Bloomsday Race 2008

The Lilac Bloomsday Run is one of the largest road races in the US with over 40, 000 participants each year. It is a 12 kilometer (7.46 mile) race coursing through downtown Spokane, Washington . This year it took place on Sunday May 4^th. The course is not easy, consisting of various inclines, one of which being the infamous “Doomsday Hill” at mile 5.

http://www.bloomsdayrun.org/

Eric, Steve, Maxine and I decided to participate this year making it a Scranton Family event. Eric and I took a weekend road trip to sunny Spokane from our home in Seattle to visit our Spokane 'Mom and Dad.'

We had team shirts made as part of our family weekend festivities.



Eric raced in the elite division as a member of the Washington Trust Corporate Cup Team. I qualified to race in the yellow division following the elite group.






Maxine and Steve (Eric's parents) power-walked in the lilac group.

It was the first time both Maxine and I participated in the race. But it won't be the last. I think we are hooked!

It was a gorgeous warm day with an unexpected temperature of about 65 degrees. Both Eric and I finished with respectable times beating our personal goals. Eric had a time of 59:07 and I followed him with a time of 1:06:25.

Eric injured his knee in a soccer game a few weeks before the race. He wasn't 100% by race day and running the 7.5 miles re-aggrivated the injury. He has been diagnosed with a sprained MCL, PCL, and torn horn ligament in his left knee. Eric is now restricted from running and soccer until he is fully healed.

Eric's knee wasn't his only race injury. He learned the painful way why male long distance runners use nipple band-aids when they race. "Chaffing" doesn't begin to describe his pain by the end of the 7.5 miles. At least the front of his racing singlet wasn't covering in blood like many of the other men we saw crossing the finish line who had made the same mistake. Eric has since fully recovered from his "aereolar injury" and will be using preventative band-aids next year in Bloomsday.

We hope you enjoy these images of our proud Team Scranton Team! We are showing off our "finisher" shirts. Washington Trust Bank was the main sponsor of the race. Their logo is on the sleeve. We were very pleased with how the finisher shirts looked this year. For those who don't know, a unique feature of Bloomsday is that they keep what the shirts will look like a secret until after the race, and you have to finish to get one.