I had the pleasure of running with and making some new friends from the Kanawha Running Club when we were in Charleston in mid-July for our daughter’s freshman orientation.
Dan Nehnevaj (far right in above photo) currently specializes in the 20k race walk, recently coming in 5th in the 2024 US Olympic Trials with a PR of 1:23:10. He’s a former assistant Track & Field and Cross Country coach for West Virginia University Tech and, from what I understand, coaches many runners local to the Charleston area. His collegiate athletic resume and WVU bio is impressive.
Hector Falcon (second from right in above photo) is a resident of Charleston, and a Texas native hailing from El Paso. He was the overall winner of this year’s El Paso Marathon in 2:38:03. Hector touts that he had no high school or college training. The guy is gifted, and he trains hard.
This morning Hector pulled off an amazing 2nd place finish in the 51st running of the Charleston Distance Run, which is affectionately known as America’s 15-mile road race. Dan came through in 8th in 1:30 and some change. I don’t claim to be an expert on the hills of Charleston, but I’ve put in some miles in the South Hills area and they’re no joke. They make the hills of Austin and the outskirts of the Texas Hill Country look like cute little speed bumps. The Charleston Distance Run (or CDR as the locals call it) has a grueling 450 foot climb into the South Hills over two miles at the 4 mile mark. It’ll really put your legs and lungs to the test and if you’re not ready for it, it’ll grind you to a walk.
Hector’s training in the weeks leading up to the CDR was, in a word, crazy. I wouldn’t condone it, but I will say that it’s impressive, just on the razor’s edge of injury or burnout. The vast majority of his runs each week are at what I can only assume are at threshold pace. And he’d crank out 50 and 60 mile weeks.
A course preview at race effort. A tempo run a couple days later. Or, as Hector would probably call it “just a run.” A 15:00 5k trial a week out before the race. Why not?
That kind of effort being sustainable over time is arguable but, for me, it’s fun to watch unassociated and from afar.
My plan is to run the CDR at some point in the next three years. I mean, winners of the race in its early years are names like Jeff Galloway and Frank Shorter. I’m confident that I could put up a good fight in my age group, but I’ll leave the top of the overall leaderboard to those whose full bore is on another level.
Leave a Reply