SPOKANE, WA—Bruce Sprintsteen and seven other Bloomsday characters—or at least the popular trading cards that represent them—will be available for collecting at the Bloomsday Trade Show this weekend. Collect them, trade them, or carry them in your wallet to show your friends. This year’s eight new character trading cards will join the sixteen that were distributed in 2013 and 2014.
“Every year Bloomsday is a parade of 50,000 unique characters,” said Bloomsday Race Director Don Kardong. “The trading cards underscore that fact, although we don’t expect our actual participants to look quite as extraordinary as the ones on the cards.”
Each of the eight cards in the 2015 set feature an imaginary Bloomsday character. This year’s set includes Bruce Sprintsteen (“He was born to run!”), Tia Shirt (“She finishes with style!”), JerriO (“Don’t start the race without ’em!”), Mary Thon (“She goes the extra 26 miles!”), Ken Yan (“International Ambassador of Speed!”), Headband Jan (“Cranium fashionista!), Sole Man (“He’s on a mission to run!”), and Annie Mal (“She runs on the wild side!”).
In addition to the characters on the front, the backs of the cards feature fun facts and stats about Bloomsday and running. The back of Bruce Sprintsteen’s card reports that since 1977, Bloomies have traveled 11,589,468 miles, enough to get to the moon and back 48 times. Annie Mal’s card states that a cheetah can run 100 meters in 5.8 seconds, compared with 9.58 for Usain Bolt.
The cards were designed by Steve Merryman of Sigma, the company that produces most of Bloomsday’s ads and printed materials. Trading cards have been distributed to participants of the Fit for Bloomsday youth running and walking program as rewards, and according to coaches they’ve been a huge it. The crazy characters have also been busy promoting the race by appearing in print ads in magazines in the region.
The good news is you don’t have to be a Fit for Bloomsday participant to relive your childhood days of swapping and collecting trading cards. All eight 2015 cards will be available at Bloomsday sponsor booths at the Trade Show May 1-2.
Characters still wishing to sign up for Bloomsday will find late registration available for $35.00 during regular Check-In hours at the Convention Center this weekend.
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