Taking the Future Doctor Tegeder Challenge

Last year son Andy, his marathoner wife Julie, and my daughter Sonja all ran in the 2007 Seattle Torchlight Parade Run. It's a 5-mile (8K) run that starts at the Seattle Seahawks Stadium, Qwest Field, goes up the Alaska Way viaduct with a scenic view of the waterfront, cuts into the city onto 4th Avenue downtown where the run finishes on the parade route for the annual Seattle Torchlight Parade. It a night parade with lots of lighting and floats, bands, politicians to boo, etc.

(Above) - A random photo of runners in last year'r run in downtown Seattle.

So the fun thing on this run is that you get to finish in front of 300,000 people or so who are waiting for the parade to start. I was thinking about running in it, but pulled a groin muscle about two months ago while playing some basketball with some younger guys. The pain has only recently gone away, and at our Father's Day dinner I brought up the race to see if Andy and Julie wanted to run in it. Andy has been studying 10 hrs a day getting ready for the state medical board exams, and Julie just gave birth last month, so neither are in tip-top running shape. I mentioned that I had thought about running but with the injury I figured I'd have to wait until next year.

Upon hearing this, my 2-years of medical school trained, graduate student-degreed exercise science major said that anyone can run 5 miles with the amount of time left to train. So, I told him to write me a running prescription and I would do my best to follow it and see what happens. So I'll chronicle my progress, or lack thereof on the blog.

(Left) - First Day of training. Right off the bat I demonstrate my ability to outdistance some overweight , tired rec-league soccer girls on the track.

Ringo, our dog, is my training partner.

FDr (Future Doctor ) Tegeder's prescription for Day one is:
10 min fast walk
4 min jog
10 min walk
4 min jogWalk for 10 min or so more

Ringo and I pulled this one off. Wendy started with us, but her knees have dictated that she is the official photographer, and will be the official Grandma with Andy and Julie's three children during the race.

Day 2 - Jun 19th - FDr. Tegeders running prescription for today was : 20 min (minimum) fast walk. Hey, I can do a walk! Even my training partner didn't think that was so tough, although he was distracted the entire half hour walk. I went on a trail that we used to call the Bunny Trail from the days when we would go on family bike rides, and often see wild rabbits. Ringo was not disappointed, seeing many rabbits, and wanting to go after every one of them. He usually heels very well, but this evening he was pulling on leash most of the time, being distracted by the sight and smell of rabbits. I'm crossing Bunny Trail off of my training venue list.