Bloomsday Perennials - Special coverage at The Spokesman-Review

News > Spokane

Rings and races: Marji and Mike Arnold ran Bloomsday, got married, and kept running and running strong

Thu., Dec. 25, 2025

Mike and Marji Arnold have the distinction of being the only married couple among the current Bloomsday Perennials to run all 49 races together.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: Martin Kittredge won’t let his knees keep him from the finish

Tue., Dec. 23, 2025

Barely two decades into his status as a Bloomsday Perennial, Martin Kittredge had surgery to repair a torn meniscus three weeks from the big event.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: She trained on a track, then got ‘hooked from the beginning’

Sun., Dec. 14, 2025

Kris Olson-Wood has completed all 49 Bloomsday races, but one of her fondest Bloomsday memories didn’t happen on race day.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: Steve Moe is tattooed and ready for 50th race

Wed., Dec. 10, 2025

There’s no doubt of Steve Moe’s love for Bloomsday. It’s tattooed on his calf.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: Charles Bean’s streak nearly was lost with the wrong race bib

Sun., Dec. 7, 2025

Charlie Bean has completed all 49 Bloomsdays, several of them accompanied by his wife, Carol. One year, he accidentally ran the race wearing his wife’s number, not his own, requiring a phone call to race founder Don Kardong to fix the error so he could maintain his Perennial status.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: Bill Sleeth’s post-race parties were the talk of the neighborhood – and possibly the police precinct

Fri., Nov. 28, 2025

For 20 years, Bill Sleeth had a party in his backyard after he ran each Bloomsday, but he decided to quit throwing his annual bash the year the neighbors called the police twice.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: Jeff Snow finds it hard to act his age when the starter pistol goes off

Tue., Nov. 25, 2025

Retired ophthalmologist and eye surgeon Jeff Snow is 79 now, but that doesn’t stop his body from having an instinctive reaction every time a Bloomsday race starts.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: Ron Douglas laced up the first time for a six-pack

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 20, 2025

Ron Douglas was not a runner when one of his friends recruited him to sign up for the first Bloomsday together in 1977, but he went along with it for one important reason: a promised six-pack of beer at the finish line.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: Stop that plane! Roger Aldrich nearly missed the big race twice

Tue., Nov. 18, 2025

Bloomsday Perennial Roger Aldrich once sprinted across the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, shouting and waving his hands as airline personnel prepared to shut the doors on his connecting flight back to Spokane the night before Bloomsday. Weather had delayed his first flight from Washington, D.C.

News > Spokane

Bloomsday Perennial: He missed his daughter’s graduation from college, but gave her plenty of warning

UPDATED: Mon., Nov. 17, 2025

Running Bloomsday every year has been so important for Perennial Dennis Doyle that when one of his daughters announced that she wanted to attend the University of Portland, he told her immediately that he would not be attending her graduation because the university always holds its graduation ceremony on the first Sunday in May.