Atlanta has played an important part in Rich Kenah’s life.
The next chapter will begin Feb. 24, when Kenah takes over as executive director of the Atlanta Track Club, which puts on numerous running events in the city, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race.
“Atlanta has been the intersection of a lot of areas of my running career,” he said.
Kenah, who was announced as the new executive director of the Atlanta Track Club on Tuesday, decided to give up his running career after failing by less than four-tenths of a second to make it onto the 1996 U.S. Olympic team during a qualifying meet in Atlanta that year.
Walking through downtown the next day, Kenah stopped in front of the Hyatt hotel, where a friend counseled him to keep going. Kenah rededicated himself to his Olympic dream. He said competing at the Georgia Dome in the U.S. Indoor Championships the next year was a “great bridge” to the 1997 IAAF World Indoor and Outdoor Championships in Paris, where he won a bronze medal in the 800 meters. He eventually fulfilled his dream and made the U.S. team for the 2000 Sydney Games as an 800-meter runner.
After retiring as a professional athlete in 2001, he began the next chapter in his life. He became a marketing manager at Falk Associates Management Enterprises before moving to Boston-based Global Athletics and Marketing, Inc.
The Atlanta Track Club position interested him because he said the organization “has such a strong following nationally in the running community, which I have been a part of my entire life.” He will succeed Tracey Russell, who resigned last year to take a new job running the Los Angeles Marathon.
Kenah wants to continue the ATC’s ongoing efforts to get more people involved in running.
“That’s how I would measure success: engaging people into believing they can run and then becoming runners,” he said.
ATC chairman Bill Duffey said the resolve that Kenah showed that day walking around downtown Atlanta was important to the hiring committee. He said it showed them Kenah’s passion, discipline and commitment.
“That’s the combination of things we need right now,” Duffey said. “It’s necessary to understand the running market and industry and how we extend it to the community that will propel us into the next 50 years.”
Kenah said it’s premature to discuss any specific programs he wants to install until he actually arrives and is able to get to know the staff and resources.
He referenced his admiration for the ATC’s Kilometer Kids program and described how it can fulfill his goal of helping develop more runners.
“Kids are looking for inspiration, a road map, to get started,” he said. “I look forward to helping the organization turn it into something that every kid in the Atlanta area can take part of.”
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