Not So Fast Ferris High Sprinter Pulled Over For Bloomsday Speeding

Jonathan Parker’s moment of glory will prevent him from participating in the next five Bloomsday races.

Officials for the huge road race said Thursday that Parker will be banned for the next five years after he started near the elite runners in the 7.46-mile event.

Clad in a red sweatsuit, the high school sprinter led the race for several blocks before fading to finish in the middle of the pack of some 50,000 finishers on May 4.

Parker’s time of 2 hours, 25:35 minutes was nearly two hours behind winner Lazarus Nyakeraka of Kenya.

“If other people want to pull a stunt like this, you have the potential to trip or break the leg of the international athletes at the top of the field,” race organizer Tom Jones said.

But Parker’s father said his son’s spontaneous decision to sprint ahead of the pack was being blown out of proportion.

“He didn’t endanger anybody,” Jim Parker said Thursday. Jonathan Parker, a junior, has just been elected student body president at Ferris High School and is not a rebellious person, his father said.

“We’re trying to let the thing die down,” Jim Parker said, adding they would not appeal the ban.

Parker started just behind the elite invited runners, even though he did not have a qualifying time that allowed him to start so close to the front, officials said.

In addition, Parker registered under a false name, and was not wearing his own registration number, Jones said.

Instead, he was wearing a number that belonged to his father. Both Parkers had registered under false names: Ned Ryerson for Jonathan and Phil Connor for Jim, Jones said.

Both names are from characters in the movie “Groundhog Day,” Jones said.

Jim Parker said thousands of Bloomsday runners typically start in sections other than those they are registered in. He also said he registered under the movie names as a joke.

The annual Bloomsday race through the streets of Spokane is billed as the largest road race in the nation in which all participants are timed.

Each year a handful of elite men and women runners compete for thousands of dollars in prize money. But the vast majority of participants are amateur runners and walkers who travel in a vast pack toward the finish line.

Race coordinator Karen Heaps said in moving so quickly through the pack, Parker ran the risk of tripping one of the elite athletes.

MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.