Bloomsday Perennial: As Central Valley runner crossed finished before U-High rival, he was hooked

Bernie Barnes was a senior at Central Valley High School during the first Bloomsday in 1977 and was on the school’s track team. He signed up for the race because he saw it as training for track.

But the track meet schedule meant that Barnes didn’t get the weekend off.

“I had to run the mile and 2-mile on Friday, again on Saturday and then Bloomsday on Sunday,” he said.

That first Bloomsday, Barnes spotted a rival runner from University High School who had just beaten him on the track that weekend. Barnes vowed to beat him to the finish line.

“He may not have known it was a race, but it was a race,” he said.

Barnes beat him to the finish line. And he was hooked.

“I thought it was fun,” he said. “That was my first fun run.”

Barnes kept on running Bloomsday long after he retired from the track.

“It was just because I wanted to stay in shape,” he said. “I don’t think we really knew how special it was going to be. Even nonrunners wanted to do it. By the time I hit 30, I thought ‘This has really become something. I’ve got to keep doing it.’ ”

He studied accounting at Eastern Washington University and was usually able to keep his schedule clear for Bloomsday weekend. The only hiccup he encountered occurred when he was supposed to fly out on Bloomsday Sunday for a training seminar in Pittsburgh one year. Barnes pleaded his case to his boss.

“They allowed me to leave a day later to do the race,” he said. “I was kind of worried.”

Throughout his Bloomsday tenure, Barnes has had problems with his feet. He once had to stop briefly during a race because his foot hurt. He was by Spokane Falls Community College, but mustered up the will to keep going.

“What are you going to do?” he said. “You’re out in the middle of nowhere.”

He found out later that he had a stress fracture.

“I have high arches,” he said. “I needed orthotics in my shoes.”

He got the orthotics, but it didn’t stop all the problems. Barnes also has a history of calf strains that have slowed him at times.

“I’ve torn my calf muscle once or twice during the race,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of injuries.”

He had to shift to walking the Bloomsday course in the early 2000s.

“My running days ended when I blew my knee out playing volleyball,” he said. “That was a few months after Bloomsday, so I had time to recover.”

Recently he was diagnosed with arthritis in his right foot. At the time, he was hoping the pain was from tendonitis, but he’s determined to keep going.

“That’s not going to stop me,” he said.

Barnes, who will turn 67 a month before the 50th Bloomsday, has a routine now. He usually parks at the Spokane Valley Mall and rides a bus to downtown Spokane to line up for the race. He walks the race, returns to his car and often picks up a Papa Murphy’s pizza on the way home.

“Usually I’m trying to diet before the race,” he said.

He doesn’t typically linger downtown once he has collected his all-important finisher T-shirt.

“I usually go home as soon as possible, maybe ice the knee.”

Still, Barnes said he usually manages pretty well and anticipates being able to keep doing Bloomsday for years to come.

“I can feel age starting to creep up on me,” he said. “I’ve had the knee for a while. The foot is kind of a brand-new thing, but I think they’re both manageable. I think I can still walk it for several years.”

Barnes, who never married and has no children, usually does Bloomsday by himself, though his sister has done quite a few Bloomsdays. Barnes is thinking about walking with her for the 50th race.

“Maybe I’ll start further back and walk with my sister,” he said.