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2008 CHARLESTON DISTANCE RUN 15 MILE, 3-PERSON 15 MILE RELAY, 5K and WALKS of 5K & 10K SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008, 7:30 am Charleston, WV - Virginia St E at Civic Center Dr The Charleston Distance Run was organized and started in 1973 by Charleston Optometrist, Don Cohen. Cohen has both fond memories and a few chuckles as he recalls the early days of the CDR and is quick to point out that not all the decisions regarding the race had scientific reasoning behind them. The Sternwheel Regatta had only been going on for a couple of years and the city was looking to expand the activities in the regatta. It was around the spring of 1973 when Cohen first started meeting with Jim Johnson., who worked for the city, about plans for a race. First, they had to decide upon the course, both the distance and the start and finish locations. Knowing that they wanted some hills as well as a lot of level ground the search began. Along with some members of the police department they drove up and down and all around the streets of Charleston. After doing this several times, checking out different routes, they finally found and decided upon the route that they felt was what they were looking for. When measuring the route, it came close to 15 miles. So it was decided to have a 15-mile race. It really wasn't very scientific. Cohen said he believed that officials were well organized for the first race, but there were some hitches. One of remembrance was that they had put all the stop watches for the finish line in the trunk of a car, but Harold Vealey was using the car to take Jesse Owens around to view the course. Realizing, just before the runners got to the finish line at the Civic Center, that they didn't have any stop watches, nervousness set in. Luckily, Joe Bundy, the track coach at Fairmont had a stop watch and saved the day. Also, other helpers for this first race were; Marty Pushkin, Pat Schell, Harold Vealey, and Shannon Westerman. 233 runners signed up and 213 runners finished that very first race. The directors have been: Don Cohen/Jim Johnson 1973 - 1976 Mike Reed 1977 - 1978 Tony Gallo 1979 - 1984 Nemo Nearman 1985 - 1988 Danny Wells/Don Cohen 1989 Danny Wells 1990 - 2001 Kelly Castleberry, III 2002 - 2003 David Fenwick 2004 - 2006 Gary Smith 2007 - 2008 |
