There are 70 people who have run every Bloomsday. In the months leading up to the 50th running of the race, The Spokesman-Review will publish stories about these athletes, known as Perennials.
Bob Thornton was a high school cross country runner in Tonasket when Bloomsday race founder Don Kardong showed up to speak at an awards banquet and invited the entire team to participate in his upcoming road race.
The Bloomsday Perennials who gathered Saturday for a luncheon in honor of the 50th running of the race greeted each other with hugs and handshakes as they said hello to people they may not have seen since the last Bloomsday.
Keith Lalonde, who was 12 when he ran the first Bloomsday in 1977, is the second youngest participant who has done all 49 races and is lacing up his running shoes for the 50th Bloomsday this weekend.
When Bloomsday began in 1977, Rick Serns was just down the road, teaching at the Upper Columbia Academy. But he moved in 1978, starting a string of near-misses that included last-minute flights and overnight bus trips. And after all those years, his own dog nearly ended his Perennial streak last year.
Rick and Bob Barbero might have taken brotherly competition to unhealthy levels in their early years running Bloomsday. They did not just race on the first Sunday in May. They also competed to see who could do daily training runs in the months leading up to Bloomsday.
John Day was 13 years old when he signed up for the first Bloomsday in 1977 and had to convince his mother he could run the roughly 8-mile race, even though he already was participating in track and cross country. She said she would allow it if he wasn’t alone, so Day recruited a nonrunning friend to do it with him.
Back when Roger Risinger attended North Central High School, he wanted to be a pole vaulter. After deciding flinging himself up in the air at the end of a pole wasn’t for him, he switched to running. It was only natural that he signed up for the first Bloomsday in 1977.
