Area Bloomies celebrate

Bloomsday has become the Bonner County Fair on the road.

On Sunday what looked like most of Bonner and Boundary counties took the early morning drive to Spokane to participate in the 27th running of a great idea.

Monday afternoon, 60-plus Bloomies stopped off at the Bee to take part in our annual photograph.

There was the beautiful woman who introduced herself by announcing Sunday was her first Bloomsday and that by all rights she should be dead. She has lost more than 100 pounds and her first Bloomsday walk was a celebration of beating back diabetes and heart disease.

One couldn't help but notice the two-month-old finisher with the big, green race shirt on. One also couldn't help but notice the number of families who participated in Bloomsday together.

I ran into four generations of finishers in the T-shirt line.

The Bloomsday photo in tomorrow's Bee will show the cross-section of people the race attracts. It brings out the human race.

There are athletes who compete for the best time and prizes. There are people who like to wear costumes. There are people celebrating 80 years and being surrounded by friends. There are people today discovering new muscles and the value of sunscreen.

And then there is … Steve Neuder. One of the nicest men in Idaho was a few minutes late for Monday's photo shoot. He spotted the crowd and started to run(?) to get in the picture. The only problem was his legs had quit working properly Sunday after about halfway up Doomsday Hill. His painful, half-block shuffle brought hoots of laughter as well as a few grimaces.

Those are just a few of the faces of Bloomsday this year.

See you next year.

David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee.