At 86, he’s ready for the cable bridge run

Saturday morning won’t be much different than average for Jim Legard.

The 86-year-old will wake up, get dressed and will be ready to walk.

The only difference for the Kennewick resident will be the company.

The retired electrician usually goes with his walking group at Affinity at Southridge.

This morning he plans to join his daughter, granddaughter and her husband, and their two daughters to make the trek across the cable bridge as part of the thousands participating in the 39th annual Lampson Cable Bridge Run.

Legard was the first of his family to go on the annual trip across the bridge. While he’s always been a walker, he only started participating in the event a few years ago.

“It seemed like something to do,” he said.

His daughter, Debi Kreider, explains that he enjoys walking. He normally walks a mile or so every day.

His granddaughter, Amy Lindholm, also joined the first walk on cable bridge in 2014.

“It’s nice to walk with him,” she said. “I am really blessed that we do a lot of things as a family.”

What suprised Lindholm was Legard’s competitive nature.

In the two-person 80 to 99 men’s division, he has won both times he participated, finishing the 1-mile course on Washington Street in about 16 minutes both times.

“That was last time,” Legard said Friday.

He took the blue ribbon he won to his mother, who was in her 100s at the time, to show her, she said.

The cable bridge run isn’t the only walk they all participate in. The family participates in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in memory of Legard’s late wife, Pat. She died in 2013 after struggling with the disease for several years.

While Legard plans to be at the starting line for the race Saturday, the weather did keep him away last year.

The 2016 run was the coldest on record, with hundreds of people ran on snowy streets.

But he does intend to keep walking, even if it isn’t during the race. He credits his good health with his regular exercise regime.

“I just try to keep in shape,” he said. “I’m not getting any younger.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 6:23 PM with the headline "At 86, he’s ready for the cable bridge run."