Bob Tate has been a part of the Charleston Distance Run almost as long as the Charleston Distance Run has been a part of Charleston.
This will mark the 43rd race that Tate has volunteered his time on the race committee, as its treasurer and the person who monitors the registration database. There have been 45 races.
And Tate hasn't run in one of them.
"I am not a runner," Tate said. "Never have been."
To be honest, many of the hundreds of people who volunteer each year for the Distance Run aren't runners themselves. And, in many ways, that's good. It allows those who find a thrill in taking on the country's only 15-mile race to lace up their shoes and line up in front of the State Capitol.
And it's evidence that the people of Charleston are willing to throw their support to an event that is quintessentially Charleston, whether they're active participants or not.
Ask race director John Palmer what would happen with the Charleston Distance Run if it weren't for the 400 or so volunteers who man the water stations, stuff registration packets, set up for the pre-race dinner or any of the event's other crucial tasks and the answer is pretty simple.
Not much.
"We have to have volunteers, there's no question about that," Palmer said. "They're a vital, vital part of the race."
Many of the Distance Run's volunteers are die-hards, those who have stuck with the race through the decades. They started when they worked for the phone company or another business and kept with it through their retirement years.
"There are a lot of good people who work for us," Palmer said. "It really is a wonderful thing to have people with a true sense of community come out and help us."
Among the staunchest of the volunteers are the members of the race committee, many of them tasked with guiding an army of workers to handle traffic, pass out water, oversee the finish line or handle one of the many other jobs. Some, like Mac McMillian, are new to the group. McMillian joined the committee just last month. And he is a runner, this year handling one leg of the Distance Run's relay competition, another unique aspect of the race.
McMillian has put together other races around the Kanawha Valley and decided to join the Distance Run's committee. He's also a Shriner and a member of the Beni Kedem Temple, which hosted the Friday night pre-race dinner.
A retired engineer, McMillian in interested in streamlining processes, making a longtime event work even better in years to come.
"It's fun," McMillian said. "We have a little subcommittee that wants to see this become a destination run."
The Distance Run has plenty of components working it its favor to start. The committee doesn't know of another 15-mile race in America. Want to run a half-marathon? No problem, there are plenty of those from which to choose. But 15 miles? Including the trek up Corridor G affectionately called "Capital Punishment?" There's only one place to find that.
"We like to say it's the hardest 15 miles that you love to run," Tate said. "People just love that course. Our race is very unique."
And it's powered by hundreds of people who won't run the course, but are as important to the running community as anyone who dares tackle the race. It's those folks who make it so the 1,000 or more who take off from in front of the Capitol every year for nearly five decades can do so in the decades to come.
They weren't hard to spot Friday night. Their bright blue T-shirts identified them as Distance Run volunteers. And those shirts tagged them as an integral part of an event ingrained in the city's DNA. Are the rewards lucrative? No, but that's not why those hundreds rise before dawn every year for the race or spend days preparing race packets or most of the year overseeing the event's registration.
They love what the Distance Run means for Charleston. It's not about the rewards. It's about preserving something that his part of the city's identity.
"Where else can you get people to work for four days for a plate of spaghetti and a T-shirt?" McMillian asked.