Bloomsday Perennial: Running coach spread the word about annual race, bringing others with him to 50th

Glen MacPhee is not only proud that he has completed all 49 Bloomsday races, but he’s proud that two of the cross country runners he recruited to run in the first race are themselves Bloomsday Perennials.

MacPhee took a job as a biology teacher and cross country coach at University High School in 1972. When the first Bloomsday race in 1977 was announced, he saw it as a fun team-building activity for his runners.

“Two of them have continued on and they’re Bloomies too,” he said. “So that’s kind of special.”

What he remembers most from that first race, which began at 1:30 p.m., was the heat.

“It was a very hot day,” he said. “Coming into the finish line, there were medical people on my left, medical people on my right tending people. I made it to the finish line and went to the shade and laid down. I stayed there for a while.”

He might have stayed there a little too long.

“By the time I got up and went over to get my T-shirt, all the extra larges were gone,” he said. “I don’t wear it very often because it’s too tight on me.”

MacPhee had been a runner since his own time on a high school cross country team in Moscow, Idaho, and found himself hooked on Bloomsday.

“It’s always fun to be a part of something,” he said. “Everybody has the same goal. It was special, and I obviously enjoy running.”

His recruitment for Bloomsday didn’t stop after the first year. For the first 20 years, MacPhee gave himself the goal of finding someone who hadn’t done Bloomsday before and running the race with them. He never worried about his finishing time.

“I would always have somebody to run with,” he said.

When Bloomsday launched a “Fit for Bloomsday” program that encouraged elementary school students to sign up for several weeks of training before each Bloomsday, MacPhee was one of the coaches. At the time, he worked at Greenacres Elementary and could be counted on to talk about Bloomsday with his students.

“I would always wear my T-shirt to school,” he said. “Of course, I was excited. I would talk about it.”

As a result, more and more kids in his school signed up for the race.

“It just bloomed,” he said. “A fun part about Bloomsday was talking about it the next day.”

He remembers the one year when he and other runners woke up to find snow on the ground. MacPhee briefly considered staying home, even though he thought running in the snow might be fun.

“That thought didn’t last very long,” he said. “Regrettably, the snow was pretty much melted off by the time the race started.”

His three children, who all did cross country, also joined his annual treks to downtown Spokane on the first Sunday in May. MacPhee long ago decided he was in it for the long haul.

“I’ve always been able to see myself doing it later in life,” he said.

In addition to the experience, MacPhee enjoys seeing his fellow Perennials each year. Some of them are his former students. One of the younger perennials, Brian Kenna, was a middle school student in 1977 but practiced with MacPhee’s cross country team. Another, Bob Barbero, was his assistant cross country coach at University High School until MacPhee left.

“It’s fun seeing him,” he said. “We have a lot of history together.”

MacPhee, who will turn 77 in January, had his fastest race time of 56 minutes years ago. In 2025, he finished the race in 2 hours and 27 minutes, which he counts as a victory because it was two minutes faster than his 2024 time.

“I felt pretty good about that,” he said. “I have some runners’ pride left in me.”

But it’s been a while since MacPhee ran Bloomsday.

“I’ve had enough running,” he said. “The body can only do so much.”

He got a new left hip two years ago and has arthritis in his right knee, which hurts him every Bloomsday.

“I just put it aside,” he said. “I just don’t think about the pain.”

He lives in Rathdrum most of the year but spends his winters in Yuma, Arizona. No matter where he is, he makes sure he keeps walking.

“I try to keep in shape,” he said. “I plan on being out there on the Bloomsday course for years to come.”