We arrived in town the afternoon of May 1 and went right to the Convention Center to pick up my packet. Well, there was no packet. Online registration had a few bugs and I was one of them. In fact, Spokane seemed to have it in for us this time around: later Monica and Mark lost their luggage for a night, they were given a parking ticket before the meter expired, and they were back in time, and we were badly overcharged at a restaurant. (See Rich's rough draft of the complaint letter.) Anyway, while I had decided that I wouldn't pay late registration, that didn't come up and I got to register in the blue group.

Bernadette was supposed to come in a block ahead of me, in the orange group, both groups held for 10 minutes, but we just started together. We were able to see the start of the race, unlike Bay to Breakers, as we were in a side street instead of behind. We crossed the start line at 2 minutes 20 seconds. Thus, my finish time is actually 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 4 seconds. I find the rest of the statistics fascinating, though. Second for my birthday, seventh from Sacramento. (Second for my last name, now THERE's a surprise.) This is Bernadette's card.

We were somewhere in the middle. In these pictures, the first is from the second mile looking ahead to about mile 6, the other from mile 6 looking back at mile 2. Trust me, there are people in the line across the middle of each picture. There were about 16,000 people behind us, about 33,000 ahead. (Actually, 32,486 people.)

This is the finish photo. I'm the one in the green slicker in front, and Bernadette is the "drowned rat" next to me. One can thumb back through 5 more pictures to see us coming in.

The weather was dreadful, as already noted. Usually the trees at the start are full of clothes, but this year all but the most serious runners tried to stay warm. It's the first rainy Bloomsday Race, though there was snow one time in the past.

I was surprised to see the Bishop out in the rain waving to everyone. Later we passed a convent where the old nuns in wheelchairs were all out greeting people, and I stopped to shake all their hands. (That's at the foot of Doomsday Hill, and I needed all the prayers I could get.)

Ah yes, Doomsday Hill.

Across the bridge and UP.

Looking back down.

And waiting at the top, a vulture.

Again, this is from mile 6, another view of Doomsday Hill. I stopped three times, but only really needed to stop twice. (I sorta promised I'd only stop once on Hayes Hill tomorrow, but I may have to renege, I've been sick...)

   
Rich decided to leave the dog in the car, which saved a good deal in car deodorant. He was waiting for us with the Yarnot flag after we got out of the chutes and got our t-shirts. Bloomsday t-shirts say "finisher" on them and are quite prized. There was a discussion as to the color. Someone called them "teal" which isn't it at all, and another choice was "mint." Nope. I say it's "sea-foam green." The runner's shadows on the shirt make me think I've spilled something, that because I so often do. The second picture is at the Convention Center, as we went back to the car. We'd found the ideal parking place on Saturday, and Rich found it again after the racers left on Sunday.