Familiar Faces, Places

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The Vindicator/Geoffrey Hauschild Alan Burns, age 13 of Boardman, and Zach Stamp, age 12 of Boardman, run through Mill Creek Metro Park during the Peace Race on Sunday morning.

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The Vindicator/Dan Shields on Spring Commons Bridge as Matt Folk begins to move ahead for the finish of the Peace Race.

Youngstown Peace Race 2009

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Folk, Odorcic repeat winners; controversy surrounds Kenyan

By JOHN BASSETTI

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — It was a race of repeat winners as Matt Folk and Jessica Odorcic were the first man and the first woman to cross the finish line, but overall runner-up Elijah Nyabuti walked away from the awards table without his $500 check.

While the Kenyan was probably muttering to himself the famous line from the Jerry Maguire movie: “Show me the money,” Peace Race officials were telling Nyabuti to “show me the proof.”

Folk, from Oregon, Ohio, collected $1,000 as the 10K winner in 29:20. It was his third win since 2005.

Nyabuti (29:29) was asked to provide proof of citizenship and proof of Ohio residency before he would be eligible for his monetary prize.

“If he can prove the residency, we’ll pay out,” Jenn Wohlgamuth, Peace Race president, said after explaining the requirements, which are based on the 10k’s designation as the Ohio state championship through its Road Runners Club of America affiliation.

“They need proof of citizenship and proof of Ohio residency,” Wohlgamuth said after she told Nyabuti and his colleagues to submit the necessary papers via mail.

On the course, mostly through Mill Creek Park, what may seem like runners just swinging arms and pumping legs is only part of the story.

There was an episode.

Folk was determined not to repeat his mistake in the Columbus 10k in June, when Nyabuti won.

“In Columbus, I let him get away early and could never catch up,” Folk said. “So, when I saw him go out hard [Sunday], I tried to run with him as long as possible.”

After a mile, Folk said that he starting falling off slightly, attributing it to the exertion at the start.

“I was cursing myself for going out too hard, thinking I ruined my race altogether.”

At first it was a three-pack of Nyabuti, Folk and Aaron Rowe of Powell, Ohio.

“At this race, I always lose people on the steep downhills [2-mile mark near the flats] and then catch back up somehow on the uphill,” said Folk. “I was just trying to keep contact [with Nyabuti] as long as possible and see what happens at the end.”

Luckily, when the 33-year-old Folk closed the gap on his uphill surges, Nyabuti lost steam.

However, Nyabuti said he had run — and won — a 5k in Lexington, Ky. on Saturday. The back-to-back runs may have been detrimental.

Folk described some of the race’s more unpleasant moments.

“I was having some trouble when he passed me — I don’t want to say getting cut off — but it was contact — unintentional, I’d assume.

“After he passed, he seemed to cut to one side and I’d try and cut to the other and he’d come back,” Folk said.

He considered the contact more than normal, but incidental — nothing bad.

However, there was still shoulder rubbing at the 5-mile mark when their elapsed time was 23:35.

Folk looked at his watch with about two minutes left and decided to make a move if he was going to have a shot at victory.

Folk summarized the day: “I didn’t lose contact with him and got a little bit of a second wind today, which you don’t always get. I was able to regroup and make the best of it. Luckily it worked out.”

Nyabuti, 30, claimed that he was slowed after being clipped by Folk’s feet and bumped from behind on the left shoulder.

“There was pushing,” said Nyabuti, who will return home to Kisii, Kenya next week. The Kenyan also won the Seattle Half-Marathon in June. Last week, he was runner-up in a Virginia 10-mile race in Lynchburg and, the week before, runner-up in a 15k in Decatur, Ill.

On Sunday, Ryan Kienzle was third for a second consecutive year. The 23-year-old from Canton was fourth until about four miles, then overtook Rowe.

“They went out pretty hard,” Kienzle said of Nyabuti and Folk, “but I thought Matt would come back. But Matt latched on the Kenyan and just kind of kept rolling with it.”

Kienzle, a 2008 Malone University graduate, said he wasn’t going to push to catch up to them, so he fell into fourth behind Rowe.

“I realized at about 5k that Aaron was starting to fall off, so I was trying to run consistently because I know [from running the course in 2008] that the second 5k is where it can be won,” said Kienzle. “I started closing pretty hard and, when it came down to about a mile to go, I thought I could still catch these guys [Folk and Nyabuti]. I kind of second-guessed myself at first because the half-mile approaching the [Spring Commons] bridge is a slight uphill, but I started hammering it and felt like I could close on them, but I know Folk is a strong finisher. If I would have started a little earlier, I would have gotten second. I would like to have done better, but it’s a learning experience.”

Kienzle’s 29:31 Sunday was faster than 2008’s 29:40. “That’s all that matters. It’s just a stepping-stone in my training.”

In 30:14, Rowe was a fourth-place finisher for a second straight year.

Rowe, who was briefly in second about 10 meters behind Nyabuti and ahead of Folk after 2 miles, said: “It was not a good day for me, but the others were very good.”

He was overtaken by Kienzle at about the 4 mile-mark.

SEE ALSO: Odorcic credits training for better time.