‘Bloomsday over pickleball’: Gary Berg has avoided injury and stayed in shape to run everyday race

Editor’s note: There are 70 people who have run every Bloomsday. In the months leading up to the 50th running of the race, The Spokesman-Review will publish stories about these athletes, known as Perennials.

Gary Berg was not into running when the Bloomsday race began 50 years ago, and he certainly had never run 8 miles. However, a friend convinced him to rummage through his closet for a pair of sneakers and sign up for the inaugural run in 1977.

Berg said a friend of his was having problems with his weight and, on the advice of his doctor, started jogging.

“He coaxed me into going, kind of on a lark,” Berg said of his first Bloomsday. “I strapped on my Converse basketball shoes. I believe they were high-tops, even.”

Berg had no plan for his first road race.

“It isn’t natural to run slow,” he said. “I would sprint ahead until I was out of breath, then I’d walk. He’d catch up to me and we’d walk a bit, then I’d take off again.”

Despite his unorthodox style, the two still finished the race side by side, both wearing wide grins. His time was around 90 minutes.

“It wasn’t spectacular, but it was a lot better than I thought it would be,” he said. “I was just so impressed with myself that I had finished.”

Days later, Berg went shopping for a new pair of Nike running shoes.

“I haven’t looked back,” he said.

His only criticism of the race was that it started at 1:30 p.m., and the first Sunday in May 1977 was unseasonably hot.

“There were a lot of casualties at that run,” he said.

The start time was shifted to noon the next year, then in the fifth year it was changed again to 9 a.m. That wasn’t the only change made for the safety of the runners. For the first three years, the Bloomsday route went over the Maple Street Bridge at the beginning of the race. By the third year, there were over 10,000 people signed up, and that impacted the bridge in a way people hadn’t anticipated.

“The bridge was packed with runners,” Berg said. “The bridge started to sway. There was real concern the bridge was in trouble.”

The course was changed the next year to avoid the bridge.

Since that first run, Berg has done plenty of other road races, even some marathons. But he keeps coming back to Bloomsday.

“By five or six I had a string going,” he said. “I worked hard at keeping it going.”

The perennial runners were first recognized on the race’s 10th anniversary.

“At first, nobody cared,” he said. “There wasn’t much attention on whether you made it or not.”

Berg recalls one year when his fiancée at the time had an awards banquet to attend in Vancouver, British Columbia. She encouraged him to stay behind and complete Bloomsday, but Berg said she had a change of heart while attending the banquet and came home mad at him. They broke up soon after.

Berg, who worked at Itron for several decades, often competed on the company’s corporate cup team.

He recalls one race, he believes in the 1980s, when the Bloomsday route dipped down into Peaceful Valley. That day, he and his friends decided they wanted to pause after their race started to watch the elite finishers.

“We lined up and took off, but then peeled off and went to the finish line,” he said.

They watched the finishers and then tried to resume their race, but they got lost.

“By then, the last of the pack had gone through,” he said. “The course was empty. We got up in the neighborhood and hit a dead end.”

He loves the entire experience of Bloomsday : the people, the bands, the residents sitting in their yards cheering the participants as they run or walk by.

“Part of the fun is being part of the crowd,” he said. “If you’re an isolationist, Bloomsday is not for you.”

His wife, Kathy, has only participated in a handful of Bloomsdays with him, but supports his yearly quest. Family weddings have been planned so that the first Sunday in May is open, she said.

“Anybody who knows him knows that Bloomsday is important to him,” she said.

Now 81, Berg’s jogging days are mostly behind him.

“I do sort of a bent-knee walk,” he said. “If I can do 15-minute miles, I’m doing pretty good.”

He takes daily walks to keep in shape, whether it’s a short trip to the mailbox or a 3-mile walk on the roads near his North Idaho home. He avoids sports like pickleball because he’s worried about injuring his legs.

“I prioritize Bloomsday over pickleball,” he said. “Especially as I get older, I worry about falls.”

Berg plans to go all out for the 50th Bloomsday run. Dozens of out-of-town family members have already booked hotel rooms in town for the weekend. He thinks about 20 of them will walk with him, making it a mini family reunion.

“It should be fun,” he said.

And he doesn’t plan to stop at 50.

“I’ll run as long as I can, conveniently,” he said.