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

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

But in 2023 as the couple ran Bloomsday as usual, Mike Arnold began feeling chest pain. Then came numbness in his hands and arms.

“I knew something wasn’t right,” he said.

He had never had heart issues, so he brushed it off and finished the race by walking.

The next day, he was at his doctor’s office. One stress test later, and he was whisked into the operating room for heart bypass surgery.

“Ninety-six percent of my main artery was blocked,” he said.

The couple had previously had Bloomsday excitement when Marji Arnold completed the race while pregnant one year and gave birth three weeks later even though her daughter was not due until August. Then there was the year Mike Arnold had to have surgery on his foot for plantar fasciitis, forcing him to finish the race in a wheelchair.

“It just came up all the sudden,” he said. “I owe it to my wife and daughter for pushing me.”

In February, only a few months before the 2025 race, he fell off a ladder at home and severely bruised his left side.

“It’s healed, but I still feel it now and again,” he said.

Marji Arnold has been able to avoid injury for the most part, but she did stumble and fall into gravel near the start of the race about 12 years ago. Medics offered her a ride, but she refused, determined to finish the race.

“I just skinned my knee,” she said.

The couple worked together at the VA Hospital in 1977 but did not really know each other. They spotted each other running on the Spokane Community College track, ran the first Bloomsday together in 1977 and tied the knot a few days after the Bloomsday race in 1978.

“I ran the SCC track with a friend,” Marji Arnold said. “He was running with a friend. We just started running together.”

Their roads to Spokane differed. Marji Arnold was born in Montana and grew up in Spokane, while her husband was born in Pennsylvania and came to Spokane via the Air Force. He served four years in the military.

“When I got out, I decided to stay here,” he said.

They remember the first year, which had unusually warm weather and a 1:30 p.m. start time. They took advantage of people spraying down the runners with garden hoses, but Mike Arnold had his own method of staying cool.

“I had a friend wave at me,” he said. “He offered me a beer and a candy bar. I don’t know if I finished it. I don’t really remember.”

Though they started each race together, they did not necessarily finish together. Marji Arnold said her husband was competitive and faster than she was.

“He’d say ‘I’m with you all the way, Marj,’ ” she said. “Then the gun would go off and, zoom!”

Both came to love the annual competition. Marji Arnold said she likes all the musical performances along the way.

“It’s a really special event,” she said.

“We both appreciate what Don Kardong has done,” Mike Arnold said of the founder of Bloomsday. “Without him, none of us would be doing this.”

The couple have two daughters, who participated in Bloomsday as they got older. Even now, they do the race with the couple’s grandchildren in tow. They all get together for brunch after the race each year.

“It’s always fun,” Marji Arnold said.

The couple enjoy shopping at estate sales and once saw a preview of a sale that featured an original Bloomsday poster from 1977. They hurried down to the sale.

“We got there too late,” she said. “Somebody had already gotten it.”

The couple also has a solid supply of finisher and Perennial T-shirts for each of them.

“It’s a lot,” she said. “I never need any new T-shirts ever.”

However, Mike Arnold’s original 1977 finisher T-shirt has seen better days. He wore it so much it has holes in it, and he admits he also painted in it, not realizing at the time how important it was.

Both are looking forward to the 50th race next year, though neither really expected it to keep going that long. He will turn 77 in March and she will turn 72 about a week after the next race.

“Who would have thought,” Mike Arnold said.

“That’s a long time,” Marji Arnold said.

They are both grateful that their love of running brought them together and brought them to Bloomsday. Mike Arnold said he started running to keep fit.

“I just thought it was healthy, just a way to relieve stress,” he said.

His wife jokes that she had a different motivation.

“I was running after him,” she said. “And I caught him.”