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Fond memories of Bloomsday remain

Steve Bergum  •  Staff writer
Published April 29, 2008

The Spokesman-Review Then: Jones 1997 Bloomsday winner. (File The Spokesman-Review)

Kim Jones, after dabbling in track as a sprinter in high school, had pretty much resigned herself to recreational running back in 1982, when she first saw television coverage of the Lilac Bloomsday Run.

But after seeing the sheer exuberance on the face of second-place finisher Jon Sinclair as he crossed the finish line that day – just four-tenths of a second behind Henry Rono – and then listening to Sinclair's post-race gushings about Bloomsday and its organizers, Jones decided to rededicate herself to competitive running.

"I watched Jon finish and he was so excited and enthusiastic about the race," recalled Jones, who was living in Spokane at the time. "And he talked it up really big afterward, too, which made me think, 'I'm going to try that next year.' "

The following year Jones finished 17th among women competitors, while Sinclair, a nationally renown road racer from Fort Collins, Colo., won the first of his two Bloomsday titles – the second coming in 1986 – and established himself as one of the event's most popular champions.

Jones, who went on to become a world-class distance runner and two-time runner-up finisher in the Boston Marathon, picked up her first, and only, Bloomsday women's title in 1997 and continued – as did Sinclair – to participate in the event until 2003.

Today, the two are married and living in Fort Collins, where they are partners, along with close friends and fellow runners, Kent Oglesby and Libbie Hickman, in Anaerobic Management, an on-line coaching service that focuses primarily on distance runners and boasts clients worldwide.

Neither the 50-year-old Sinclair, nor Jones, who will turn 50 this week, have returned to run Bloomsday since 2003, and neither will be on hand for Sunday's 32nd running of the annual 12-kilometer road race through the streets of Spokane.

The couple, married in August of 2004, will be busy putting on their own annual marathon in Fort Collins that day. But both continue to harbor pleasant memories of Spokane and their Bloomsday experiences.

"People ask me all the time what my favorite road races were," said Sinclair, who considers himself retired from competitive running, but still manages to log between 50 and 60 miles a week. "I'll usually tick off about five or six, and Bloomsday is always near the top.

"There were some road races where I'd get off the plane and it just didn't feel right, but I always felt at home in Spokane. The people were always good to me there, and when I got off the plane, it just always felt good to me. It was a place I really enjoyed – and obviously, I ran well there, too."

Sinclair ran in 19 Bloomsday races and posted runner-up finishes in 1981 and 1982 before breaking through for his first win.

Jones, who spent 22 years in Spokane before moving to Colorado, didn't have the same Bloomsday success as her husband, but still misses the race and her old hometown.

"I've thought about moving back to Spokane some time," she said. "Fort Collins is a lot like Spokane, and we live on a street that reminds me of Manito Boulevard. It's a little dryer here, but it still has that hometown feeling that I missed so much after leaving Spokane.

"I felt homesick for the longest time, and I still miss Spokane. Who knows? Maybe I'll retire there – when I really retire."

Jones left Spokane and accompanied her youngest daughter, Jamie Rosenquist – a former track star at Lewis and Clark High School – to Boulder, Colo., in 1999. Rosenquist was headed there to run for the University of Colorado, and Jones was still maintaining a condominium in the college town where she had trained on occasion.

It was shortly after moving to Boulder that she was hooked up with Sinclair by some mutual friends. The two had known each other for some time after having competed in many of the same events.

"She was divorced and had just moved to Boulder," Sinclair recalled. "I remember having dinner with her and some other friends, and that type of thing, but we didn't really get to know each well other until she moved out here. We eventually started dating and it seemed to work out really well.

"We have a lot of mutual friends and lots of mutual interests and stuff, and we just seemed to click."

Sinclair, too, was coming out of a long-term relationship at the time.

"So we just decided to go out, and we hit it off really well," Jones said.

Jones still occasionally makes it back to Spokane.

"Every other year or so, I try to get back and spend a little time," she explained. "Jamie's father is still there, and she will stay with him while I go running and just kind of hang out and go shopping with a few old friends."

Jones still runs about 60 miles a week – sometimes with her husband and his friends.

"I'm doing a little more now, because I told people I wasn't going to do any more racing until I turn 50, and that's going to be (this week)," she said. "Jon and I will go out, maybe, four times a week for a recovery run, but I do speed sessions with the girls.

"Sometimes, I run with Jon and his friends, but they get too loud. I can hear them coming down the street. They'll be talking, the testosterone gets flowing and they just keep getting louder and louder. I have to laugh."

Jones, who won the inaugural Disneyland Half-Marathon in Anaheim, Calif., less than two years ago, still considers herself only semi-retired and might eventually get back to competitive racing at an age-group level. But for now, she is content coaching 25 or so clients as a partner in Anaerobic Management, making speaking engagements, nationwide, with her husband and running only when she feels up to it.

"I'm doing what I want to do and what I've always wanted to do – which is to coach a little, run a little and travel a lot," she said.

Sinclair, too, is eyeing a return to competitive age-group racing and pointed out that the 2008 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be held at Spokane Falls Community College Aug. 7-10.

"That's one of those things I'm going to just kind of wait on and see how it goes," Sinclair said, when asked if he might enter. "I've been doing some harder training in the last month and a half, so I really don't know. If things go well, I may show up in Spokane in August.

"And, you know, I'd really like to do that again."