Boston Marathon vet to try 10-K Peace Race

By John Kovach

Austintown’s Marlene Helsel ran in April’s Boston Marathon.

AUSTINTOWN — Encouraged after completing her first Boston Marathon in April and her third Akron Marathon in September, Marlene Helsel of Austintown is ready to show what she can do in Sunday’s 10-kilometer (6-mile) Peace Race.

“You spend so much time and so many hours on the road training for a marathon, and the Peace Race is a [shorter] course. You don’t have to pace yourself too much because it is 6 miles instead of [26 miles, 385 yards],” said Helsel, 33, who has run in five marathons and hopes to use all the special training required for those long runs to achieve her best performance in this year’s Peace Race.

“I am hoping that I can break my personal Peace Race record this year.”

The 34th annual Peace Race, which is designated as the 10K state championship race by the Road Runners Club of America, will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the 2-mile Fun Walk followed by the 10-kilometer run at 10:15.

Helsel, a Fitch High (1994) and Youngstown State (2000) graduate, is manager of the Sleepy Hollow Sleep Shop in Austintown. She has run in six Peace Races and achieved her best time last year in 42:48.

Her Peace Race times for the previous three years were 47:01 in 2004, 45:20 in 2005 and 45:05 in 2006.

Despite her five marathons, Helsel still loves the Peace Race.

“I like all the scenery [through Mill Creek Park] and the people. It is an enjoyable experience for the time you are out there,” said Helsel, who began running when she was 26.

She trains almost daily on the bike trail in Canfield, and also is a spinning instructor at the Central YMCA and takes spinning and Jump Stretch classes.

Helsel, who completed the Boston Marathon in 3:41.29 and the Akron Marathon in 4:08.11 said running in the Boston Marathon is a special experience.

“I can’t even put it into words,” Helsel said. “It was a fantastic, amazing, incredible. For the entire 26 miles, people lined the street, cheering on the runners.

It was pretty cool,” recalled Helsel, noting that her time at Boston was 29 seconds slower than her qualifying time. “I am definitely satisfied the way I ran [Boston]. I was more focused on just finishing.”

Helsel also has completed the Cleveland Rite Aid Marathon in 3:35.34 in 2007, and the Akron marathons in 3:59.05 in 2006 and 3:31.43 in 2007.

At Akron, she ran with a friend, Jason Rohrer of Youngstown.

“He was doing it for the first time, so I wasn’t running for time,” Helsel said.

But she will be pulling out all the stops for Sunday’s Peace Race.

She will be joined again by Rohrer, a Leetonia High and YSU graduate, who has run in several Peace Races.

kovach@vindy.com