Lilac Bloomsday
May 3, 2021 — Anne Audain’s facebook post reminded me that this weekend is Spokane’s Lilac Bloomsday. Of course, unfortunately, because of the pandemic, it will be once again, as with last year, virtual. As for Anne, who had won Bloomsday 7 times (!), Bloomsday has a very special place in my heart (though I never won one — in fact, never even come anywhere close to winning or placing anywhere near!!). I came to the USA in the spring of 1980 (3 weeks before Mt. St. Helens blew up!!) and enrolled a community college in Moses Lake in the fall. “Live like a clock,” Marty Liquori says. Every morning, I would get up at 5:45AM and out by 6:00 and ran a few laps around the campus where I saw “tumble weed” for the first time in my life. Then a friend of mine took me to a running store in Spokane called “Human Race”. There I met the store owner; a tall guy by the name of Don Kardong who finished 4th in the 1976 Montreal Olympic marathon. And I heard the 12k footrace he started — Lilac Bloomsday.
The story goes; Don came back from Montreal as somewhat of a local running hero. In one of the local newspaper interviews, he said something to an extent of “It would be nice to have a big road race here in Spokane…”. Lo and behold, next day the newspaper read: “Don Kardong says we should have a big road race”!! But, why not? And the rest is history. At that point, 50,000 runners participated. There are bigger road races around the world. But they pride themselves that Bloomsday is “the largest and best organized road race” in the world. It’s not, like, about 50,000 people participate and have a good time and…that’s it. The next day, the local newspaper will list each and every runner’s place and time will be printed. Within a few days, you will receive a postcard with your place, time, per-mile pace, age-group place.
May of 1981, I asked my buddy to drive me up to Spokane (I didn’t have a car at the time), we stayed at Motel 6 and had the first experience of this mega-footrace. At the Expo, I walked in and the first booth I ran into, there was Joe Henderson, promoting his new magazine called “Running”. We hit if off well and we chatted quite a bit. He gave me his business card. In the evening, they had a movie and a speaker. The movie was “On the Run”. a short documentary film on New Zealand runners including Arthur Lydiard. The guest speaker was Billy Mills!! Talk about the lasting inspiration!! The following day, the men’s winner was a tall guy from Hawaii with mustache, Duncan McDonald. The women’s winner, I didn’t know at that time, was a young lady from Down Under, Anne Audain. That was the first big American road race for Anne but we would hear about her a lot more!! She would go on and win Bloomsday 6 more times!!
A few months after Bloomsday, I wrote to Joe Henderson. I wanted to know more about his new magazine. But something triggered me and at the end of the letter, I threw a question: “Do you know Arthur Lydiard’s address?” Joe sent me Arthur’s address but he didn’t put it in his letter; he actually wrote it down on the back of the envelope and I didn’t recognize it. That summer, my roommate picked up that envelope and casually asked me: “So you have a friend in New Zealand?” “Not that I know of,” I replied. “But this letter is from New Zealand…”. I had Arthur Lydiard’s address for about a month and I didn’t even know it! At any rate, if it’s not for Bloomsday, I wouldn’t have met Joe Henderson and, if it’s not for Joe, I wouldn’t have been connected with Arthur Lydiard. I received the first letter from Arthur Lydiard in August, 1981. We have corresponded ever since all the way to 1997 and then we “attempted” e-mail though Arthur had never gotten too fluent with it!! ;o)
The first running article I wrote for a Japanese running magazine was about Bloomsday (though it was never published). I literally ran with my camera (days before iPhone!!). I waited until the winners came in; took some pictures…. I was still about a middle of the pack!! In 1986, before I graduated from Eastern Washington University and head back to Japan, I ran my last Bloomsday. That was the 10th anniversary Bloomsday and I actually had a chance to participate in a very special way. They invited a young high school runner from Spokane’s sister city in Japan, Nishinomiya. Don asked me to help him out. Kazumi Sada was an outstanding runner from Hotoku High School which is one of the powerhouses of Japanese high school ekiden team. He himself was actually one of the best high school runners in Japan. Here you can see him chasing down Anne Audain, once again, the women’s winner in 1986, at the finish. He is now the head coach at Team Mazda. I got connected with him a few months ago (thanks to World Wide Web!!!) and I got this photo from 1986 Bloomsday and Anne was kind enough to write a message to Coach Sada. “Happy Bloomsday Memories!” she wrote. Indeed, Bloomsday always has a very special place in my heart. I got lots of running inspiration from Bloomsday. And, of course, I wouldn’t have gotten to know Arthur Lydiard without Bloomsday. And it is heartwarming to me that, after all these years, now we got all connected again — Coach Sada, Anne Audain with Happy Bloomsday Memories!! — Nobby Hashizume
Post Script: Also it’s worth noting that, when I organized Lydiard’s final USA Lecture Tour in 2004 (with Five Circles), Bloomsday organization was the one that supported the project in Spokane, WA, where we had more than 300 people attended at Lewis & Clarke High School auditorium.
