The Co-Founder & Executive
Director’s Personal History of Running
I started
running at a very early age as a tool to survive. My parents moved to a
neighborhood in the late 1950’s that was directly behind an all white
neighborhood. The all white neighborhood was between my house and school
so, frankly, I had to run often and run fast to keep from getting
injured or beaten up. Running became so much a part of me that I would
run almost everywhere. I was not a member of the track team, but I
always felt that I should have been. I started running competitively at
age 41. In the beginning I was not very nice to look at while running.
One of my friends made a video and I had speed but no form. A very good
friend Charles Greene, NCAA champion and 1968 Olympian taught me how to
train and how to run with the proper form. I have two individual world
championships (1987, 1989) in the 100m dash with a time of 10.92 and
11.4 for ages 40-44 and 45-49, respectively. I was the World Medical
Games Champion twice in the 100m and 400m dash.
Bob Schlau and I met while training at the Citadel in 1992. At that time
we both were ranked as two of the best runners in the world in our
prospective age groups and I suggested to him that we do something to
encourage young children to run for fitness and health. The Bell &
Schlau Track and Field Seminar was born with the great help of my local
running friends, Charles Greene, and Charleston Southern University. As
they say, “the rest is history,” and we have done well in promoting life
long fitness, education for living, and service to the community.
I started
running at a very early age as a tool to survive. My parents moved to a
neighborhood in the late 1950’s that was directly behind an all white
neighborhood. The all white neighborhood was between my house and school
so, frankly, I had to run often and run fast to keep from getting
injured or beaten up. Running became so much a part of me that I would
run almost everywhere. I was not a member of the track team, but I
always felt that I should have been. I started running competitively at
age 41. In the beginning I was not very nice to look at while running.
One of my friends made a video and I had speed but no form. A very good
friend Charles Greene, NCAA champion and 1968 Olympian taught me how to
train and how to run with the proper form. I have two individual world
championships (1987, 1989) in the 100m dash with a time of 10.92 and
11.4 for ages 40-44 and 45-49, respectively. I was the World Medical
Games Champion twice in the 100m and 400m dash.