Bloomsday: How Spokane's race bloomed to life

Elevators, typically, are places of awkward silence, or at best casual small talk. They are not places where deals are brokered, ideas are born and magic happens. Rarely do people talk in the elevator, but sometimes when they do, magic happens. Such was the case in 1977, when Don Kardong stepped into an elevator along with a smattering of strangers and Spokane Mayor David Rogers. When the doors of that elevator slid shut, there was no such thing as Bloomsday. Then the magic happened.

The mayor recognized Kardong after having read a newspaper article in which Kardong had casually mentioned that Spokane should have some sort of city race. It was a casual comment that took root with the mayor. He struck up a conversation with Kardong and suggested they follow through with the idea. And just like that, in the short time it took to travel a few floors up in an elevator, Spokane's greatest event took root.

While the comments Kardong initially made to the reporter may have been casual, his commitment to running was not. After participating in cross country throughout high school and college, with impressive results, Kardong made it to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, where he placed fourth in the Marathon.

After the Olympics, he visited two other cities, which both hosted what he considered large races. One was the Peachtree, in Atlanta, Georgia, which had 2,000 participants. The other was in Charleston, West Virginia, with 1,000 runners and walkers. "I came from a cross country background with races maxing out at 150 participants," says Kardong, "so to me, both of these races seemed huge. They just really caught my attention. I never thought we'd have anything like this." With those two runs making a strong impression on him, he made the offhand comment to the reporter that Spokane should have something like that.

With the support of the mayor, and a commitment for sponsorship by the Spokane Jaycees, the seed had been planted, clearing the way for Bloomsday to bloom into a great community event. Just how great, though, no one could have imagined.

Kardong thought he had selected the first weekend of Spokane's Lilac Festival for Bloomsday, but he accidentally picked a week earlier. By the time he realized the mistake, it was too late to change the date because materials had already been printed. "It ended up being a good date," he says of the first weekend in May, which has come to be known as "Bloomsday weekend."

Most people assume the race name was picked because so many things are in bloom in May, therefore, Bloomsday is a name to celebrate the blooming beauty of the city at that time. Nice thought, but not the right one. An English major in college, and well versed in literature, Kardong was referencing Ulysses, the book by Irish author James Joyce, chronicling the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day. The day became known as Bloomsday, a celebration of Joyce and Leopold Bloom. "I went to a meeting of Jaycees and told them the name I selected, and there was dead silence," says Kardong. The name grew on them though, and the planning got underway with a budget of $1000 and estimate of 300 runners.

It wasn't 300 runners who participated in that first race, but over 1,000. "The first year we had 1,000 runners and I was amazed,!" says Kardong. Had he been told then that it would grow to over 50,000 people, he may not have believed it

For those involved, the success of the first run confirmed it would continue for years to come. "No doubt about it," says Dick Howland, a retired physician, who has run every Bloomsday, and also served as a longtime volunteer. "We were encouraged. Running is a pure sport, and we got a lot of people in Spokane to come down and run on a Sunday morning."

They were about to get even more participants. The success of the first Bloomsday sparked the interest level and inspired more people to enter. Another factor in the increased registration was the nationwide growing interest in aerobic exercise, of which the health benefits were becoming well known. "If you were out running and you saw another runner, you usually knew them," says Kardong of the amount of people involved in the sport of running when Bloomsday first started. That stared to change quite quickly.

"The second year it was 5,000 participants and the third 10,000," says Kardong. "We'd figure the logistics for the race, and the next year we'd have another 5,000 and had to figure it out all over again."

The first year of Bloomsday, Kardong was still teaching school and was unavailable to help with much of the organization except for after school and on weekends. His role at that time with Bloomsday was a volunteer. He also served on the board of directors, which was his main involvement until 2004, when the man who started it all became the race director. "I love doing it all day long," he says of the job that now keeps him busy year round. "It is a really interesting job, it is fun."

Part of the fun of being involved with Bloomsday is seeing how the race has changed, matured and improved over the years. "Everything was loosey-goosey, back then," says Howland of the first years. "We expected 500 people and got about 1500. There was no medical team and people were passing out in the park. I finished the race and then helped my friends."

Longtime Bloomsday participant, and also one of the Jaycees who supported the first Bloomsday, Ken Hill also has similar memories of dehydration striking during the first Bloomsday. "Unfortunately, the first Bloomsday was quite warm – about 80 degrees at race time," he says. "We also didn't have very many water stations and did not stress the importance of drinking water. We did have some cases of dehydration and heat related problems, which the medical people had to treat. I had always been told not to drink water while working out, so I was lucky not to meet the same fate."

Nowadays, there is plenty of water available at the five water stations located throughout the course. During the 2008 race, roughly 300,000 cups of water were handed out, keeping racers hydrated and cool.

Before runners can reach the finish line—exhausted yet hydrated—they have to start the race. And that doesn't happen without the help of the man with the gun. That man is Bob Crabb, who has shot the starting pistol for the last 22 years.

Crabb had been teaching PE at Bemis Elementary School where Tom Jones was the principal; Jones also happened to be responsible for coordinating the start line of the race. "He needed volunteers, and told us that if we volunteered to hold the rope at the front of the race, we'd get a good start," says Crabb. "We had to hold the rope, and then drop it when the race started, and then we could start running." It seemed like a good deal to Crabb, and so he volunteered for several years. In 1988, Jones invited him to a starters meeting, where unexpectedly the pistol was handed to Crabb, knighting him as the new official race starter.

Over the years the start of the race has changed. In the early days, Crabb says it was a stampede let loose all at once as the rope was dropped and everyone started running. As the numbers in the race began to increase, a new system was needed, and the race went to three starts: wheel chair, elite runners and the rest. During these years, Crabb stood atop scaffolding on Riverside Avenue, starter pistol in hand. Racers leaned forward, bodies arched, muscles tense, awaiting the shot that would ring out allowing them to uncoil their bodies from the frozen starting position into full strides as they powered their way into the race.

The second year that Crabb served as the starter, he decided it would be fun to be decked out in a tuxedo while shooting the pistol. Involved in community theatre, he went down to the Civic Theatre costume shop and got a tuxedo. The next morning, looking dapper, he climbed the scaffolding and started the race in style. It was a tradition that continued through last year. A change is coming, though. This will mark the first year that Crabb returns to normal threads.

"I feel like an idiot every year because all I do is stand in a tux and shoot a gun," he says. This year his role will expand as he takes on more volunteer duties involved with the start. As a result, gone will be the tuxedo, replaced by clothes that can get dirty as he digs into the work.

One thing that will not change for Crabb is the excitement of being at the start. "That is so much fun to look back and see people backed up to almost Browne," he says. "It is just buildings and people, that's all."

With so many people, there is only one thing that makes Bloomsday work, and that is the incredible volunteers who give of themselves to bring this most amazing community event to life each year. "It is relatively easily to get volunteers for race day," says Kardong. "What is really hard is to get key people who can put in as much time as our committee. That is a problem in all races. We have a lot of return volunteers though, some that go almost back to day one."

Retired Spokane physician Dick Howland is one such example. He and his wife Karen help shuttle the elite athletes to and from the airport. When he first got that responsibility, there was no structure to it, and he had local high school cross-country runners drive out to get the athletes. "I thought it would be great for cross country runners to pick up and drop off the runners," he says. "There were no forms, no release, nothing. Now we have three vans. Back then it was them driving their daddy's car on my gas money."

Nowadays, exquisite planning and organization allow staff and volunteers to work efficiently and effectively, handling a massive workload. "It is an enormous event to organize 40,000 to 50,000 runners. It is remarkable how much work goes into it," says Crabb.

Most of that work is done by volunteers, but to them it doesn't really feel like work. "We all volunteer to give something back to the community," say Denis Pilgrim, who has helped organize Premera's water aid station at the top of Doomsday Hill for several years. "Bloomsday is a fun way to do that and be a part of something that's amazing to see come together so well each year. Premera has an average of 275 volunteers at Doomsday Hill each year and 99.9 percent are our associates, their families and friends"

While volunteers line the race course and do all sorts of behind the scenes activities, it is the ones standing just past the finish line that are of the most interest to many runners. More specifically, what they are giving out is of interest. For it is the beloved Bloomsday shirt that keeps many-a-runner's legs pumping along the 7.46 mile race course, knowing they will be rewarded with that coveted cotton/poly blend at the end of the line.

The shirts are one of those things that build excitement for the race. The "task of setting up 144 tables, unloading 50,000 shirts, distributing them uniformly on the tables, and explaining the rules for handing out the shirts," is partly the responsibility of Marc Browning, who is one of the organizers of shirt distribution, which is a project of the Exchange Club. "The one amazing fact is that this all happens with complete strangers who have a good time and ‘get r' done'. They have seldom met before, but work for the good of the community. It's really amazing how it all comes together."

It is always a top-secret what the shirts look like, but that doesn't stop people from trying to find out. "Most people have given up trying because they know they can't get it out of me," says Kardong of people who pester him to find out the design or at least the color of the shirt beforehand.

The design of the shirt was not originally intended to be such a well-kept secret. "By the third or fourth year, we realized this is something people look forward to, so we wanted to keep it a secret," he says.

The design of the shirt has come from a variety of sources over the past years. People have submitted ideas, there have been years when a contest was held, and other years it was commissioned by an artist. "Anyone that contacts me and says they'd like to submit a design, I always will take it," says Kardong.

The shirt order is placed in late October or early November, and the printing begins in January. Do the math and you will realize the shirts are ordered close to six months before there is an exact number for how many people will register and receive shirts. "It is an amazing act of faith," says Kardong. "It is hard to get the right number of shirts and sizes. We can adjust to a degree, but we usually get close."

Erring on the side of caution means there are always extra shirts, but don't expect to get one if you don't finish the race. "We have been donating them to Catholic Charities with the stipulation that they not be sent anywhere in North America. We want to preserve the notion that if you are wearing the shirt in North America, you finished the race," says Kardong. "We get sightings of Bloomsday shirts in Africa, Asia and South America, though."

With so many different shirts over the years, everyone has their favorite, including Kardong. All of them are near and dear to his heart, but he does admit there is one that stand out above the rest "I like the one we had in our 20th year. I thought it was clever," he says of the light blue shirt with a ribbon of flattened cups curling to form a "20."

Whether it is the water cup one, or any of the other 31 shirts, it makes Kardong smile when he sees a Bloomsday shirt. "I love it, especially if I'm in another city. It's a hoot!" he says.

While the shirts might find their way to other cities on the backs of finishers, it is Spokane alone that can boast a success as grand as Bloomsday. Why is Spokane such a fertile ground for Bloomsday? "It may be because we don't have a lot of big distractions," says Kardong. "We have great minor sports, and the Zags. When we have events like Bloomsday and Hoopfest, people are more interested in making it succeed."

"A lot of times I've had people ask how to create something similar in their city, and I give them all the information and see nothing happens," he says. Perhaps that is a testimony to the unique combination of community, commitment and pride in our city.

"The thing that always strikes me is it is a celebration of community," says Kardong. "I've heard people say they feel like they are part of something. That is very positive. People want that and they enjoy it and feel it."

"Everybody's so excited," says Crabb of his impression of Spokane on race day. "It is such a fun event to be a part of, whether as a runner, volunteer or shooting the gun. The smiles per square foot, at the start you can't beat that."

"Look at how positive a large group of people can be and how good they can be together," says Crabb of the greatest lesson he has taken from Bloomsday. "The power of people in groups to do good things— this is a microcosm of it. You have a group of a huge number of people from different backgrounds getting together and having a great time. I can't remember of hearing of any problems over the years. That is amazing."

"It is more than the 50,000 people who run," says Crabb. "Think of all the people along the course. It's one of the great things about this town."

If Bloomsday is one of the great things about Spokane, the Perennials are one of the greatest parts of Bloomsday. These are the runners who have run Bloomsday every year since it began.

"I still have the excitement and passion," says Howland, who is a Perennial. "We bloom every year," he says of those who have finished every race. There was a time in 1983, when Howland's life was hectic with a lot of changes, and it was a cold snowy morning on Bloomsday, and he seriously considered not running. "I almost didn't go." He is glad he did, though. "I'm very proud, really very proud of my Bloomsday experience" he says. Though he is a board certified orthopedic surgeon, it is not that, but his involvement with Bloomsday for which he is most proud.

Besides Howland, there are 116 other Perrenials, one of whom is Kardong. "I've done the race director job since 2004, and when I took over as race director, I told the board if they wanted me to not run anymore, I'd be fine," he says. They wouldn't hear of it and insisted Kardong continue to run. "If I hadn't done it those years, I'd be kicking myself now. All of those who have done it every year are hanging on for dear life."

Perennials have seen many changes over the years, some good and some bad. "Even when we just shift something a little bit, it is confusing for participants," says Kardong. For entrants, they didn't like it when we moved the finish line." There is more that goes into a change to the course than simply drawing a different line on a map. Those changes have a ripple effect on everything from supporters who line the street to volunteers, race officials, spectators and race staff .

One positive change has been the electronic timing system via an electronic chip worn around racers' ankles. "It is so much better," says Kardong of the electronic timing system that was instituted in 2007. "Although, I have to say, our finish line people who coordinated that process – the tags you handed in – they did an amazing job and it was a source of great pride for them, and understandably so."

With the new system, where everyone has an electronic chip, the need to start right at 9 a.m. is eliminated. Your time doesn't start until you cross the start mat and it is triggered electronically. That means if you are in a slower group at the back, if it takes you 23 minutes to get tot he start, your time won't reflect those 23 minutes; it doesn't start until you cross that mat. Although it is good to know that, some people feel they miss out on the excitement of the start line because they're so far back. Not to worry. According to Crabb, every group gets a gunshot to start their section.

"Some of the groups are so large, we've split them in waves," he says. Last year the blue group had two waves. "The challenge is communication. That's the whole idea of spacing it out so people who want to run, run. This is the third year with the chip start and we're getting better at when to start. One big challenge was making sure people who were there at 5 a.m. didn't have people jump in front of them. We got to know the people in the first five rows because they were there every year. "

Getting to know the runners is just one of the joys that come from working on Bloomsday every year. For each volunteer or board member, Bloomsday holds special meaning.

"My favorite part each year is watching the wheelchair racers," says Pilgrim. "You can't help but realize that there is nothing in life you can't overcome when you watch them come up that hill, or the last few people that are walking the race - no matter that they are so far behind the pack, they don't give up, and just keep going. Most always you know that they are struggling- but are not going to give up. That has to be my favorite part, it is truly inspiring to watch."

"It is such a fun event to be a part of; I am lucky," says Crabb. Last year he turned down an opportunity to see the Mariners playing one of the last games in Yankee Stadium. "I said, ‘I can't go. I won't give up the gun.'"

"It has been such an exciting chapter in my life," says Howland. "It's the best day of the year for me and my family."

It may well be the best day of the year for all of Spokane, which is something that Kardong never would have envisioned when Bloomsday first started. "I didn't have a grand scheme," he says. "I just had a little idea that went big." It was unexpected, but then again, you never know what will bloom in an elevator.