Revealed: The Mysterious Man in Yellow, Running Lake Sammamish Parkway

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Who’s the Man in Yellow Running Lake Sammamish Parkway?

In towns across America there is that person. That local person that everyone knows because they do that strange thing or they wear that weird outfit. But nobody really, truly knows who the person is. In the town I grew up in, we had The Bird Man. The Bird Man looked to be in his 60’s, he was bald, perpetually sunburned from head to toe, he had a huge belly, and he rode his bike around town, barefoot, wearing nothing but a small pair of shorts. Everyone at school knew about the Bird Man, but no one had ever spoken to him.

If you’ve driven Lake Sammamish Parkway over the past 15 years, you may have seen an older man running, dressed in head-to-toe yellow. That’s Mel Romeu: The Bird Man of the Eastside.

“I was born in Puerto Rico in a little village and I had to walk everywhere. I believe that you’ve got to keep healthy.”

Mel is 78 years old and he runs Lake Sammamish Parkway five days a week.

“I do 215 minutes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday combined. I do two hours and 15 minutes on Wednesdays. The reason why 215, that was my classroom number for over 20 years. I taught high school.”

Mel and his Hawaiian born wife, Dorothy, moved to Issaquah in 1996 after picking the city out of a book about the best places to retire. They met teaching in Japan in 1967 and in 1968, Mel started running. They spent 27 years living in Germany, and Mel ran 11 marathons around Europe.

When Mel runs, he multi tasks: he gets exercise and he does good for the community.

“I collect money from the street. I call it Street Money. I don’t want the money from your pockets. The whole idea is someone is helping, not knowing that he or she is helping. That’s really giving.”

Mel keeps his change in a big piggy bank, and strangers come up to him and give him their found cash that he hands over to St Joseph Church for charity.

“Last year was a good year, someone found $100 and brought it to me. Another person, he was driving a BMW, and he was waiting for me and he said, ‘I found this!’ and he gave me $10. I found $131 last year, in cash. I had over 20 pounds of change.”

Mel’s do-gooding spans from picking up discarded furniture he finds on the side of the road (he donates it to the Salvation Army) to spending time with the inmates at the prison in Monroe a couple times a month. He also has a little ritual if he sees an animal killed on the side of the road.

“I have to confess to you. I was a little boy, maybe about six years old, I had a slingshot and I was under a tree and I killed this tiny little bird. It bothered me forever. So when I see a bird dead on the road, I just take him off. I put him on the other side for the other birds to consume it. I usually talk to the animals in Spanish. I just salute them. Nature, to me, is very important.”

Every morning, before he runs, Mel goes through the same enduring little routine. First he has a few spoonfuls of nut and fruit cereal and a banana.

“Just one banana. That’s all you need!”

He has a little breakfast dessert.

“Dessert for breakfast, dessert for lunch, I like desserts.”

And he watches an episode of his favorite TV show.

“There are only two shows that are worth watching for me: The Golden Girls and I Love Lucy.”

Ok, so Mel isn’t exactly the Bird Man. He wears shoes. He doesn’t have a sunburn. And although he remains a mystery to many, he’s a bit of a local celebrity according to his wife, Dorothy.

“We were walking through Norsdstrom and this woman put out here hands and said, ‘Ohhh! My hero!’ and she ran and she grabbed him and hugged him and she said, ‘Can I have a picture!? Can I have a picture!?'”