Kent Woman Takes Second in Akron Marathon

The Akron Marathon was a slow, painful event for Kent runner Shanna Ailes Istnick – yet she walked away with a $1,000 prize for taking second place amongst females in the 26.2-mile race.

Istnick’s time of three hours, 56 seconds placed her second out of 488 female finishers, first in her 30-34 age division and 29th place overall out of 1,390 finishers.

While Istnick is thrilled with the prize money, she’s still suffering the consequences of a painful foot condition that literally stopped her in her tracks six times during the last 10 miles of the race.

Her 3:00:56 finish time one week ago was the slowest Istnick has run any marathon the past 18 months. In fact, she finished the 2010 Akron Marathon with a time of 2:53, netting her a third-place finish that was considered second in terms of prize money. 

“It was not my day (Saturday),” she said. “If you had interviewed me last year after the same race, I would have been on cloud nine.”

“My (big) race for the summer was the Netherlands, and that 50k really took a toll on me," she said. "Five weeks is not that far apart, but I like running the Akron Marathon. It is one of the most well-organized marathons I’ve ever run … (and) it’s nice that it’s a local marathon.”

The 33-year-old said she was “on the fence” about running in Akron the whole week leading up to race day due to a recurring case of plantar fasciitis in her left foot. “Going into the marathon I thought, ‘if I’m not feeling good, I’ll just stop,’” she said.

Istnick said her foot started bothering her right away and, by mile six, she was telling people she’d probably drop out at the relay exchange point at mile nine. “But I got there and thought, ‘the next part is downhill, I’ll see how I feel after that,’” she explained.

Istnick hit the halfway point in the race with a time of 1:25, meaning she was on track to run a 2:51 marathon – which would beat her 2010 Akron time by two minutes. That was enough inspiration to keep her running.

“I hit mile 16 and my foot felt awful. I just stopped and was standing there in the road and a bunch of people … encouraged me to keep going,” Istnick said. “I stopped six times between miles 16 and 22. I probably would have ended up at 2:55 if I hadn’t stopped.”

At one point, she recalls, “There was nobody around me. The third-place girl wasn’t anywhere near me. I just kept telling myself to tough it out to win a $1,000 prize. Then I saw her at mile 22 and just kicked it into high gear.”

The first-place female winner finished in 2:45:57 and won $2,000. The third-place winner came in just two minutes behind Istnick and received $500.

Istnick attempted a run Sunday to loosen up, but foot pain stopped her again. Her hope is to resume her year-round training regimen of running 90-110 miles weekly starting this weekend.

Her foot will get a break from racing until March 4, when she will again compete in the Caumsett State Park 50k in New York. It was Istnick’s second-place finish in that race last year that garnered her an invitation from the International Association of Ultrarunners to participate in the 50 of Assen World Trophy race in the Netherlands.

Other Kent finishers

Eleven other Kent residents were among the 1,390 finishers at last Saturday’s Akron Marathon. Here are their names, ages and finish times: Devin Artz, 26, 3:49:52; Cindy Buck, 49, 6:04:44; Jesse Cook, 29, 5:33:40; Ian Flaherty, 34, 4:08:36; Rebecca Foldi, 49, 5:14:06; Larry Jenkins, 42, 4:21:35; Michael Kern, 23, 4:00:44; Amy Kolb, 36, 4:39:26; Gideon Oswitch, 46, 3:36:47; Michael Troman, 42, 4:00:41; Courtney Watt, 36, 4:33:01.