Bloomsday Perennial: Sylvia Quinn helped Bloomsday blossom into cherished Spokane event as she’s racked up medals along the way

Sylvia Quinn is unique among the dozens of Bloomsday Perennials who have completed every Bloomsday since it launched in 1977.

One of the few women on track for finishing their 50th Bloomsday in May, Quinn has been the fastest runner in her age group in every race but two. That’s 45 times, since the two virtual COVID races didn’t have medals for age-group winners.

More important in the history of Bloomsday, Quinn successfully led the effort to expand the race in the 1980s when she served as race director.

Competing in Bloomsday has become a cherished milestone for Quinn. She carefully packs away each year’s T-shirt in a cedar chest. Medals are awarded to the top three finishers in each age group, and Quinn is only missing two – 2020 and 2021, the years of virtual races. She has kept all the ones she’s won, their colorful ribbons including all the hues of the rainbow.

“I’ve won my age group every year except for two years,” Quinn said, noting her one second-place finish and one third-place. “No one has won their age group every year. I’m pretty sure of that.”

To put it simply, Quinn became a runner because she was told she couldn’t. In the late 1960’s, her husband, Pat, was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, but served several six-month tours in Vietnam. He was a runner, and he wanted to run with his wife when he was home on leave. In her first attempt, she struggled to keep up. He told her she probably wouldn’t become a runner, and she was determined to prove him wrong.

“That did it,” she said.

She jogged on the streets of the base while her husband was overseas. If the weather was bad, she would run in the base gym. It took 32 laps to equal a mile. “I did a 10k in there once,” she said.

Her husband left the Air Force, and the couple bought the home they still live in on the South Hill in 1974. They often went out jogging together, which brought puzzled looks from their new neighbors.

“No one was running then,” she said. “When we came here and started running, people thought we were crazy.”

Quinn didn’t just compete in the first Bloomsday; she was also a volunteer. She helped hand out race numbers on the morning of the race.

“It was such a small race, we could do that on race day,” she said.

With just under 1,200 participants, Quinn recalls that not many of them were women. It simply wasn’t a sport that many women were involved in.

“A lot of women weren’t running,” she said.

The start time that first year was 1:30 p.m., and it was a hot day.

“People were collapsing,” Quinn said. “We didn’t have that much water on the course. Now we have medical aid stations everywhere. I think it’s very well organized for safety.”

Quinn had previously done fun runs, but Bloomsday was her first road race. While jogging, she met a woman involved in launching the new Coeur d’Alene Marathon just three weeks after Bloomsday. Quinn decided to sign up, but admits that she did it all wrong. Normally marathon runners reduce their daily runs right before a race. She did the opposite and recalls paying the painful price.

“The next three weeks, I upped my mileage,” she said. “A week before the marathon, I ran a marathon to see if I could run a marathon.”

In 1981, Quinn was asked to take over as the Bloomsday race director, based on her experience putting on smaller runs in the area. She took over from race director Doug Kelly.

“He ran it out of the back seat of his car,” she said. “That’s what I heard. I walked into the office and it was just a room.”

She reached out to the chairs of the race’s various volunteer committees, who were in charge of everything from ordering cups to putting up aid stations. Quinn said she knew they were the experts and told them she would get them whatever they said they needed.

“They put on the race, really,” she said.

Quinn said her mission was to grow the race. She decided to promote it as an event, not a race, in order to attract everyday members of the community. She launched the Fit for Bloomsday, Fit for Life program in local schools, which encouraged students to train for and participate in Bloomsday. Naturally, they convinced others to participate with them.

“That made a big difference,” she said. “That brought the families out.”

She remembers one year early in her tenure as race director when it was snowing the morning of the race. Her heart sank, but she pushed on.

“There was nothing to do but go out and make sure the course was ready,” she said. “I had a thought that nobody would show up, but they did.”

Quinn was the race director for 10 years before stepping down, having grown the race from about 8,000 participants to more than 60,000. She’s more determined than ever to keep coming back to the race that has meant so much to her.

“It became a personal goal to stick in there,” she said. “Then I got to be the race director. I was more committed to the race after that.”

Quinn, who will celebrate her 89th birthday in October, is the oldest surviving Bloomsday Perennial. She has slowed down, out of necessity rather than desire. She got neuropathy in her feet, and the pain and loss of sensation make it hard to run long distances. Her left hip started hurting after a race a few years ago.

Quinn had a hip replacement two years ago in August. Her surgeon asked her what her goals were, and she told him she wanted to run without pain. Her doctor told her that given her hip replacement and her osteoporosis, she shouldn’t be running at all. She ignored him.

Though Quinn has completed Bloomsday against doctors’ orders since, she only runs it once now. She used to run the route twice every year, once for time and then immediately after a second time just to soak up the experience.

“To me, that was always the part of the race I enjoyed the most,” she said of her second running. “Unless you’re racing for time, it’s fun to be in the crowd.”

She also no longer runs in the Coeur d’Alene Marathon, which she competed in every year until the COVID-19 pandemic. She recently participated in The Boulevard, where she finished first in her age group.

“I did my share of walking,” she said. “I ran the first mile nonstop.”

These days, she still heads out on training runs/walks daily, but now she brings her dog with her because he forces her to slow down.

“He stops a lot, and I should be too,” she said.

Quinn said she has no intention of stopping Bloomsday anytime soon and is looking forward to the 50th race in May.

“I still have this big desire,” she said. “I’ll do them as long as I can.”