‘It’s time to see the course records go’: Bloomsday organizer expects raised stakes to heighten elite races

“New” is the apt word for the 2024 Bloomsday elite races.

No 2023 elite or wheelchair open champions return. What will make the 48th running of Bloomsday elite is to be determined.

The 2023 men’s champ, Jemal Yimer, announced Monday that he hasn’t recovered from a right foot injury. The 2023 women’s champ, Yeshi Kalyu Chekole, cited training for a marathon as her reason for skipping Bloomsday.

Some wonder if cooler and expected wet weather is the reason some are bypassing Bloomsday. The weather is expected to dip considerably Sunday, dropping 20 degrees from Saturday’s expected high. And the forecast calls for a 65% chance of rain.

Bloomsday elite coordinator Andy LeFriec laughed when asked if poor weather would be a reason athletes would skip Bloomsday.

Not this year, he said. Bloomsday is the Professional Road Running Organization (PRRO) championship, meaning the top male and female collect a $15,000 bonus in addition to the regular prize money.

“The truth of the matter is Jemal has come twice for a $7,000 prize purse,” LeFriec said. “He is a dominant favorite to win the pro championship. That’s an extra $15,000 and he was looking at a $22,000 payday by coming. If he could be there, he’d be there.”

It’s the first time since 2019 that Bloomsday has been the site for the PRRO championships. LeFriec said the races will likely return in 2028.

LeFriec said the weather forecast could be a reason course records are challenged. Runners prefer cold over heat and can endure rain as long as the wind isn’t substantial.

“I know the course records were set in colder temperatures,” LeFriec said.

For the first time, a $1,200 bonus is offered for a course record, LeFriec said.

“It’s time to see the course records go,” he said.

Bloomsday may not have the attractive marquee names, but the elite races will be entertaining nonetheless, LeFriec said.

“This year we had a bunch of people excited to compete for the (national titles), but they got bit by the injury bug,” LeFriec said. “We even had one athlete left stranded in Hamburg, Germany, last night (because of visa issues) and isn’t able to make it. With that being said, we have a heck of a field.”

Mogos Tuemay of Ethiopia, third last year and 10th at the World Cross Country Championships; Raymond Magut of Kenya, a five-time Bloomsday entrant and hour-flat half marathoner; Diego Estrada, an Olympian from Mexico; and Matt Baxter of New Zealand are among names to watch in the men.

“Mogos and Magut are the two guys that have the top-end horsepower if they come in prepared,” LeFriec said.

Olga Mazaronak of Belarus, who finished fifth in the 2016 Olympics, lives in Los Angeles as a refugee and headlines what LeFreic calls a solid women’s field.

Others to watch are Daisy Kimeli of Kenya, third at Bloomsday last year; Mercy Chelangat of Kenya, an NCAA cross country champion from Alabama; and Makena Morley, the top American and runner-up in the 2022 Bloomsday who lives in Montana. This is her 16th Bloomsday.

“Olga’s probably my favorite, but I’m curious to see what Daisy’s race strategy is as a favorite versus somebody who feels like they need to run a super aggressive race like she did last year,” LeFriec said. “Last year, Doomsday Hill got her. She might be faster than I realize.”

With it being an Olympic year, several of the top wheelchair athletes are training for the Paralympics in Paris. Bloomsday traditionally draws close to a dozen athletes from the University of Illinois, where many of the top athletes train. Just one entrant is from Illinois, wheelchair race coordinator David Greig said.

“It’s a different feel with it being a Paralympic feel,” Greig said. “The top-end athletes are focusing on getting qualified on the track this year and we’re missing a large number of those athletes. We still have six Paralympians in the field.”

Greig said local standout and defending women’s champ Susannah Scaroni from Tekoa, Washington, is training for the Paralympics.

Greig said Hermin Garic of Utica, New York; Jacob Allen out of the University of Arizona; and Dustin Stallberg, also from Arizona, are names to watch among the men. Garic, 34, is in his seventh Bloomsday.

Among women, Hannah Babalola, 35, of Nigeria and Hannah Dederick, 21, from Spokane by way of Illinois, will go head-to-head in what Greig is calling the “Battle of the Hannahs.”

Babalola was third last year. Dederick’s best finish is third. They finished behind each other earlier at the Boston Marathon.

There are 21 men and women elite wheelchair athletes entered, with seven being from the Spokane area and athletes from seven countries.

Race communications coordinator Bethany Lueck said entrants surpassed 33,000 as of Thursday morning .