Four generations of Dompiers will line up for today’s running of Bloomsday

Lenn Dompier of Davenport, Wash., is 84. He’s run every Bloomsday since the inaugural race in 1977. Today will mark his 34th run. But that’s not the coolest part.

Dompier’s three children, four grandchildren and two of his great-grandchildren will be in the race, too. Several spouses will also run, and two other great-grandchildren participated in Saturday’s Marmot March.

After today’s race, family members will compare times, swap stories and eat pulled-pork sandwiches at a family gathering.

When told about the Dompier family’s Bloomsday tradition, Stephanie Coontz, a national family-studies expert and Evergreen State College professor, said:

“Being fit is the best predictor of health you can get. Socializing with family and friends is one of the best predictors of happiness. And family rituals (give) a sense of continuity and place. This fills three family needs at once.”

The parents

Lenn and Fran Dompier have been married for 60 years.

Lenn was raised on a ranch in the Yakima Valley, Fran on an apple orchard in Okanagan, Wash. They grew up active, as did all children of the 1930s.

Fran’s typical childhood summer day: “We played outside all the time. I rode my bike four miles into town, went swimming and then rode it back home.

“We played kick the can. We played a game called ‘Anti-I-Over.’ You’d throw a ball over a shed, someone on the other side would catch it and then try to catch you.”

In his childhood summers, Lenn played “ice” hockey on fields, climbed trees, played baseball, did farm chores twice a day and swam.

Always athletic and competitive, he ran his first Bloomsday at age 51. The 50-something men had to start toward the back of the pack.

“They figured we’d finish in seven or eight hours,” he joked.

Lenn placed seventh in his age group. His time: 1 hour, 57 seconds.

“It was eight miles then, too,” he said of the course that was later shortened to 7.46 miles.

Fran, a walker, watched from the sidelines and has watched every one of Lenn’s races.

Their children marveled at their father’s new obsession. Eventually, they joined him.

The children

David Dompier, of Gig Harbor, Wash., is 59. Greg Dompier, of Spokane, is 57. Annie Dompier, also of Spokane, is 55.

They grew up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when kids were shooed out the door summer mornings and hollered home for supper.

No one worried about creepy adults. No one worried about “screens” because there weren’t any. No computers or game boys or cell phones.

Just TV and only three stations – all boring reruns in the summer.

The Dompier children rode their bikes, played neighborhood baseball, swam in municipal pools in Cheney, Colville and Davenport, the towns where they grew up.

In their 50s now, these grown Dompier children understand what can derail middle-age fitness: lethargy, stress, body wounds that heal slowly, psychic wounds that keep you indoors, nursing regrets.

Yet these Dompier children did not give in to middle-aged malaise. Instead, they ran.

This will be David’s 19th Bloomsday. “Running itself is not fun,” he said. “You do it because of how you feel when you’re done.”

Greg will run his 15th Bloomsday today. He didn’t train for the first one and when he finished, “I could hardly get up the stairs to take a shower. I said, ‘Never again; next year, I’ll train.’ ”

He did.

Annie will also run her 15th Bloomsday today.

“It’s hard work,” she said. “You know what I like most about running? Stopping.”

But she has no plans to stop the Bloomsday tradition. Her dad’s example keeps her going.

“It’s inevitable that we’ll all get old,” Annie said. “Our bones will creak. But it shouldn’t prevent you from doing this.”

The grandchildren

David Dompier’s children – Kori Kickbush, 33, and Chad Dompier, 35 – live in Renton, Wash.

Greg Dompier’s boys – Cody Dompier, 26, and Skyler Dompier, 24 – live in the Spokane area.

The older grandchildren, Kori and Chad, were able to wander outdoors almost as freely as their parents had, but things were changing for children. “Stranger danger’ inhibited free-range playing for children in towns, large and small.

“The end of the block was our border,” Skyler said.

Computer games and cable TV grew in popularity, as did the organized sports that replaced – but could not replicate – the outdoor physical play essential for children’s bodily and emotional health.

All four grandchildren did school sports: soccer, softball, baseball, cross-country, basketball, diving. And with their Grandpa Lenn, they did Bloomsday, year after year.

Kori and Skyler have run 12 Bloomsdays; Cody, seven.

Though he’s run nine Bloomsdays, Chad gradually got sidelined by soccer injuries, a busy career, two young boys.

“I ballooned up to 220 pounds,” he said.

Two years ago, he began running again. He has lost 60 pounds. His wife, Elizabeth, will run for the first time in Bloomsday today.

“Look at my Grandpa Lenn,” Chad said. “He’s doing something right. He’s 84 and still running every day.”

The great-grandchildren

Chad’s boys, Blake, 7, and Keegan, 5, can wander their Renton neighborhood “as long as my wife can see them,” he said. That’s six houses on one side, six on the other.

They are children in a society worried over childhood obesity while simultaneously cutting recess and PE.

Blake and Keegan, however, hiked last year in Yellowstone with their parents. Five miles, no complaints. And they ran the Marmot March on Saturday.

Kori’s kids, Audrey, 3, and Taylor, 1, will be pushed in strollers in today’s race. Her husband, Brian, will have six Bloomsdays under his belt when it’s over.

“Audrey is loving the idea of running already,” Kori said.

Audrey is picking up racing lingo. When Kori finishes her double-stroller runs with the girls, Audrey says: “I’ve got to stretch it out.”

What fitness trends will define society for these youngest family members? Will there be a backlash against screens, the cutting of recess and PE? Will free-range playing make a comeback?

No one yet knows. But one thing is certain: These greats will find their way to the Dompier family ritual in Spokane, year after year.

They’ll be here because 34 years ago, Grandpa Lenn decided to run a crazy new race called Bloomsday.