Stay in the Race No Matter What

The Akron Marathon, a 26.2 mile course through the hills and valleys of Akron, Ohio, took place on September 27, 2008. Roads are closed during this 6-hour event so that the runners can safely navigate through the downtown traffic. This is an understandable safety feature, but race officials and police officers made an incorrect assumption on this cloudy Saturday when they decided to take down the cones and markers early. A five-person relay team from Bethel Church of Tallmadge was running this course and they found themselves running alone - significantly behind the other marathon runners.

Here's what happened. The first person on this relay team started out the marathon like everyone else. She began at 7:00 am with the nearly 10,000 other runners. The sky was overcast and temperatures were below 70 degrees - a perfect day for a marathon. As she ran her 6 miles, she eventually found herself struggling to keep up with the 6-hour pacer (pacers run the race and hold a sign stating something like "if you want to finish in 3 hours or less, you have to be in front of me"). This relay team seemed doomed from the beginning since the entire race must be completed in six hours or less - otherwise you fail. She was still behind this pacer when she handed off to the next runner who would be doing a 3 mile leg. During this stretch, she lost sight of the 6-hour pacer altogether. The third runner took over after her and started on her 6 mile stretch.

"I knew none of this so far. I was just waiting to cheer on my wife on at the corner of Merriman Road and Portage Path which was near the end of her leg." said the husband of the third Bethel Church runner, "My two sons and I waited and waited until finally the 6-hour pacer came by and said there weren't many others behind him. Finally a small group ran by and told us that they were the last of the runners. The cops started taking down the cones and told us to leave. I flat-out refused! Me and the kids sat down and told them that she's coming because she told me she wasn't going to fail. They kept bothering us and told us to leave but we wouldn't. Finally, a race official huffed and then got on his bike to ride down the toe-path. He was going to see if we were wrong. Just then, my wife came running into view and we cheered her on while the cops had to direct traffic for her to continue since they had taken down the cones. Later, I would find out that she was running on unmarked paths and even got lost at one point because they took down a path marker. The police and race officials probably figured that if anyone was that far behind, they didn't stand a chance."

She passed on to the next runner who had started to believe she wasn't going to show up at all. He ran his leg of the race and never located the 6-hour pacer or the other marathoners. Finally he handed off to the last guy who, in his 50's and in a pair of soccer shoes, ran the final leg and not only located the 6-hour pacer, but he passed him up! Their team, "The Hardbody Wannabes from Bethel Church of Tallmadge", ultimately finished with nine minutes to spare! They all got their medals and certificates for completing the Akron Marathon. No one can deny that every runner had to be thinking "why even continue on?" It was certainly the thinking of the cops and the race officials.