Helen McWilliams will be the first to tell you her shtick is “silly,” and yet dressing up as a chef and swinging a heavy stockpot on a 26.2-mile run hits so many sweet spots for this fun-loving Cuyahoga Falls woman.
If she can finish that feat in under five hours during Saturday’s Akron Marathon, she can check the Guinness World Record goal off her bucket list.
Since she usually dons costumes or funny hats for races anyway, she can use this year’s get-up to raise awareness and money for the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.
It also achieves her daily goal of bringing a few moments of unfettered joy to everyone she passes — even if they have to look twice to comprehend what they’re seeing.
“You can think I’m crazy, but you will smile. You cannot look at me and not smile,” said McWilliams, a 45-year-old physical therapist, Kent State University instructor, avid runner, wife and mother of three.
McWilliams wears a broad smile herself as she recalls the first surprise she got when deciding to establish the marathon record for a woman dressed as a chef, a category that had yet to be created.
Turns out, there was a man in the books, setting the men’s record at 4 hours and 7 minutes, which means there were already written rules. And those rules included carrying a stockpot weighing 3 kilograms.
“Kilogram? How much is that?” McWilliams chuckled as she did the calculations to learn she would have to lug a bulky 6½-pound appendage with her.
The stockpot only weighs 1½ pounds, so she taped a 5-pound weight to the bottom. She’s allowed to change it from hand to hand during the run, but she cannot attach it to herself or put it down.
She struggled to run a single mile the first time she practiced with it, the pan banging and bruising her leg and her skinny arms aching in protest.
“So I’ve been drinking Muscle Milk and doing this [hand] grip so I can get strong enough to carry this thing,” she laughed, patting the pot.
Rules for the record
In addition to the chef’s hat and coat, Guinness also requires her to wear patterned trousers. Not capris. Not leggings. Not plain fabric.
So McWilliams rooted around in her closet to find loose-fitting pants with a “Vanilla Ice crotch” that she thought fashionable in the 1980s.
Not surprisingly, she’s turned a lot of heads during training runs when she’s fully suited up, and that’s fine with her. She turns their ogling into opportunity, passing out printed cards that explain what she’s doing and how to sponsor her run for the food bank.
Guinness has informed her she will need to finish her marathon in less than five hours to establish the bar. To prove she’s done it, she’ll have to submit nearly 40 different forms of evidence, from proving the course is certified to making a videotape that shows her crossing the finish line and immediately weighing her stockpot.
She’ll also need statements from at least two runners who never left her side during the marathon, and she’s got three lined up — two of whom were complete strangers a couple of months ago.
McWilliams met Leslie Christensen at a July race in Stow where they bonded over having worn the same red-white-and-blue tights. She was introduced to Terry Fleet by a mutual friend, with Fleet agreeing to give up a chance to set her own personal record at this year’s marathon to keep pace with McWilliams.
The third support runner — “and I really figured I needed three in case someone got sick or got a cramp and couldn’t finish” — is Patrick Zapolski, her husband Larry’s best man who she hadn’t seen in more than 15 years, but who answered on open plea for help on Facebook.
They’ll all be running in matching aprons made by Christensen.
McWilliams isn’t the first person to use the Akron Marathon for an attempt to get into Guinness.
Roping in the record
Last year, David Livingston of Wooster was hoping to break the world record for jump-roping a full marathon. The computer programmer made it 23 miles before cramps ended his hopes, though he walked the rest of the way to cross the finish line.
And while the marathon distance is her bucket list goal, McWilliams is already a world record-holder for the half-marathon.
That happened just last month, when she received Guinness’ official marathon rules one week before her scheduled run in the Goodyear Half Marathon.
The organization went ahead and set out the half-marathon parameters as well, so McWilliams decided why not tackle that as a warmup. She was required to finish 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 30 minutes. She and her stockpot crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 25 minutes.
Watching how hard his mom has worked to achieve her goals — even silly ones — is an inspiration to her 12-year-old son, George.
“It teaches me to be determined, and to not give up,” he said. “And if it gets hard, you just do your best.”
To help McWilliams achieve her goal of raising at least $1,000 for the food bank — an amount that would feed nearly 4,000 people — visit www.crowdwise.com, select “find an event” and search “Helen McWilliams.” Or mail a check to the food bank with her name on the memo line to Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, 350 Opportunity Parkway, Akron, OH 44307.
McWilliams and food bank representatives will also be present and accepting donations at a booth during Friday’s Akron Marathon Health & Fitness Expo at the John S. Knight Center.
“If everyone at the expo threw just $1 into my stockpot, can you imagine how much money we could raise?” she said. “Heck, you don’t need to be a chef to feed people.”
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.