Bloomsday's $100,000 Race Purse Gets Noticed

SPOKANE - When marathoner Don Kardong innocently suggested to a newspaper reporter in 1976 that this city hold a fun run, money was the last thing on his mind.

But the suggestion became a newspaper headline, and the Bloomsday race was instituted the next year, at the height of the decade's recreational running boom.

The men's and women's winners got no prize money - just trophies and the same white race T-shirts handed out to the other 1,196 finishers.

"When we started it, the idea of prize money in a road race was incomprehensible," says Kardong.

The absurd becomes reality here this morning, when some 60,000 runners toe the downtown starting line for Bloomsday's 20th running. The prize money - double what was offered last year - has drawn the fastest field in the race's history, Kardong says.

The $100,000 purse is the result of new status for the 12-kilometer, 7.46-mile race, which is serving as the inaugural Professional Road Running Organization World Championship.

Winners in men's and women's divisions each will receive $25,000, up from the traditional $7,000 for Bloomsday champions. Second-place winners are to get $10,000.

Kenya, which took five of the top eight men's places last year, is again expected to dominate on the men's side.

But visa problems may keep defending champion Josphat Machuka of Kenya out of the race. If he does run, his strongest competition likely will come from countrymen Lazarus Nyakeraka, top PRRO point winner this season, and Simon Karori and Simon Morolong of South Africa.

Kim Jones ranks among the top women on the PRRO circuit this season and expects to be among the top finishers today, her 38th birthday. Her top competitor likely will be Kenya's Delillah Asiago, who won last year in a course-record 38:31.