I’m normally a calm, mild-mannered person, but at this year’s Bloomsday 12K race, an incident on the race course enraged me.

I’ve become good friends with Jim Dietz, pictured above, through the Flying Irish Running Club. One of the original members of the Flying Irish, Jim is also active in other running clubs. I’ve attended many events and get-togethers over the years in which Jim was involved. He runs a business just north of Spokane called Dietz Christmas Tree Farm.

Unable to run because of an injury, I watched the race while taking photos of my running club co-members. When Jim came into view, I noticed several things he should be doing to run faster, so I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Lift your knees, Jim! Don’t swing your arms so much! Lean into the wind! Pass that guy in front of you! Put your shoulders back!”

I yelled more things but can’t remember them all. However, when Jim went by, he showed what he thought about all my helpful suggestions.

When I try to help someone, and they do something like this, I get really, really mad.

I couldn’t get the incident out of my mind. I was seething all day.

By evening I decided to take a drive out to Jim’s farm. There were going to be a bunch of trees that wouldn’t see Christmas.

However, as I was driving, I got a call from Jim. He told me how fun Bloomsday had been and apologized for not hearing a word I said. He plugged his ears because he’s sensitive to loud music.

I hadn’t thought of that. It’s a Bloomsday tradition to have bands play at several spots along the course. One was playing right by me, and they were pretty loud.

I told Jim no problem and at the Flying Irish’s next club meeting, it was like nothing had happened. Jim and I were good friends once again.