Bloomsday Perennial: ‘There’s something about the crowd’ for repeat racer Jack Williams

When Jack Williams saw a sign in a window advertising the first Bloomsday in 1977, he thought back to the days when he used to challenge his West Valley High School wrestling teammates to races.

“I used to beat everyone after practice,” he said. “I was faster than anybody. I signed up right away.”

In those days, Williams was quite competitive.

“I thought I could win the race,” he said.

Williams did not, in fact, win the race. He estimates he finished somewhere in the middle of the pack.

“I almost died,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to be that hot. I got heat exhaustion.”

Williams said he likely should have gone to the medical tent, but he didn’t. He didn’t even pause to get his finisher T-shirt. He was scheduled to be the driver in a stock car race shortly after he crossed the finish line.

“I barely made it,” he said.

Williams later got one of the now-coveted first-year T-shirts thanks to one of his neighbors.

“The neighbor found one at a garage sale for 15 cents and bought it for me,” he said. “That was five years later.”

As a Bloomsday Perennial, those who have run every race since the annual event began, his finisher T-shirt collection is still incomplete. He has given a couple away to family members, and one year a friend did the race with Williams without signing up, so Williams gave his friend his shirt.

In the early years of Bloomsday, Williams worked at Wonder Bread in downtown Spokane and lived in Millwood. It wasn’t unusual for him to run or ride his bike back and forth to work. In some of the more physically difficult years, he would work a double shift, do Bloomsday and then run home.

He worked at Wonder Bread for 20 years, then at Snyder’s Bakery for 15 years. He would drink gallons of Kool-Aid to stay hydrated during his shift.

“It was so hot in there,” he said.

He would breathe in flour at work, which he said sometimes created health issues. He found himself frequently coming down with pneumonia and bronchitis. He said he ran Bloomsday once with pneumonia and four times with bronchitis. He was determined to finish each time.

“I loved the race,” he said.

His father used to come downtown and watch him race, but beginning in 1984 he laced up his own sneakers and started doing Bloomsday as well.

“It took him four years to catch up to me,” Williams said. “He just wanted to beat me.”

He recalls one race where he and his father finished 12 seconds apart, but didn’t see each other finish.

“There were too many people,” he said.

His daughter Kala started doing Bloomsday beginning when she was 4 or 5. Williams would run the race for time, then turn around and start doing the course backwards until he caught up with her and they would finish together. She ran Bloomsday with him every year until she was murdered in 2012 at the age of 20.

His fastest time across the finish line was 48 minutes, 48 seconds, but he has slowed significantly in recent years. He had a stroke seven years ago and did the next Bloomsday after that with the help of a walker.

“I was in good shape, I just couldn’t make my legs work,” he said.

It is not unusual for him to lose his balance, particularly on the downhill sections, so in recent years he has pushed a wheelchair that he sat in when he got tired. His family, including his sister, helps him during each Bloomsday now.

His most eventful Bloomsday did not happen on the official course. It was during one of the virtual years that started during the COVID-19 pandemic as he and his family were running the Bloomsday distance on the Fish Lake Trail. Two people on bikes approached his group and he scooted over to make room for them. He went a bit too far, however, and stepped off the edge of the trail, which had a drop-off of a couple inches. He fell head-first into a creek next to the trail and could not get up without help.

After his fall, his hand and elbow were bleeding. His family bandaged him up, he took a brief rest and then got up and said “OK, I’m ready to go.” He finished the last two and a half miles uneventfully.

Williams, now 72, said he gets out and walks every day, sometimes as much as 3 miles, with the help of a sturdy walking stick. He’s determined to do the 50th Bloomsday on his own this year and said he will keep doing the race as long as he can.

“There’s something about the crowd,” he said. “It’s a great feeling.”