'Growing older is a gift': Rockwood residents gear up for Bloomsday

May 1-Harriet Bloom-Wilson considers herself a bit of a late bloomer.

The former French professor born in the Bronx is participating in her first Bloomsday just days before her 80th birthday. With her daughter flying in from New Zealand and her 50th wedding anniversary rapidly approaching, she wanted her birthday week to be a remarkable one.

And what better way to celebrate blossoming into an octogenarian than trekking 7.46 miles this Sunday? Not only is this her first Bloomsday, but she claims it's also the first physical competition she's been a part of, although she's not sure if she should call Bloomsday a "competition."

"I am feeling stronger and more capable than I ever did," Bloom-Wilson said. "So it just felt like, if not now, then never."

Bloom-Wilson is one of more than 20 residents and staff from the Rockwood retirement community on the South Hill who are joining approximately 41,000 others to walk, run or jog the 50th Bloomsday.

Earlier this week, residents managed to scrape together all 49 previous Bloomsday T-shirts to string up along a lengthy, glass-walled hallway.

One resident, Mary Rutherford, who brought in 20 shirts , did Bloomsday for the first time in 1987, thanks to a little boy named Joe.

Rutherford, who taught third grade in Moxee, Washington, for 32 years, said an exuberant Joe came into her classroom one day in 1986 and wouldn't stop talking about how excited he was to travel to Spokane for the big race.

A week later, he returned to class. Unfortunately, Bloomsday didn't go exactly the way he had hoped.

"Monday, when he shows up at school, he comes in and goes, 'I got lost,' " Rutherford remembered. " 'Oh, Joe, there's 40,000 people going in the same direction. How did you get lost?' "

Turns out, Joe had been separated from his mother during the race. Dejected and afraid, the third-grader did what most elementary school children would do in the same position: He cried. A lot.

That's when an older couple came across the distressed boy and told him they would help him find his mom. They guided Joe for miles and led him to his mother who was, rather unsurprisingly, frantic after losing her son in a crowd of 40,000.

"I had decided, in the meanwhile, any race that takes cares of a little boy is worth doing," Rutherford said. "So I convinced my friend that lives here (in Spokane), that we were going to do it (in 1987)."

Rutherford loved the race so much, that she did it another 19 times. Sadly for Joe, he wasn't able to do the race with his teacher in 1987 as his mother was terrified he'd get lost again. But in 1988, he walked into Rutherford's class and triumphantly announced he had "bypassed" his mom and had located his own ride to Spokane.

Today, Rutherford lives with Parkinson's, so the physical toll of the race is too much. But she plans on watching on TV and cheering on all her friends, including Anne McWilliams.

For 41 years, McWilliams worked as an administrator at Columbia University in New York. She moved to an independent living home on Rockwood's campus after staying for decades in a miniscule apartment in Manhattan where the Empire State Building, glistening through the windows of her humble abode, served as her "night-light."

Last year, McWilliams, fresh to Spokane, walked Bloomsday. This year, she heeded the advice of Rockwood's Wellness Director Leslie Malloy and decided she's going to run the race.

To prepare for race day, she's been running for an hour on the treadmill at least three days a week. Between cardio, strength training classes and nine other exercise classes to pick from, McWilliams is feeling amped for Bloomsday.

She credited the volunteers and board members of the Lilac Bloomsday Association for their phenomenal organizational skills and for making the event an amazing staple for the community.

Unlike McWilliams, Kathy Myers has a storied history with Bloomsday. She's run the past 40 Bloomsdays, and this year is no exception. Myers was also an educator before she retired. She taught first grade in Bridgeport, Washington, for 31 years and would drive to Spokane with co-workers every May for Bloomsday.

She said the fastest time she has completed the 7.46-mile course was 1 hour, 18 minutes. Now, her finish time is just a little over two hours.

While the 50th Bloomsday is Myers' 41st time doing the run, McWilliams' second run and the first for Bloom-Wilson, the three educator extraordinaires don't have a target time. They just want to cross the finish line, though McWilliams has set a goal to run most of, if not the entire, course.

Regardless of outcome, the exercise program at Rockwood makes the three of them feel like they're up for the challenge.

"This is what this place (Rockwood) is about," Bloom-Wilson said. "I knew it was going to be nice, but it goes far beyond. It's especially anticipated in terms of the opportunities and the emphasis on staying young and engaged."

When Bloom-Wilson first moved to Rockwood from where she taught in Wyoming, she said many of her friends were horrified. They saw it as "an end of life" move. But she says Rockwood is anything but that. Between lecturers from Eastern Washington University educating residents on a variety of topics and a plethora of physical activities available outside, like rock climbing, zip-lining and parasailing, Bloom-Wilson said Rockwood is all about choosing to live.

And with her 80th birthday falling on May 9, she said she's never felt more alive than she does now.

"I've had losses in my family who never got near this age," Bloom-Wilson said. "On the other hand, I've had a 101-year-old mother, so I just feel growing older is a gift."

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