SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – Entering his 30th Bloomsday, former 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Paralympian Tyler Byers knows every bump and crease in the course.
“The thing that really makes this special is having done it year after year, and you get family out there watching you, and friends out watching you, and it’s a… it’s the way to kick off the summer season in Spokane, I can’t imagine being here and not doing the race,” Byers said.
Byers began his racing career at the 1992 Bloomsday, and continued his racing career at the University of Arizona before breaking course records from Phoenix to Charleston, South Carolina.
The Inland Northwest native finished in the top-10 in last year’s wet and slick rain, and this year’s much sunnier Bloomsday will be welcome for him. Byers spoke more about his gratuity for his family and community’s support for the race.
“It was fun to be in a place where I was 10 years old when I did my first race, and now I’m going to be 42, and still doing well,” Byers said. “I’m not maybe as fast as I was in my 20s, but still within a couple minutes. I just feel really lucky to be in a position where I can come out and participate in Bloomsday and the great Spokane event again.”
Bloomsday begins tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. for the wheelchair division and 9:00 a.m. for the elite racers and over 34,000 ready racers.
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