Hermin Garic repeats, Hannah Babalola wins first wheelchair title
Patrick Kiprop and Veronica Loleo took similar routes in their first attempts — and victories — at the 49th Lilac Bloomsday Run on Sunday, making their races solo endeavors by the midway point of the 12-kilometer course.
The only difference? Loleo put her name on a women’s record that had stood for nearly a decade.
The 27-year-old Kenyan surged away from the other four runners in the initial lead pack after five kilometers and built a lead that reached as much as 80 meters. Though she seemed to have slipped from course-record pace after the punishing hills, she ran the final half-mile in under 2 minutes, 20 seconds and finished in 38:02 — shaving a second off Cynthia Limo’s 2016 standard. That left her 12 seconds ahead of Ethiopia’s Adane Anmaw Mengesha, who ran shoulder to shoulder over the last mile with Sarah Naibei before edging the defending champion at the finish.
Kiprop, a graduate student and five-time All-American at the University of Arkansas, made his move a bit later, on the downslope before Doomsday Hill. But in the end, the 6-foot-2 Kenyan was even more dominant, finishing in 34:08 — 35 seconds ahead of runner-up Mike Kamau — with former Northern Arizona standout Futsum Zienasellassie third in 34:51.
All of it unfolded in perfect conditions — a glorious sunny day with temperatures in the mid-50s after the prospect of rain earlier in the weekend. Not quite 30,000 runners and walkers — 29,917 — followed the elite athletes through the winding Spokane course.
A fast women’s race was no surprise. The field was arguably Bloomsday’s deepest ever, including the defending champion, a handful of former top five finishers and Diana Chepkorir, whose No. 15 world road race ranking topped the entries.
She was in the group of five that had separated themselves two miles in, but was also the first of those to fall off when Loleo made her surge on a short climb from the base of Whistalks Way. No one joined her, and by the time they passed in front of Spokane Falls Community College, she had a 25-meter lead that would continue to widen.
“I was surprised,” said Loleo when asked if she expected to draw away so quickly. “I was so very happy.”
When the runners turned to start the climb up Doomsday Hill, Naibei tried to bridge some of the gap and got maybe halfway there. But even that challenge didn’t last as Loleo eased away again after reaching the top.
Loleo finished second a month ago in the Generali Prague half-marathon and felt ready for a strong performance, though she “didn’t expect” to break the course record in her first try at the 12K distance.
“It’s very tough a competitive, and it’s a hard course,” she said. “I’m really very happy.”
She wasn’t the only record-setter. Aubrey Frentheway, a former West Coast Conference cross-country titlist from Brigham Young, clocked 38:13 in fourth place to break Colleen De Reuck’s American course record that dated back to 2002.
Kiprop, like Loleo, felt prepared physically — just not fully prepared. He wound up missing the bus that took the elite runners for a look at the Bloomsday layout on Saturday.
“So I thought maybe I’d preview the course (Sunday) when I’m running,” he said.
Perhaps that need to get an unobstructed view accounted for his unlikely burst when the men made their way out of downtown Spokane and he opened up a 20-meter lead. He called it strategy.
“I used the downhills to separate and then tried to stay consistent on the uphills,” said Kiprop. “I realized that most of the people in the field would not make their move on downhills.”
True enough, Kamau waited until the climb at the five-kilometer mark to try to make up ground — and briefly moved in front. But Kiprop regained the lead when Kamau had to make a stop in front of the college to vomit.
“I started feeling bad in the stomach,” Kamau explained. “Then he accelerated away.”
That included the uphills — Kiprop’s split on Doomsday was even faster than the competition. He had a 24-second lead after six miles, even as Kamau recovered. Kiprop’s 34:08 clocking was the seventh-fastest winning time in Bloomsday history without a push over the last half of the race.
“This is my first road race,” said Kiprop, now 26 and a multiple SEC champion in track and cross-country at Arkansas. “I’m a track athlete. I thought road races would be easier, but after today, they’re hard. Everything is hard — downhills, everything.”
Loleo and Kiprop each took home $7,000 winners’ prizes. Among the top finishers in the men’s race were two former Gonzaga runners, Jake Perrin in sixth and James Mwaura 16th.
If the elite races were runaways, the wheelchair contests were cliffhangers, with defending champion Hermin Garic surviving a push from 21-year-old Wyatt Willand, and Hannah Babalola capturing her first Bloomsday in four tries over Heather Sealover.
Rarely did there seem to be more than a wheel’s diameter difference between Garic and Willand, with just a second separating them after Doomsday Hill. When the two made the turn from Broadway on to Monroe for the finishing sprint, Willand moved to the inside and surged into a narrow lead that the 35-year-old Garic didn’t erase until the final 20 meters.
They finished in identical times of 31:10, with Aidan Gravelle taking third in 33:35.
The women’s race had a slightly wider gap — two seconds — but had wilder swings, with Sealover coming from 14 seconds down to take the lead at the start of Doomsday, falling behind again before gathering for a furious stretch run. Babalola, the 2024 runner-up, clocked 40:30 in winning. Teenager Brooklyn Gossard was third.
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Original release: May 4, 2025
Contact: Andy Lefriec, 509-954-7947