Ready, Set, Read This First Don’T Let New Route, Staggered Starts Trip You Up
For the first time, Bloomsday runners may have to do more than just run. They should study, too.
Eight staggered starts, a new course and more than 50,000 people squished into downtown Spokane could make for some confusing moments during the 22nd running of Bloomsday on Sunday.
Here’s a guide for the race, from the beginning to the end and a little bit more.
The beginning
To alleviate a notorious bottleneck at Marne Bridge over Latah Creek, race organizers are staggering the starting times for tens of thousands of runners.
The result is eight starts over 40 minutes.
Traditionally, the race started at 9 a.m. with a loud boom, often called The Bomb. This year, there’s no bomb.
Wheelchair racers start to the sound of a whistle on Riverside and Washington at 8:40, 8:41 and 8:42 a.m. A starter’s gun will launch the elite women at 8:45 a.m., then the elite men and the invited field in the yellow group at 9 a.m.
Runners are grouped by color based on how quickly they expect to complete the course.
Following the yellow group will be 10,000 green runners. An estimated 3,000 Corporate Cup runners and second-seed runners will also start at 9, but they’ll run down Sprague.
This is where paying attention could pay off. The 25,000 entrants in the orange and blue groups on Main won’t start until 9:10 a.m., and only after they steer around two corners to Riverside.
Sometime between 8:45 and 9:05 a.m., race organizers will walk the orange and blue groups down Main, then south on Stevens. At Riverside, they’ll stop at a 6-foot-tall plastic and metal gate.
After the elite, yellow and green groups clear Riverside, the gate will swing open. It will pivot from the northeast corner of the intersection of Riverside and Stevens.
THE OPENING OF THE GATE DOES NOT SIGNAL THE START OF THE RACE.
The people at the front of the orange group - hanging onto a rope stretched across the crowd - will be led around the corner and onto Riverside.
A gun will launch them from Riverside at 9:10 a.m.
Ten minutes later, the last 10,000 entrants will start from Sprague. That final group includes people with baby strollers and wheelchair entrants with assistants.
When runners get their official time in the mail after the race, a symbol will indicate a 10 or 20-minute delayed start.
The end
After crossing the finish line on Broadway and Jefferson, Bloomies will walk east to Lincoln, where the T-shirts will be distributed.
From there, participants can head south on Lincoln, cross the Post Street Bridge and enter Riverfront Park, the traditional after-the-race meeting place. Runners also can walk east on Broadway, go north on Post, and east on Mallon to enter the park near the Flour Mill.
Originally, race organizers planned to guide runners south across the Monroe Street Bridge and then east into the park. That route was dumped, though, because of its length. Monroe will be closed to all traffic.
Getting there
For bicyclists, Sally Phillips with the Spokane Bike Club has these suggestions:
If riding from the north side of town, take Howard. Coming from the Valley? Take the Centennial Trail.
A route from the south isn’t that obvious, but Phillips recommends taking Lincoln to Main. Turn east on Main. Ride to Wall. Turn north and pedal into Riverfront Park, where the Spokane Bike Club has a free “bike corral” in the park’s central meadow.
The corral, south of the IMAX, will be fenced and guarded by club members. It is open from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Riders can leave their warm-up clothing and helmets, but are encouraged to lock their bikes.
Buses
The Spokane Transit Authority will offer special bus transportation for Bloomsday weekend.
Today, STA will run a shuttle from the Spokane Arena lot to the Spokane Convention Center, where participants pick up their race packets. Service begins at 7:45 a.m. Riders board at the shelters on Boone between Howard and Washington. The final shuttle departs the Convention Center at 8:35 tonight. The fare is 25 cents. Parking may be charged at the Arena.
For race day, runners can buy a special $1 round-trip Bloomsday Stick-On Pass, which is being sold at the Convention Center today. The pass is good for Bloomsday Express buses that take passengers from 10 area park and ride lots to the starting line. Express service begins at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. The last bus leaves the lots at 7:45 a.m. Monthly passes or transfers will not be accepted on the express buses on Sunday.
Bloomsday will require a number of temporary bus detours downtown.
The Plaza downtown will be closed to STA buses until approximately 10:30 a.m.
While the Plaza is closed, downtown transfer points for eastbound buses will be Third and Howard. The transfer point for westbound buses is Second and Howard.
All North Side routes - 2, 4, 5, 16, and 23 - will be detoured away from the downtown area at Boone or Sharp. Buses will detour over the Hamilton Bridge to Second or the Maple Street Bridge, to temporary boarding zones.
STA won’t run the first three trips in the morning on route 30 leaving downtown at 8:47, 9:47 and 10:47 a.m., due to street closures.
The No. 6 North Division bus will use Division and Brown streets to Second.
Parking and auto travel
“Don’t park on the course. If you do I will tow you,” said Capt. Al Odenthal, the Spokane police officer who handles security and communications for Bloomsday.
“We tow a lot of cars off the course,” he said.
Nearly every available parking spot north of the Spokane Arena and south of Lewis and Clark High School is taken on race day. Get there early if you want one.
“With the change in the course, it will be difficult to get from one side of town to the other during the race,” Odenthal warned.
Division and the Maple Street Bridge will be open for north-south traffic. However, Maple and Ash will be extremely congested, Odenthal said.
The Stevens-Washington couplet running north and south will be closed around 5:30 a.m. and won’t open until around 10:30 a.m.
The Monroe and Post street bridges will be closed before, during and after the race.
Map: Starting areas Map: Bloomsday ‘98