Bloomsday Perennial: With reporter’s notebook in hand, Rich Landers ran while documenting the first race

Rich Landers has the distinction of being the only Bloomsday Perennial who was paid to participate in the first race in 1977. He ran that year wearing ’70s-style, knee-high tube socks, carrying a notebook and pen and interviewing other runners as he made his way through the course as a Spokesman-Review reporter.

Landers had just been hired at The Spokesman-Review, where he would serve 41 years as the outdoors editor. He was pushing for his job to include more than just hunting and fishing. He wanted to expand it to include anything that happened outdoors, including hiking, skiing, kayaking, climbing and running. He landed the job only a year after riding his bike across the United States.

“It was one of my first assignments,” he said of the first Bloomsday.

He ran though all the sprinklers residents had set up along the race course to battle the heat of that first Bloomsday, making an effort to keep his notebook dry. “There was a lot of joy at the back of the pack,” he said. “It was really fun and inspirational to be back there instead of up front huffing and puffing.”

Before the first race, Landers signed up for the Bloomsday training classes at the YMCA since he was more of a backpacker than a runner. He wrote stories about that, too, but in those classes he found the camaraderie.

“I wrote a lot about Bloomsday, about the culture of running,” he said. “It was about that lifestyle.”

As the years went on, he wasn’t paid to write about the race every year, but he still participated. He wrote about the 40th anniversary of Bloomsday and the Perennials like himself who have finished every one.

“It means everything to these Perennials,” he said. “It means everything to me.”

Landers said he, like the other Perennials, has nothing but admiration and respect for Bloomsday founder Don Kardong. He said he always knew the race had staying power.

“I saw it from the beginning,” he said. “I didn’t have any idea how big it was going to become. I knew from the beginning I wanted to do it as far as it went.”

Landers spent a lot of his career in the backcountry, whether he was hiking, kayaking, fishing or hunting. He climbed mountains and rode his bike through Finland. He did other, smaller road races and also a half Ironman. He was once helicoptered out of the backcountry of the Canadian Rockies with a dislocated shoulder, which he naturally wrote a story about, and wrote about taking then-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor fly -fishing.

But he made sure he was in town on the first Sunday in May every year. “I plan for it,” he said.

Still, he never did official training for the race. He said backpacking was great training for Bloomsday, and Bloomsday was great training for backpacking. “They all work together,” he said.

He usually has done Bloomsday with his wife, Meredith, a doctor. He recalls two different Bloomsdays when runners suffered a heart attack near them and she sprang into action to perform CPR while Landers directed racers around them. One of the runners survived and the other didn’t, Landers said. “It was dramatic, but made us feel good that we could help,” he said.

His daughters, who grew up taking family vacations in the backcountry, also did Bloomsday with the couple for years. “We used to do it as a family,” he said.

He also donated a n opportunity for a local runner for a different race.

In 2005, Landers’ name was drawn by Bloomsday as part of a promotion to encourage people to sign up for the race early. He won an all-expense-paid trip to the Carlsbad 5000, a road race in California.

“My wife and I would have enjoyed the trip, but I got to thinking there must be a higher calling for such an elite opportunity,” he said.

He passed the winning trip to Megan O’Reilly, a Mt. Spokane High School student and three -time state champion in the 3,200-meter. She finished first among 13- to 17 -year -old girls.

Landers, who will turn 73 in February, once almost missed the race. When he was 47, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had surgery that February and was only able to shuffle for short distances, but was determined to participate in Bloomsday even if he had to do it in a wheelchair.

“Bloomsday was my goal,” he said. “It was kind of empowering to see the progress. I walked Bloomsday. It was great.”

But the biggest change to his health came in 2020, when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. There had been symptoms earlier. With the diagnosis came the reality that he would have to cancel his plans to publish two more hiking books because he simply didn’t have the stamina to do the hikes. He had already published four guidebooks, including the popular “100 Hikes in the Inland Northwest.”

“It changed all my retirement plans,” he said. “I’ve been whacked back 50%, maybe 60%.”

He also isn’t able to cross -country ski much anymore because of balance issues. He had to stop competing in the Langlauf 10K cross -country ski race that he did every year for decades.

He’s still able to do some outdoor activities, including bird hunting with his dog, Ranger.

“That’s why I do Bloomsday, is to keep up with my dog,” he said.

Landers has completed Bloomsday virtually every year since 2020, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t in downtown Spokane on the first Sunday each May. He and his wife, plus Ranger, arrive downtown around 5:15 a.m. to start walking. As they go, they watch tow trucks removing cars from the race course and volunteers setting up the first aid and water stations. “What was fun was we got to see it come alive,” he said.

They would stay downtown long enough to watch the elite runners start, then have a cup of coffee and a donut before heading home.

The Perennials know they are a steadily shrinking bunch. Several years ago they created a “Last Man Standing” time capsule. Among other things, it contains $88 in one dollar bills and letters from most of the Perennials who wrote about why the race was important to them. Landers is the keeper of the time capsule, though he said he’ll probably turn everything over to Bloomsday officials soon.

“Some of them are poignant, really beautiful,” he said of the letters. “My idea was to put them in a book. It’s going to be a very moving event when the person gets these.”

Landers doesn’t know what his future holds in terms of being physically able to do Bloomsday, but he plans to keep doing it as long as he can.

“To us, there’s not even a question about that,” he said.