Bloomsday Perennial: Rick Serns had quite a few close calls before attaining his coveted status

When Bloomsday began in 1977, Rick Serns was just down the road, teaching at the Upper Columbia Academy. But he moved in 1978, starting a string of near-misses that included last-minute flights and overnight bus trips. And after all those years, his own dog nearly ended his Perennial streak last year.

Serns started running in college and kept it up once he started his teaching career.

“I enjoyed running,” he said. “The P.E. teacher at the Academy and I would run together. I was 25 when it started. I was kind of in my prime for distance running.”

Serns came in 144th that first year and cracked the top 200 the second year, when participation surged to 5,000 runners.

“It was just another run the first year,” he said. “Everyone had a good time, and it just exploded.”

Even back then, he was hooked.

“I thought early on it would be good to keep the streak going as long as I could,” he said.

In early 1978, he invited Bloomsday founder Don Kardong to speak to the students at his school.

“It was a lot of fun, and we got a lot of kids running,” he said.

Serns moved to Chehalis, Washington, for a teaching job in the fall of 1978. While he was there, he encouraged a student to start running. The two even did Bloomsday together one year. The student later died, and his funeral was on Bloomsday Sunday. Serns said it was a difficult decision, but he decided to participate in Bloomsday since they had done it together and the student had known its importance to Serns.

“I figured he would want me to do that,” he said.

Serns took a job as principal in Battle Ground, Washington, from 1983 to 1989. He remembers one year when he had a conference in Lincoln City, Oregon, over Bloomsday weekend. He got permission to leave the event early.

“I drove up to Portland, I got on a Greyhound bus that was traveling all night to Spokane,” he said.

But Serns ended up talking to the bus driver all night and didn’t get a wink of sleep. Just a few years later, when Serns was living in Wisconsin, he took a train from Chicago to Spokane on Bloomsday weekend. He got plenty of sleep that time, but didn’t arrive until 6 a.m. on race day.

He had a few uneventful years until 2019, when his 50th high school reunion was scheduled over Bloomsday weekend.

“I really wanted to go to both,” he said. “The 50th only happens once.”

So he attended part of his reunion, then hopped on a flight. It was set to arrive around 10:30 a.m. on race day. He got off the plane and changed into his running clothes in the car while his wife drove. He called ahead to Kardong, and he said he was told that he could start the race late as long as he got there before the start line was dismantled.

“I had to call in as I was starting,” he said. “That was my most narrow escape.”

But it wasn’t his last near-miss. Last year, he came to Spokane from his home in Winlock, Washington, for Bloomsday as usual, but this time he brought his 75-pound dog, Charlie. The two were outside the night before the race when his dog ran, at full speed, into the side of Serns’ knee.

“It hurt bad,” he said. “I could hardly walk.”

Serns thought about his options, which included completing Bloomsday on crutches. But when Sunday dawned, his knee wasn’t quite as painful, so Serns decided to head downtown. He walked most of the way, logging a finish time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Over the years, Serns started doing other road races, including marathons. He still does to this day, recently completing a 10-kilometer race in under an hour. He said he’s been lucky to avoid serious injuries over the decades.

“I’ve been very fortunate,” he said. “I’m just running a little slower than usual.”

Serns usually runs Bloomsday alone, but his wife has done it a couple times, and his middle child took up running at the age of 10 and did several Bloomsdays with him. He’s expecting quite a few of his family members to do the 50th race with him, but Serns will have a job to do before he crosses the start line. He has some experience singing the national anthem and said Kardong has agreed to let him sing it at the start of the race.

“It’s a real honor,” he said.

Now 74, Serns said he hopes to be able to run Bloomsday for a while.

“I intend to keep doing this as long as I can,” he said. “I’m still feeling good and in good health. I’m looking at the next milestone of 60.”