Bloomsday - Finally!

My camera has been on a vacation without me. It took off to Baker City with another teacher that I had a training with a couple of days after Bloomsday and has only just now come home to where it belongs. It has been properly grounded and is very contrite for it's actions.

Bloomsday was Sunday, May 2nd up in Spokane and Mark and I went and stayed with family so that we could participate.

It was a blast and I want to share some of the race with you.

(WARNING: there are a lot of pictures!)

Mark and I got up early and ate a nice healthy breakfast (Thank you Aunt Sherry!) and then we headed into town. After parking the car at the mall we got in line to take the bus downtown closer to the start.

Here is the line behind me:

Here is the line in front of me:

Racers came in all shapes and sizes. It was so neat to see everyone there ready and excited to go. You start to get pumped up before the race even starts!

The Bus Ride:

Once downtown we had to find our color group - orange. When you register you have to estimate your finish time and depending on what it is, determines your starting group. Ours was not the elite runners group just in case you were wondering.

This is the beginning of the color group behind us - Green. Notice the Tella-Tubbies? (sp?) Lots of people dress up and run in costume.

Groups are so large, that colors have to also be split so that not too many people are starting the race at the same time. Mark and I were in the 2nd orange group and there is a big sign at the front telling us when to walk and when to stay put. The race starts officially at 9:00 but we didn't actually cross the start line until closer to 9:30.

While you wait, there are bands playing and people taking off their clothes. :) The clothes, mainly sweatshirts and coats, are thrown onto the trees and bushes lining the streets and after everyone has started, they are taken down and donated to various shelters and people who need them.

Once the sign says walk, everyone starts cheering and clapping and my stomach started dancing.

You can see the Start Line way in the front to the left. Mark had to hold the camera up to get this shot.

Here's my view of the Start.

"Sometimes I feel like a dime amongst a bunch of pennies"

Once you cross the line your time starts and is recorded by a cool little thing that is strapped onto your shoe (I forgot to take a picture of it). It is pretty jam packed at first and it takes over a mile for runners to clear out a little bit and give you room.

At one point, there was even a cow in front of me.

At different points of the race there are water stations. Volunteers line up with water in their hands and you run by and grab one (You feel like a "real" runner when you do this). You slurp some from the cup while you are running and then you throw your cup on the ground, trying not to splash too many people while you do so.

This group ran past Mark and I singing and chanting all kinds of funny stuff but they quickly left us in the dust.

Young whipper snappers is what they were.

Here's me - Look I'm still running!

Then we started up Doomsday hill. It's a big sucker and even though we had ran all the way there, I had to start walking at this point. It's steep, it's tough and it's looooooong!

Here is is looking at it from the top.

After that I had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. I wanted to be able to say that I ran the whole thing except for the hill and yup, I did it!

Here's the finish line. As you are running towards it they are playing Chariots of Fire and you somehow find you can run a little faster to finish the race.

After the race you go collect your T-shirt and pretty quickly everyone starts to put them on. On the drive home I counted how many people I saw with them on and I was up to 5 by the time we got back to Oregon.

This guy paid extra for the bodysuit. Sadly,they didn't have one in my size.

Maybe next year!

I didn't get pictures of all the bands that play along the race course or the kids who gave me a free otter pop or the hundreds of people who are cheering everyone along as they run, but I hope that I gave you a peek into the race and maybe, just maybe, made you want to try it next year!

My finishing time: 1:24:21

My faithful husband who never left my side: 1:24:20

My place: 13,873

Mark's: 13,861

Total Participants: Over 50,000