Bloomsday Perennial: Bill Sleeth’s post-race parties were the talk of the neighborhood – and possibly the police precinct

For 20 years, Bill Sleeth had a party in his backyard after he ran each Bloomsday, but he decided to quit throwing his annual bash the year the neighbors called the police twice.

The party became a tradition after the second race in 1978 and had started small – family and a few friends.

“We’d have the barbecue going,” he said.

But it gradually got bigger and bigger, and Sleeth admits the last party got a little out of control. The party guests went through five kegs and 17 cases of beer. That was also the year they had live music, which prompted the complaints from neighbors. “There were 254 people there, and some of them we knew,” he said. “It grew to be a monster.”

Sleeth is a Perennial, those racers who have competed in every Bloomsday since the annual event began.

A retired Realtor, Sleeth ran track when he attended Gonzaga Prep, but gave it up when he went to Washington State University. He would occasionally do Saturday morning fun runs like the Turkey Trot.

One day shortly before the first Bloomsday in 1977, Sleeth and his wife, Mary Ann, were having dinner with his parents. Sleeth’s father, Bill Sleeth Sr., was a long-distance runner and suggested that Sleeth sign up to run Bloomsday.

“He convinced me to run it with him, and I haven’t been able to quit,” he said. “He did it 16 years until his body gave out. I do it in his honor.”

Sleeth said he didn’t really train before his first Bloomsday but managed to finish it. He did get such a severe friction rash on his inner thighs that it took a week to go away, he said. He was also used to fun run crowds that would top out at 150 or 200 runners.

“Of course, it ended up being quite a bit bigger than that,” he said.

Over the years, Sleeth would often run with a friend who became his source of running shoes.

“He would buy expensive shoes and not wear them very long, so I’d buy them off him for 50 cents,” he said.

Sleeth was not the speediest of runners, but was able to finish in under an hour once. He recalls approaching the finish line, seeing the race clock and doing his best to speed up.

“They had a clock, and you could see it well back,” he said.

His finish time that year was 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

Still, running Bloomsday was an effort, and Sleeth would often be sore for days afterward. One year, about 15 years in, Sleeth decided he had had enough.

“One time I just got tired of Bloomsday,” he said. “I didn’t feel like hurting all the time. I was too stupid to realize I could just walk the thing.”

Sleeth went as far as calling his dad and asking if he minded if Sleeth did not run with him that year. His dad agreed, but at the last minute Sleeth changed his mind, laced up his shoes and headed downtown.

“I almost quit that one year,” he said.

His father, who set a decathlon world record in his age group when he was 54, had to stop running Bloomsday after he had a double knee replacement. The first year Sleeth did Bloomsday without his father, he gave his dad his finisher T-shirt.

“I’m sure he was quite pleased,” he said. “He wore it a lot.”

Sleeth said it is important to him to keep doing Bloomsday in his father’s honor, but he also enjoys the tradition. “It’s fun to be a Perennial,” he said. “I just like being a part of it. Everybody is so up and in such a great mood.”

When his son and daughter were growing up, they occasionally did Bloomsday with him. His wife had 18 Bloomsdays under her belt.

Sleeth recently went through his Bloomsday T-shirt collection, enjoying the memories sparked by each shirt.

“There were a hell of a lot of good memories looking at those T-shirts,” he said. “Some of the more recent ones I’ve been wearing.”

Sleeth, who recently turned 75, said he’s been lucky enough to stay healthy, for the most part. A few years ago, he did Bloomsday with an active hernia before he had surgery to repair it.

“I had to stop twice to poke that hernia back in,” he said. “It was kind of a weird feeling.”

In recent years, Sleeth has been doing Bloomsday virtually on a course he has mapped out near his South Hill home. He said he likes being able to do it on a different day if the weather is better. However, he has heard that after the 2026 race, Perennials will no longer be able to complete the race virtually and retain their status. If that happens, Sleeth said, he’ll head back downtown on the first Sunday in May.

“Somebody will have to pick me up after it gets dark,” he said.