Spokane, WA

Saturday night my husband said that he would like to head downtown and watch Bloomsday near the finish and then venture downtown to take in all the happenings. Bloomsday starts and ends in downtown Spokane is the nation’s largest road race and is held the first Sunday in May. Sunday morning we woke up and ate a hearty breakfast. My past experience of running Bloomsday led me to believe that even as spectators we were bound to do our fairshare of walking. So, after a hearty breakfast we laced up our tennis shoes and headed out.  After finding a parking spot on Monroe, we loaded the stroller with all the essentials for a family outing. Sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, snack food, bottled water and of course the camera. We hit the pavement in search of a perfect spot to watch the race. It took awhile to find that perfect spot, where our son could watch from the stroller and we could watch standing, but after a few minutes we finally found that spot. We were right at the corning of Monroe and Broadway where the racers were on their final strecth.

This proved to be the perfect spot at the perfect time, 1 hour after race started. The runners and wheelchair racers were coming in by the dozens. However, the outfits that the runners were wearing were more exciting than the runners themselves. There was the gentleman running in a maids costume, Wilma & Barney, lots of colorful Mohawks, an assortment of Hawaiian dancers and miscellaneous other outfits.

After watching finishers for about 15 minutes we decided to walk towards downtown to see what was happening down there and what the t-shirts looked like. For those who don’t know the t-shirts are kept under lock and key until the first finisher crosses the line. As people were heading up Monroe I could see that the t-shirts were red, but had yet to see the design itself. Finally as we were walking across the Post Street Bridge I caught the first glimpse of the shirt. A red shirt with three figures running. It was a beautiful shirt. Once we made it to Riverfront Park we found thousands of other spectators waiting for friends and family to finish. There was plenty to do in the Park while everyone waited. The Carousel was running, there was a bounce castle and assorted other miscellaneous large blow up type toys, there were food vendors and of course my favorite, Berry Kabobs, were there. There were also bands playing and a large BBQ eating area.

After cruising through downtown we decided to head back to the finish line and cheer on the remaining runners and walkers. We headed back up to Monroe. We watch many other colorful characters sprint across the finish line. As we were turning to leave we ran into some friends who were waiting for mom and son to cross. We waited with them and watch our friend’s son, almost 7, cross the finish line of his first Bloomsday.

Soon after that we headed to our car as it was lunch time and nap time. I did learn a few things this year that I would do differently next year. One, based on how much preparation time and walking we did, I should train to actually do the run myself! But, if that does not happen, I would definitely arrive a little earlier, pack more snacks and water so we could stay a little later and I definitely would lace up my favorite pair of walking shoes.