UVA health department running group has “a running fever”

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - One award winning infectious disease doctor is working towards a new personal record with help from his department at the University of Virginia Medical Center. The record has nothing to do with fighting illnesses however.

The “Infectious Disease Running Group” is taking on some of Charlottesville’s toughest courses. They say they have “a running fever.”

“Hopefully, after the pandemic, that’s funny again. It certainly wasn’t funny two years ago,” Doctor Bill Petri said. “It’s been kind of part of the spirit of the division.”

The slogan was coined by a graduate student a few years back, and it is now the motto for the group.

“It’s kind of surreal to see people that you work with every day be out in athletic clothing and not in lab coats and just, you know, let loose for a little bit,” Petri Lab graduate student David Tyus said.

Dr. Petri says that years ago, many of the senior professors were all runners. Now that they have retired, Dr. Petri is keeping the tradition running.

I was like, kind of caught up by his enthusiasm and I said I had to do it,” Tyus said

“Bill found out that I was a runner and pretty quickly recruited me to be a part of the team.”

The award winning doctors, scientists, and fellows are striving for a new personal record at the Charlottesville Ten Miler. Dr. Petri starts recruiting a training group a year before the race.

“To get graduate students who are doing cutting edge science working with physicians, who are taking care of the patients with the illness, if you get those two people together, there’s so much cross talk and learning and understanding, Dr. Petri said.

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