April 2, 2022, Washington, DC: Credit Union Cherry Blossom organizers announced this evening that Danny Talmage has been named the 2022 recipient of the Les Kinion Outstanding Service Award. Established in 2015, the award is presented at the event’s pre-race dinner in front of an appreciative crowd of race committee colleagues, other key volunteers and invited athletes.
In presenting the award, Deputy Director Becky Lambros had this to say about Danny’s significant contribution to the event: “Danny manages the shed with an iron hand. He knows where everything is and who it belongs to. Nothing moves in the shed without Danny’s approval.”
Race Director Phil Stewart added: “There are a lot of glamorous aspects to organizing a road race, like dealing with world-class runners, signing new sponsors, doing media interviews, and more. But one ever-so-critical function usually elicits eye rolling and groans — the task of organizing and managing the event’s storage shed. That’s hardly the case for this year’s Les Kinion award winner, Danny Talmage. Danny loves, defends and organizes the shed to his own high standards, and for that, we are eternally grateful and promise him the job for life.”
When not managing the Credit Union Cherry Blossom shed, Talmage is a program officer with more than 20 years of experience at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and has been with the Board on Human System-Integration for 6 years. He is also a Managing Partner of Crazy Dog Events, which provides professional race management to events in the Montgomery County and DC areas, as well as giving assistance to charities starting new fundraising races.
The Les Kinion Award was established in honor of Les Kinion, a Baltimore firefighter with Engine Company 43. By passion, he was first a runner and then a running club officer and race director. In 1970, Les co-founded the Baltimore Road Runners Club, one of the earliest chapters of the Road Runners Club of America. In 1973 he helped launch the first Maryland Marathon. After retiring in 1986, Les moved to Bishopville, MD, and worked on hundreds of races on the Maryland-Delaware Coast. He became involved with the Cherry Blossom Run in the early 1990s, and was active until he passed away in July 2014 at the age of 78.
Past recipients of the Les Kinion Award include: Irv Newman, George Tarrico, Michelle Carter, Jean Arthur, Glenn Klenk, Nita Lalla Rincone, and Marsha Way. Press releases about each year’s award recipient can be found in the archives.
Thanks to credit union title sponsorship since 2002, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Run has raised over $10 million for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, including $323,000 this year.
