Canfield’s Folk speeds to second Peace win

The YSU track coach posted his best time for a road race.

By JOHN BASSETTI

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — He was the first one to the finish line, but one of the last to leave.

Matt Folk was still talking to friends outside the downtown YMCA — headquarters for the 33rd Peace Race — two hours after the 10-kilometer (6.2 mile) event concluded.

The 31-year-old Folk won the race for the second time.

Folk said his clocking of 29:33 was 20 seconds faster than his winning time in 2005 and it represented his best finish in a road race.

“I’ve been running more miles for the last five weeks, so that increase is probably the biggest reason for the improvement,” said Folk, an assistant track and cross country coach at Youngstown State University.

Folk, who grew up in Oregon, Ohio (near Toledo) but now lives in Canfield, won $500 for his top finish, plus $500 as the top American and $500 as the top Ohioan for $1,500 total.

Sunday’s Peace Race winners — male and female — also were designated the Ohio state 10K champions.

A field of 746 finished the 10K and another 340 participated in the 2-mile run-walk, which was won by Boardman’s Rick Lape in 9:39 on what was a route inadvertently shortened.

Folk was followed by Dave Gramlich of North Canton (29:55) and Jim Jurcevich of Columbus (30:26).

All three previously qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials that will be in New York on Nov. 3.

“Of the five Ohioans who qualified, three were here today,” Folk said of Sunday’s top three Peace Race 10K finishers.

Folk, Gramlich and Jurcevich used the 10K as a warm-up.

“It’s kind of a tuneup,” Folk said of the trials which will be in Central Park the day before the New York City marathon.

Folk also qualified for the trials in 2004 when he finished 50th.

“I want to try to improve on that a little,” Folk said. “The top three go to the Olympics,” he said of the best of next month’s field of 120 U.S. qualifiers.

Folk, who also works part-time at Second Sole Athletic Footwear in Boardman, didn’t run in last year’s Peace Race due to injury.

Instead, he rode along in the race’s pace vehicle.

“I was part of the crew calling splits [times each mile],” he said. “It was tough. I almost didn’t know if I should do it because I had to watch and not be part of it.”

Folk also attributed the 20-second drop in his 10K time Sunday to improved pavement in Mill Creek Park.

“The repavement made the road smooth and faster and the crowd support was amazing,” he said of people planted along the course route. “They helped a ton.”

Folk separated from Gramlich and Jurcevich at about the 2.5-mile mark.

“That’s where there’s a double hill,” he said of the stretch of Cohasset Dr. West beyond the Silver Bridge heading toward Old Furnace Road.

“I think I was a little more familiar with it than they were,” Folk said of the point of final separation.

Along his merry way, Folk showed little inclination to grab the cups of water being offered to the runners.

At one point along Tod Avenue, Folk had to avoid road kill in the form of a dead squirrel.

It was just another distraction that Folk tuned out as he took another of his thousands of steps en route to victory.

bassetti@vindy.com