part so he wouldn’t have to run the race. He’d walked the course in previous years, then got talked into running it by his parents. “I did it willingly last year thinking it wouldn’t be that bad,” he said. But he and his friends said they were planning to run it next year in spite of the length. “It’s fun,” he said. There was no shortage of colorful costumes among non-elite runners. David Burkett ran the course with a few friends wearing a coconut bra and grass skirt. It started as a joke about four years ago, he said, and the group has been running in luau attire ever since. Nick Freese ran with his son, Caughnery for the first time this year. “It’s very encouraging. You get lots of comments and it keeps you going,” he said just after finishing. Some finishers were emotional. Herman Schreven hugged and kissed his wife at the finish line, then cheered after learning his time: 49:33. “I turned 50 this year and I’ve been trying to break the 50 minute mark,” he said. He was nearly killed in a serious motorcycle accident last June. “I was honestly not even sure I was going to live, so this is very, very significant,” he said.