Tuesday, January 6, 2009

In perfect weather, Bloomies filter across T.J. Meenach Bridge before turning up Doomsday Hill during Bloomsday 2005. (Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review)

Bloomsday 2005

The winners John Korir, 29, of Kenya, won the 2005 men's division. The women's division was won by Asmae Leghzaoui, 28, of Morocco. See the full list of winners. You can find all the race results at BloomsdayRun.org. Video Colin Mulvany captures the sounds and scene from Bloomsday 2005: Quicktime: Lo-Band  |  Hi-Band Slideshows Click on an image below to see more pictures from this year's Bloomsday. The racers The scene The scene II The scene III The scene IV

Spokane's big race navigates 29th year

Megan Cooley / Staff writer

The Bloomsday odyssey has been conquered again.

For the 29th year, regular people from Spokane and beyond ran, walked or wheeled the 7.46-mile course—some tackling major obstacles such as physical disabilities, some just trying to better their time. Some 39,941 Bloomies completed the race, up 246 from last year.

“He’s determined to finish. Let him finish!” Spokane Police Department Explorer Tricia Beck said, shooing off a team of medics running toward her with a stretcher. An older runner was draped across Beck. He’d collapsed about 20 feet from the finish line, and she helped him complete the journey. There were no serious injuries, race officials said Sunday, and the weather cooperated with highs in the low 50s at 9 a.m. and reaching the mid-60s by noon. (Full story)

Wedding was the warm-up

Shawn Vestal / Staff writer

The bride wore white – white shorts, white running shoes and a white veil attached to her white visor. Then, minutes after her second wedding, 75-year-old Elisabeth Johnson walked her first Bloomsday. The groom, 78-year-old Hugh Lewis, stayed by her side, in a tuxedo T-shirt and top hat. A wedding party of six joined them on the 12-kilometer route.

Music helps the miles go by

Shawn Vestal / Staff writer

It started with hula dancers and ended with rock and roll. In between came a course full of snappy punk, cowboy twang, bucket drummers and belly dancers. And then there was Accordion Joe, who occupied a category of his own.

The vulture of Doomsday Hill

James Hagengruber / Staff writer

The Doomsday Hill vulture wears shinguards. Bill Robinson, the man behind the creepy mask, added the protective gear in 1988, a year after he began standing at the top of the hill. Runners, even tired runners, can be mean. “A lot of people punch me,” Robinson said early Sunday morning as an assistant helped him into his elaborate homemade costume.

Fashion runs the course from superheroes to fish

Bloomsday always brings out people’s fashion sense, for better or worse. This year’s crowd included one man wearing plastic buttocks, two women wearing red wax lips and a “cowboy” in a foam hat riding an inflated chicken. It included a girl with a Tigger backpack, a woman in a neck brace and various international themes, from a kilt to a sombrero. One large, bearded man wore what appeared to be a fringed dress made from a tablecloth.

Newcomers are surprised by twists, turns

Defining Bloomsday to foreign exchange students is not an easy task, said Lisa Williams, a 15-year participant who works in the athletic department at Eastern Washington University. It’s a race, a walk, a party. Although she sometimes finds it difficult to put the essence of Bloomsday into easily understandable language, Williams has convinced a fair number of foreigners to take the challenge. “They love it,” she said.