Barnesville Race Director Walks to First Place in Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon
Carl Kondrach, Wheeling native who now lives in Barnesville and hosts races, took strides at the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon Classic Walk in May where he won first place for the walking race.
The Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon during Wellness Weekend took place May 23 where Kondrach won this year’s Men’s Walk as a contestant. However, walking in the half marathon is not the only thing Kondrach does. He is also a host and director for several races in the Barnesville community, including Rotary Lake Trail 5k, Santa’s Spirit Sprint, Rails-to-Trails 5k and Pumpkin Festival 5k.
Kondrach has been running and racing his whole life starting at six years old. He grew up in the Children’s Home of Wheeling, and one of the activities the children would do is set up water stations for the Elby’s Restaurant Half Marathon Race—now the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon Classic.
Kondrach said national and international runners would come, including the famous runner Bill Rodgers, and he would be fascinated by it.
“I saw these guys that would run by,” he said. “And it was a really big event. They had all kinds of local coverage on the news and in the papers, and they had a whole weekend about it. So it just really got me interested and excited about running.”
One of the counselors at the Children’s Home of Wheeling was a runner and trained Kondrach, so he started doing local runs and races.
Kondrach has raced the Ogden Half Marathon for 37 years, this year finishing first in the Men’s Walk. He used to run the half marathon but after he was in a car accident and broke his leg in 2009, he started competing in the walking race.
Kondrach said he’d go to several races a year, volunteering and wanted to get back into running, but since he couldn’t, someone told him, “Why don’t you take up race walking?”
He described race walking as being similar to running but with different forms and having no impact or pounding on your legs and knees. Since 2010, he’s been race walking the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon.
He described the Ogden Newspapers race day as having perfect conditions, such as weather and support from people.
Preparation for running a race is different from walking. Kondrach described race walking as an “unnatural movement,” meaning running comes naturally, but race walking uses a lot of hips, glutes and shin muscles. He noted people have to prepare their lower body for it.
Kondrach said training for the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon is also different because it’s built as the toughest half marathon in America with four major hills and elevation gain.
“It’s my favorite hometown race,” he said. “It just brings back a lot of good memories.”
Kondrach has finished in the top two of the Half Marathon Walk every year except for the year he was coming back from his leg injury.
This year, he won first place. He noted his rival from past races wasn’t there, so it made it an easier path to winning. Though, he wasn’t racing for first place but more in memory of a runner who had died about a month prior—Don Slusser.
Kondrach was competing in a number of races he and Slusser had done together. Slusser was from Monroeville, PA, but would visit Barnesville for the races. Kondrach said the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon was one of Slusser’s favorite races.
“It wasn’t the same without him being there,” Kondrach said. “So I was more emotional, considering that, walking in his honor, his memory, than about winning. Winning is always nice, don’t get me wrong. But it was more about honoring him.”
Kondrach finished the race in two hours and 16 minutes, hitting his personal goal and beating last year’s time.
Kondrach is a racer, but also a director of four races in the Barnesville community. The Rotary Lake Trail 5k takes place at the end of March at the Barnesville Memorial Park, The Rails-to-Trails 5k takes place in the middle of May at the Depot, the Pumpkin Festival 5k takes place at the end of September and the Santa Sprint one mile and 5k in the beginning of December at the Rock Gym.
Dale Landefeld, who hosted some of these races, moved away from Barnesville, while the director of the Pumpkin Festival 5K had a child that ran track at the high school and graduated, so they no longer wanted to do it. That’s when Kondrach took over.
Kondrach said people don’t know everything Barnesville has to offer and likes to bring positive attention to the village by keeping these races going. He described Barnesville as a “gem.”
He added his ultimate goal is to raise funds for the Santa Sprint while giving some money to the Barnesville Memorial Park for trail maintenance or for improvements.
The Santa Sprint event is to raise money for Christmas gifts for children. Kondrach and his team have a core group of children that they buy for every year that are less fortunate in and around Barnesville, whether that be children who live with their grandparents, parents who aren’t well off or don’t have a lot of money to spend on Christmas gifts. Kondrach’s wife, Jessica Kondrach, will contact the parent, grandparent or guardian and ask what kind of items the child might want along with their sizes. Kondrach and his team will deliver the presents to the guardian a week before Christmas.
Kondrach loves running because of the camaraderie and interaction with other runners and walkers. He competes in more than 100 races a year, usually taking a friend or his daughter to the races every weekend, from Cleveland and Pittsburgh, PA to Charleston, WV and Columbus.
‘There is such a thing as something called the runners high,” he said. “And what that is that natural dopamine release when you go to when you get excited about something.”
He added he loves the races in Barnesville because they are very family-oriented events, like a family reunion atmosphere with everyone being happy.
Kondrach also said the Barnesville races have been recognized regionally as some of the best races around. The Pumpkin Festival 5k and the Rails-to-Trails 5k have been regularly voted the number one and two favorite races in the Ohio Valley. Runners and walkers from all over, including Cleveland, Pittsburgh, PA, Columbus and Charleston, WV attend the races. Even a crew from Indiana comes four times a year because runners love the race so much.
Kondrach said he is not the only person to give credit to the races and that village leaders and residents also make them happen. He said between his 500 hours of work for each race, organizing, designing t-shirts, making trophies, marking the race courses, setting up and tearing down everything, he can’t do it alone and his race committee along with friends and family help.
“I couldn’t do any of that without volunteers and without the support of the village,” he said. “So they deserve as much credit as I get, and I want that to be put out there for sure that I appreciate them.”
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