In-person Bloomsday set to return this spring

There hasn’t been a normal Bloomsday road race in two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the iconic race is scheduled to happen in-person again in 2022.

The 46th annual Bloomsday is slated for Sunday, May 1. Early registration opens Saturday at bloomsdayrun.org and costs $28.

Bloomsday took place virtually in 2020 and 2021, with runners picking their own 7.5-mile courses and submitting their times. Participation was down by about 50%, from roughly 40,000 entrants in a typical year to 20,000 for the virtual races. Runners still earned their coveted finisher T-shirts, the designs of which change every year.

While the in-person race is coming back, the virtual participation option won’t go away. Anyone wanting to run Bloomsday virtually can register for $38 and still earn a finisher T-shirt – although it’ll be slightly different from the in-person T-shirt.

Bloomsdog will also continue in 2022. Runners can sign up their dogs to join them on their run, and for every canine entrant Bloomsday will donate $5 to the Spokane Humane Society. Five hundred dogs ran 2021’s virtual Bloomsday. The Bloomsdog kit option is available only to virtual Bloomsday runners.

The West Central Community Center, located atop Doomsday Hill, is Bloomsday’s official charity in 2022.

Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman.com.