Bloomsday Perennial: Joel Palmer has completed all the races with 2 near-Perennials

Bloomsday has been a family affair for Perennial Joel Palmer, who recruited his children to participate in the annual race immediately after birth. His daughter, age 45, has done it 45 times. His twin sons, age 42, haven’t done it every year but each has run several Bloomsdays.

Palmer’s first race with his daughter is forever in his memory. She was about a year old and he was pushing her in a stroller. “When I was coming down the hill, I turned the corner and the wheel fell off,” he said.

He was able to keep the stroller from tipping, then discarded the broken stroller and carried his daughter for the rest of the race.

Palmer also has sacrificed some of his prized finisher T-shirts for his children.

“I don’t have my first five years of shirts because they became my kids’ night shirts,” he said. “They got holes in them somehow.”

Palmer served in the Navy for four years after graduating from West Valley High School. He started running after he got out of the military.

“ I was just kind of looking for activity, exercise,” he said. “Jogging isn’t an expensive endeavor.”

He was a student at Eastern Washington University when Bloomsday began and he signed up for the first race. He’d never run such a long distance and the experience is a blur.

“I had no idea what it was like,” he said. “I just remember it being hot.”

When the second race rolled around, Palmer’s roommate, Wally Heidenson, said he wanted to do Bloomsday so they did it together. Heidenson played tennis at West Valley and would later go on to coach tennis at Spokane Community College for nearly four decades.

“He and I skied together since we were juniors in high school,” Palmer said. “We taught our kids to ski.”

Palmer said Heidenson has done every Bloomsday since.

“He refused to get up and do the first one,” he said. “He blames me because I didn’t make him. That’s the only one he’s missed.”

Running Bloomsday became their spring ritual.

“It kind of became a tradition after the ski season,” he said.

A retired teacher and principal, Palmer has long admired Bloomsday. He likes the inclusiveness of the event.

“I like the bands along the way,” he said. “I like the people who dress up. I just give so much credit to Don Kardong for starting this, keeping it going.”

Palmer said he never expected to still be doing Bloomsday 50 years later.

“I didn’t think it would be a deal where people kept doing it,” he said.

The only time Palmer’s finishing streak was in doubt was a year when he was sick.

“I probably shouldn’t have done it,” he said. “My daughter helped me through it. I’ve been pretty blessed. I have all my parts still.”

Palmer said he was never able to break an hour with his finishing time, but wasn’t too far off. His slowest times were the years he was pushing a stroller.

“I’m not a winner, if winning is coming in first,” he said. “I’m a finisher.”

The two years that Bloomsday was virtual, Palmer and Heidenson laced up their shoes and hit the Centennial Trail. Heidenson played the “Rocky” theme song, long a staple of the Bloomsday finish line, on his phone at the end of their race. Palmer said he always gets invigorated by the song.

“I still get a little bit of speed in my step,” he said.

These days Palmer, 72, uses exercise equipment in his basement to keep in shape in addition to hitting the ski slopes in the winter. In March he starts walking and jogging near his home in Harrison, Idaho, to get ready.

When the 50th Bloomsday comes around in May, Palmer will follow tradition. He, Heidenson, his daughter and one of his sons who lives locally will meet at the Spokane Valley Mall and take a bus downtown for the race. Once the race is done, they’ll have lunch together before going their separate ways. It’s a tradition Palmer plans to maintain.

“I’ll just keep going, year by year,” he said. “I don’t have any plans to stop. I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.”