Bloomsday breakthrough: First local elite champ Kim Jones recalls her victory nearly 30 years ago

May 2—In a way, Kim Jones was resistant to her first Lilac Bloomsday race.

She registered for Spokane's annual rite of spring and then showed up to the start line, ready to run, start to finish, with absolutely no training base. Not even a jog around the block.

By the end of the 7.46-mile race, Jones' body was screaming at her.

"It really hurt in the end," Jones recalled in a phone interview from her home in Lafayette, Colorado. "I was in a lot of pain and I paid the price."

A year earlier in 1981, Jones became acquainted with Bloomsday when she watched the elite races on television. She decided that day she was going to do Bloomsday the following year.

A year after running Bloomsday with no preparation, Jones ran it as an elite runner for the first time in 1983. She finished 17th.

That would launch a 15-year professional career.

Jones would go from an outstanding sprinter in high school growing up in Port Townsend, Washington, to a world-class marathoner, ranked as high as third in the world.

Jones eventually became the first local elite winner at Bloomsday.

It took Jones until the end of her professional career before she would break the tape first at Bloomsday — in the 21st edition in 1997.

"I knew I could do it," Jones said. "I was 39 years old and I thought I'd give it one last try. I put everything into it."

Jones had run the Boston Marathon 13 days earlier. She knew her body would be challenged on the hilly Bloomsday course.

"Boston had really beat me up from all the downhills and the final 10k of that marathon," Jones said. "My legs, my quads, were really sore from braking on the downhills. I wasn't sure how my quads were going to handle the faster pace on such a hilly course like Bloomsday."

Taking on Cemetery and Doomsday Hill wasn't the most challenging facet of the race Jones won.

"The harder part, the most challenging part that day when I won, was trying to make sure I didn't turn too hard on the downhills because that would have caused issues with my quads," Jones said.

Jones finished in 40 minutes, 34 seconds — six seconds ahead of runner-up Carol Zajac, who was 15 years younger .

Going up Doomsday, Jones knew she had all she could handle with Zajac, a two-time NCAA cross country champion.

Earlier in the race, Jones had warded off a challenge from 28-year-old Kari McKay, a standout runner from Eastern Washington University.

So when Jones crested Doomsday, she hoped she had something left to hold off Zajac down Broadway Avenue.

"Everybody was watching me because I had run some great races that year," Jones said. "It was the best year of my road racing career."

Jones recalled that at the time she and Zajac had the fastest fourth-to-fifth mile in Bloomsday history.

So Jones stayed on the talented Zajac. Jones noticed a tell going up Doomsday.

"Her shoulders had slumped and I thought, 'OK, she's getting tired.' "

Then Jones noticed Zajac's strides weren't as fluid.

So at the top of Doomsday, Jones made her move.

"I had to make it count," Jones said.

Then, near the end of the stretch on Broadway, Jones broke into a sprint.

"I wasn't going to take any chances on her coming back and getting me after all that work," Jones said.

Jones and her husband, Jon Sinclair, himself a two-time Bloomsday elite winner, are in Spokane this weekend for the 50th celebration. Jones plans to run recreationally because she wants to celebrate with the thousands of other runners, but also to take a moment to relish her success on the course.

She turns 68 years old the day before the 50th.

"I'm going to carry my phone so I can take a selfie with the Bloomsday Vulture at the top of Doomsday Hill," she said.

Jones twice won the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis, and was runner-up at the Boston and New York marathons. But one race tops them all — Bloomsday.

That's why returning for the 50th in a ceremonial way is so important to her.

Jones credits Bloomsday founder Don Kardong for launching her professional career. And she has a particular fondness for Spokane.

"I've been thinking more about why Don Kardong and the Spokane community were so essential to my success, and I'd like to elaborate on that because this really is important to me," Jones said in a follow-up to an initial interview. "Once I began competing in local races, I joined the Bloomsday Road Runners Club, where I met an incredible community. Participating in their Sunday long runs made training both fun and productive. Through monthly meetings, club parties, and traveling to races together, I built a huge support system and forged lifelong friendships.

"I met Don Kardong back then, and shortly after, I started working part time at his store, The Human Race. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of people — runners and non-runners — who came by to cheer me on or offer support during tough times. The Spokane community really got to know me, and I felt embraced by a wonderful community of supporters. This gave me the confidence and an incredible desire to shatter my limits and establish myself as a world-class runner."

She has a deep appreciation for Kardong.

"He was hugely instrumental in my career," Jones said. "Over the years, Don became my advisor, my training partner, and a dear friend. He truly helped elevate my career to become one of the best in the world."

Sinclair and Jones continue to manage an internet-based business, Anaerobic Management, where they each coach about 12 runners.

During his professional career, Sinclair won the 1983 and 1986 titles at Bloomsday. He continues to marvel at everything his wife has accomplished in her career.

Jones retired from professional racing a year after winning Bloomsday. She continues to run 4 to 8 miles a day.

"What's amazing about Kim's story is she went from such a tough family background to being the best marathoner in the world," Sinclair said. "Her perseverance was forged out of life's challenging situations."

Jones' life difficulties are well-chronicled in a book she wrote in 2011.

"It was cathartic in a lot of ways because I had a really tough childhood and it really made me a tough marathoner," Jones said of writing the book.

Sinclair said Jones belongs in the Washington Sports Hall of Fame.

"It surprises me that Kim hasn't been inducted," Sinclair said. "She's been nominated a bunch of times. I nominated her. I don't understand why she's not in it. She's certainly the best marathoner that Washington has ever produced. And she's one of the top two or three marathoners in the country that the U.S. has ever produced."

When Jones begins running along Riverside Avenue on Sunday, it'll be easy for her to hearken back nearly three decades to her most cherished feat.

"It's amazing because it doesn't seem that long ago," Jones said. "Life is a mystery, and it makes you grateful."