Correction:
This story was updated to reflect the correct location of the finish line at Lock 3 downtown.
K-Pop, kids motivate this year’s women’s marathon winner
If you live in Hudson, you’ve almost certainly seen Ashton Swinford, the women’s winner of this year’s Akron Marathon, run past your home.
“I feel like everyone in the city knows me,” Swinford said. “I’m the person who runs past their house all the time.”
She crossed the finish line in just over two hours and 50 minutes after taking fourth place last year.
Not bad for a Saturday morning before 10 a.m.
And her plans after pacing the pack and taking home gold? Making lunch for her twins, taking them to a park, and watching K-Pop Demon Hunter.
The show’s music, she said, was playing in her head during the race.
In about three weeks, she’ll run the Columbus Marathon. In May, she won the Cleveland Marathon for the fourth year in a row.
She took fourth place in Akron last year. The pace was slower because of the humidity and heat, and the hills along the course caught her off guard. But that wasn’t an issue this year.
“I knew the course better … where the hills were,” Swinford said.
Like most runners, she relies on internal motivation to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. What kept her going?
“My kids are at the finish line,” she said.
Men’s marathon winner just getting started
For the second time in a row, Aaron Davidson paced the pack to take home gold in the Akron Marathon.
His thoughts crossing the finish line?
“Damn, I’m fit right now,” Davidson said.
The 26-year-old said the race was a tune up for the California International Marathon, where he hopes to be on the podium for the Americans and earn a professional contract. His time this year? Just under two hours and 20 minutes.
Not bad for a tune up.
“I was actually shocked at how fast we were running,” Davidson said.
He runs three to five marathons a year, with two or three of those at “full-tilt, max effort.”
Davidson said he used the downhill portions of the race to take the lead. It’s a strategy he learned when trail running, where he said his long legs help make up for a lack of explosiveness during the uphill portions.
Earlier this year, he ran the Boston Marathon. Next up is the race in California. So what keeps him coming to Akron?
“I just see a better, more well put-together event than some other [races],” he said.
Soon, he’ll head back to Arizona and his day job selling luxury mattresses. His employee discount on a high-end mattress, he said, was a huge benefit to his training. He’s not planning on taking a break as he prepares for the California International, but he feels good with where he’s at right now.
“I’m a good two or three steps ahead [of where I thought I’d be],” Davidson said.
Proud dad (and his dog) cheers on son
Don Zesiger and his dog Elvis were perched near the finish line downtown to see his son Steven complete his first marathon.
The 25 year old played basketball at Northpark University in Chicago, and the elder Zesiger said the lack of a distance running background makes his son’s ambitions that much more impressive.
“It’s an awesome achievement,” he said.
The retired Tallmadge police officer said he ran in the relay portion in previous years before tearing up his knee.
Now, he and Elvis are just spectators, cheering on the racers and his son. They’re both big supporters of the city and its flagship race.
“It’s awesome, because it brings people together,” Zesiger said.
The art of the solo run
Running and cycling is a solitary endeavor for Kyle Whittaker. Where others find motivation with running groups or teams, he uses it as a way to reconnect with himself.
“5 a.m. runs are my favorite,” the 35-year-old said. “Beat the heat.”
The tattooed resident of Silver Lake said the hardest part about training, which he did for about six weeks prior to running the half marathon this year, is going to bed at a reasonable time.
The industrial HVAC professional finished the half in just under two hours. His first ran the Akron marathon in 2016, and he plans on returning in coming years.
“I just love doing it by myself,” Whittaker said.
Spelling A-K-R-O-N, one medal at a time
For the second year in a row, Kari Kurko toed the painted blue line as part of a relay team for the Akron Marathon.
This year, she was the first runner for her team, and after finishing seven miles in just over an hour, she got her A medal. Last year, she received the K medal for running the second leg of the relay. She’s almost halfway to her goal of spelling out AKRON with her medals.
“It was really exciting to start at the actual start,” the University of Akron chemical engineering freshman said.
The 18-year-old student, who ran track and played soccer at Tallmadge High School previously, said after she earns all the relay medals she’ll work to enter longer races. But her studies will come first.
“Since I’m a student, I just ran when I could,” Kurko said.
Cheering versus running this year
Those who can’t run, cheer? At least that’s this year’s priority for Nikaeda Griffie, who’s run 10 of the various races that make up the Akron Marathon Race Series.
“Let’s go runners!” Griffie shouted into her megaphone Saturday morning. “You got this!”
She’s on the shelf this year after undergoing a knee replacement, but the 49-year-old said she’ll be back in the competitive ranks soon.
The organizers, who she said run a great program, and the routes, which take runners through Akron’s neighborhoods, are some of the things that the Highland Square resident said make the city’s annual race one of the best in the state.
She hopes to rejoin them next year. And until then?
”If we can’t run, we’re going to be out here to cheer,” Griffie said.
Singing, then racing
For more than 20 years, Leslie Frye has marked the start of many of the races in the Akron Marathon Race Series with a rendition of the national anthem.
She estimates she’s sung for more than 40 races since the marathon started in 2003. The Akron native, who grew up on the city’s west side, is a Grammy-Award-winning vocalist with Apollo’s Fire. Singing the anthem at the city’s premier road race is one of the major honors of her life, she said.
She’s not running herself this year, but in years past she’s participated in the Team Relay race.
“I’ve sung the anthem in my [numbered] bib, then run down and joined the line,” Frye said.
Akron’s marathon is ‘world class’
Ryan Peterson, a “reformed lawyer” pursuing a Ph.D., said marathon running is his second job. This year, he’s a member of the pace team, where he’ll help runners remain steady for the duration of the 26.2 miles.
So how many marathons has the 35-year-old Minnesotan doctoral student run?
“Ton and tons and tons,” Peterson said.
It’s not his first time in Akron either. He said the city’s marathon series is world class. It’s what keeps him coming back to the Rubber City.
“It’s an awesome marathon, great community,” he said.
Races bring the community together
Mark Gruich has been a staple at the Akron Marathon for the past decade or so, but not as a runner.
The veteran of at least 10 marathons, who came within three minutes of qualifying for the Boston Marathon before he hung up his racing shoes for good in 2021, said he’s never actually run the Akron Marathon.
So what keeps him coming back to volunteer in Akron? In a word, “community.”
“Well, look what it’s doing, bringing the community together,” Gruich said.
His left meniscus forced him to retire from competitive racing, but he still holds dear the lessons he learned on the pavement.
“Running just shows your weaknesses,” he said.
The races loop through Akron’s downtown, south and west sides
The marathon, half marathon and team relay races started at 7 a.m. in downtown Akron on South High Street next to the Akron Art Museum — this year’s new course map changes the runners’ direction, so they’re initially heading south toward Firestone Park.
Getting to cross the All-America Bridge won’t happen until mile 9, about 45 minutes later for the fastest runners. Marathoners will finish the 26.2-mile race route in about 2 hours and 15 minutes in front of Lock 3 downtown — that’s a pace of just more than 5 minutes and 9 seconds per mile.
The marathon route, called the Blue Line, will take this year’s runners, depending on which race or relay they’re participating in, south along High Street to Firestone Park, then back north on Brown Street and through the University of Akron campus.
They’ll head north on South Broadway Street and across the All-America Bridge into North Hill and back, then catch the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail northwest along the Cuyahoga River and run through Sand Run Park before circling back through Northwest Akron.
Runners will swing past Firestone Community Learning Center, past Stan Hywet, where they’ll turn right onto North Portage Path, hang a left on West Market Street and head for the finish line downtown. View course maps, complete with water stations and bathroom markers, on the marathon website.
