Bloomsday Perennial: Despite health setbacks, long-time high school coach still runs 6 days a week

Mike Fleming, as a physical education teacher, coach and runner, is all about staying in motion. At 79, he credits his active lifestyle as the reason he’s been able to do all 49 Bloomsdays, making him a Perennial.

During his career he coached pole vault, cross country, gymnastics and volleyball, mostly at Mead High School. He still coaches pole vault at Whitworth University.

Fleming got into running track in high school, egged on by running milestones that allowed him to wear a special sweat suit or get a special pin for his letterman’s jacket. In later years he also ran marathons. He developed the tradition of running four miles on a track for time on every birthday.

Fleming grew up in Seattle, but came to the area in the mid 1970s to work at Mead High School. Given his background, it was only natural to sign up for the first Bloomsday in 1977.

“I taught P.E. and I was always trying to set a good example,” he said. “I just thought it would be fun – and it was fun.”

It didn’t take long for Bloomsday to become a new tradition.

“It’s no different than my birthday run,” he said. “It became a signature event in my life. It never was a have-to. I wanted to do it.”

Since Fleming was a track coach, there usually wasn’t an issue with making time for Bloomsday. There was one year, however, that Fleming had to hustle back from a track meet in Portland.

“I had to fly back instead of drive a van back,” he said. “It’s a benchmark. You don’t miss benchmarks.”

Bloomsday hasn’t always been smooth sailing, however. Fleming remembers one year when he struggled to finish even though he had trained for the race.

“Like a damn fool rookie, I did a really hard workout the Tuesday before Bloomsday,” he said. “I don’t know that my legs have ever felt so heavy and unresponsive. I yelled at them. It was one of my most frustrating Bloomsdays ever.”

Fleming has also struggled with osteoarthritis. He’s had two total shoulder replacements and in February 2014 he was told he needed a hip replacement. But Fleming wasn’t about to sideline himself for Bloomsday, so he postponed the surgery and did the race that year with a cane.

Toward the end of the race, Fleming came up on another Perennial and made it his goal to beat him. Then the other racer decided to dip into a tavern along the race route.

“He went in the side door and I knew I wasn’t last,” he said.

Fleming finished the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes that year. And when he had his hip replaced, he made sure to get a type that would withstand a lot of impact and allow him to maintain his active lifestyle.

He also has had issues with cardiac arrhythmia his whole life. His heart rate would sometimes jump above 200 beats per minute.

“To me, it felt like my heart skipped and then it just raced,” he said.

He would do a Valsalva maneuver, clenching down and holding his breath, to reset his heart or push on his carotid artery in his neck.

“I’d just be choking myself,” he said. “Eventually I couldn’t make it stop.”

Fleming remembers the day he knew he would have to see a doctor about his condition. He was running alone in the woods behind Mead High School when his heart skipped and then raced, but he couldn’t stop it. He laid down, realizing that he was alone and no one knew where to look for him.

He was put on a heart monitor and then had a cardiac ablation done to stop the arrhythmia episodes.

“I never could run as fast after that,” he said. “Who cares. I don’t have heart skips anymore.”

One of his favorite Bloomsday memories didn’t happen during an official race. In 2020, Bloomsday was first postponed due to COVID-19 and then made virtual. But Fleming couldn’t give up his first Sunday in May tradition. He went downtown and ran the race on the official course anyway.

“I went down there early and started at 8,” he said.

Fleming was surprised when he got to the finish line and found members of the Spokane Distance Project, a running club, handing out unofficial T-shirts that said “I still ran.”

“I wore that thing proudly,” Fleming said.

A few years ago Fleming designed a special Bloomsday Perennial hat.

“I only sold them to other Perennials,” he said. “I never made a cent. In fact, I lost money.”

Belatedly, Fleming realized that Bloomsday was trademarked and he probably shouldn’t have made the hats without permission, so he sent race founder Don Kardong a letter of apology. He’s got ideas about making a special 50th anniversary T-shirts for his fellow Perennials, but this time he plans to check in with Kardong in advance.

He still keeps up his training for Bloomsday, running between three and seven miles six days a week.

“I’m like an old Ford from the ‘50s,” he said. “I have dings and dents.”

Fleming is looking forward to the 50th Bloomsday and as many more as he can manage after that.

“When you embrace the thing as a benchmark, why would you give it up?” he said. “Why would you stop doing something when you can still do it?”