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Straight from Youngstown: Runners head for Boston
CANFIELD
It’s something that stays in the back of your mind, said Jennifer Kopanic of Boardman as she and five other runners gathered Friday at the shoe store Second Sole on U.S. Route 224.
The store is a kind of home base for them. They know one another from a running group that meets there.
But they all have one other very special thing in common — Monday, they will run in the Boston Marathon.
“It’s sad you have to worry about that kind of stuff,” said Tammy McFarland of Austintown.
“But it’s not enough to stop you,” continued Kopanic.
April 15, 2013. Two pressure-cooker bombs exploded 12 seconds apart at 2:49 p.m. near the finish line at the Boston Marathon and killed three people. Hundreds more were injured.
“It makes you want to go even more,” insisted Sandy Manley of Boardman. It will be her first time there.
“There were a lot of signs last year,” said McFarland: “‘Thanks for running in our city!’ ”
None of the six, which also include Jonathan Bolha of Austintown, Doug Votaw of Leetonia and Christine Russo of Youngstown were there in 2013.
Bolha, a veteran of more than 50 marathons, ran in two previous years before the bombings. Votaw and Kopanic are also first-timers in Boston. Russo was there in 2014.
For those who are returning, there are happy memories of camaraderie and friendships along the marathon route and in the city.
“The city just loves everybody there,” said Bolha.
There are words of encouragement to fellow runners.
“They talk to each other, pat each other on the back if someone’s walking and say, ‘let’s go!’” said Russo.
Security is intense, they said, and there are medical teams everywhere for the 26-mile race, but it has its light-hearted moments, too.
“I ate a Popsicle during the race,” McFarland said.
“I’ve never high-fived so many people during a race,” Russo said.
To qualify for Boston, the runners had to meet a certain time for their ages and run on a certified course.
They will be six out of 30,000 people running, but they’re determined to make Youngstown proud. Their matching shirts, a reference to the end of the race, say it all: “Right on Hereford. Left on Boylston. Straight from Youngstown.”