Tallman Track Club
Charleston, West Virginia
2002

The Tallman Track Club, an informal non-profit group of road and track runners, began with an off the wall comment by our off the wall runner Michael Mayes.  During the first half mile of our daily
ten mile course, Mike looked to Ken Tallman and said, "Tallman, what are you trying to do here, start a track club"?  What had begun with three to five runners had suddenly grown to a group of twelve to fifteen.  Ken, being the old man of the group, flashed his trademark grin, blinked a couple of times, and an idea was born.  Bob Fleming had an idea that a track club needed shirts, and that it should be named after the runner we all loved and respected, Tallman!  Thus the Tallman Track Club was born on a fall day in 1976.  Bob purchased two shirts, had Tallman Track Club printed on the back, and on the following Monday, he and Leonard Hager donned the shirts under their rain jackets.  In the exact spot where Michael spawned the idea, Leonard and Bob removed their jackets and ran in front of Ken.  Ken again flashed his trademark grin, laughing loudly, and said, "what in the world are you two up to now"?  By acclamation, the group unanimously applauded and the Tallman Track Club became official.  The club was open to any and all, and the only unwritten rules were you ran Mt. Alpha on Wednesday and drank beer.  If you returned the following Wednesday you were in.  Ken graciously waived the beer drinking rule on occasion with unanimous consent.  It was unanimously approved that Ken Tallman would be President for life.  Over the years the group has prospered and grown, and is the oldest continuous running club in West Virginia.  It welcomed the members of the oldest group, the Saint Albans Runners, that contained many state, county and high school champions, many of which are current today.  The club has contained runners ranging from the state record holder in the 880 yard track race, to the National Masters 50 Mile Road Champion and Road Championship Team.  It routinely had overall winners in races from one mile to the marathon, and age group winners three deep at times.  Its roster is well known, respected, admired, and often written about in local newspapers.  The club has hosted the annual Post Race Track Party outside Laidley Field Charleston Distance Run Finish Line for over 20 years, where an anonymous contributor provides moonshine for Ken to close out another successful year for the Tallman Track Club.  The following have attested this to be true:

Ken Tallman
Michael Mayes
Bill Ripley
Leonard Hager
Bob Fleming

 

Leader of the Pack

Veteran Ken Tallman recalls early days of running boom

 

By Jeff Morris

                         

    Veteran runner Ken Tallman is matter-of-fact when asked how it feels to have a
local track club named after him.

    “I really didn’t think much of it then,” the 67-year-old Charleston resident said. “We were running along, and one of them came up with the idea we should have a name. Since I was the oldest and the slowest, we called it Tallman.”

     That name has stood the test of time since several local runners bestowed the honor on Tallman nearly 20 years ago. Members of the Tallman Track Club still gather at 5 p.m. weekdays in Kanawha City and at the University of Charleston for a run and more than a few laughs.

     The informal start to the club is similar to the way Tallman fell into running. He was 36 or 37 and was getting bruised and battered in basketball games at the old YMCA downtown.

     “Most of the people were a lot younger and better than I was, and I played hard,” Tallman said. “One Saturday morning, I was down in the basement. I had beaten myself up so bad I couldn’t get back up the steps. My wife had to come down the steps and get me. She said, ‘You better pick something else to do.’ ”

     Soon, Tallman was running several miles on the track. Working at Columbia Gas, it was natural he would take his new pursuit to the streets of Kanawha City. It wasn’t long before he hooked up with other local runners, like Bob Fleming, Mike Mayes, Bill Ripley and Leonard Hager. From this group, the Tallman Track Club was born. Over the years, hundreds of local runners affiliated with the club have dominated area road and track races.

     Despite his late start, Tallman developed into much more than a recreational runner. He was running 80- to 100-mile-plus weeks as he competed in road races, including 15 consecutive Boston Marathons. Along the way, he recorded personal bests of 2 hours and 43 minutes in the marathon and 34:30 in the 10-K. At age 40, he finished second in his age group in the 15-mile Charleston Distance Run in 1 hour, 32 minutes.

    “When we started, we had people like Frank Shorter and Bill Rogers. I think this is why I was running 80 and 100 a week,” Tallman said. “Mike Mayes, one of the old-timers, would come around and say, ‘Shorter or Rogers is running 120 miles a week. So, well, hell, we can do at least 100.’ ”

      One of his favorite memories occurred when he and a group of runners went to the Columbus Marathon. The evening before the race, they decided downing a dozen or so beers would be no problem since it was unlikely to be hot the next day.

     “The marathon started about 10:30, and we were all in pretty good shape. I thought I was capable that year of running 2:40,” he said. “At about the 10-mile mark, all of a sudden the sun came out, and it got hotter than hell. They accused me of crawling into one of the water stations.”

     Still, Tallman and fellow runner John Greenwald made it to the finish line in a respectable 3 hours and 5 minutes.

     Time and circumstances have changed running for Tallman. His gait has been affected by what he believes may have been too much downhill running in the Boston Marathon.

     While he doesn’t run with the track club since he moved to Edgewood, Tallman keeps in shape by running and walking four to five miles a day. He is pleased the track club continues and tries to make it each year to a Tallman tradition – a sharing of post-race beers by the railroad tracks following the Distance Run.

     Running has kept him in shape and healthy. Most of all, though, it has allowed him to interact with the many fine people associated with the Tallman Track Club.

     “I’ve met all kinds of people – doctors and lawyers. People like Mike Mayes, who is an engineer, Fred Waybright and W.K. (Munsey),” Tallman said. “Runners
seem to be sort of a different group of people.”