Lilac Bloomsday Run

The Lilac Bloomsday Run, also known as Bloomsday, is an annual timed road race in the northwest United States, held on the first Sunday of May since 1977 in Spokane, Washington. The course length is 12 km (7.456 mi).

The run had over 38,000 participants every year since 1986 until 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Registration peaked in 1996 at 61,298 with 56,156 finishers. Lineth Chepkurui set an unofficial 12 km world record in the 2010 women's race.

The course record of 33:51 was set 16 years ago in 2008 by Micah Kogo, a pace of 4:32.4 per mile and an average speed of 13.217 mph (21.3 km/h). The women's record of 38:03 was set in 2016 by Cynthia Limo, a 5:06.2 per mile pace and an average speed of 11.758 mph (18.9 km/h).

Don Kardong, who founded the race, explained the name as "a starting event for the Lilac Festival … you know, lilacs blooming. And of course, I like it because it rhymes with doomsday." The shortened name Bloomsday is usually associated instead with James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses and celebrations of June 16, the day in the life of Leopold Bloom that the novel chronicles.

Kardong had hoped for five hundred participants for the inaugural edition in 1977, and got nearly triple that. The second edition had over five thousand, and the third in 1979 was over ten thousand, with fifty thousand spectators lining the streets. The sixth edition in 1982 had over 22,000, and despite rain and some snow, there were over 30,000 in 1984.

The early editions were around eight miles (12.9 km) in length. A new course was introduced in 1980.

Course

The course starts in Downtown Spokane and heads northwest along the far west end of town, passes by Mukogowa Ft. Wright Institute and Spokane Falls Community College before heading up "Doomsday Hill" and back downtown past the Spokane County Courthouse and ending at the Monroe Street Bridge. Every finisher of the race receives a Bloomsday T-shirt

Results

*Delay due to COVID-19 pandemic. First virtual race.

Key:   Course record   Virtual race

• Early editions were around eight miles (12.9 km) in length.

Notes

References

External links

• Official website