Flying Pig Marathon Race Report

Still running behind in reports, woohoo!  SMH.  Here is the one for the Flying Pig Marathon in May, 2016.

Hubby and I added some new states this year that included WA, OH, and even Iceland.  However, for reasons I'll explain in the next report, we never made it to WA or Iceland, but we did make it to Cincinnati for the Flying Pig Marathon and HM.  The city was really fun and we loved it and could see ourselves living there.  It is vibrant, somewhat small (smaller than Miami) and the people are very nice.  Kudos, Cinci!

The race was fun, but hilly.  I had already decided I was going to walk all uphills and run the rest (like I do in San Francisco), but there wasn't many flats (hint: none) and more uphills than downhills, so there was some running but not a lot.

We arrived in Cinci on Friday night and we went straight to the hotel to rest.  We stayed at one of the flag hotels which was around 1/3 of a mile from the start and that was great.  We had to drive to the expo because it was raining that day but we managed to do it without any issue.  The expo is fun and they gave Richard some goodies for the Half and I got some different goodies for the full.  They sure make a party out of the race and the expo, so it was a really nice atmosphere.

On race day, we woke up with a nice mid 60s weather, which would soon turn a bit too warm to run a marathon, but not too hot to have fun.  We headed to the start of the race and while heading to the corrals, the National Anthem started so we couldn't move for a few minutes.  I entered my corral with a minute to spare, if at all.  Met with my friend Christina B and her hubby and hang out and took pictures while we waited.


We started and Christina B and I parted ways.  I headed at a pace that felt comfortable and ran some of the minor hills.  But after Mile 6, there was a huge hill that went on for 3 miles or so.  And not a tiny hill, the elevation was substantial.  There were parts where you couldn't run it was a bit steep.  But I kept going until Mile 9 or thereabouts where we split from the HM who had a downhill all the way to the finish while we headed for uphills some more.  The course appears to indicate that the second half of the race is slightly downhill but it's all up and down up and down with a slight downhill elevation but you don't feel that you are going downhill, not at all.

During this second half, I concentrated on running the downs and walking fast the ups.  Met a Marathon Maniac and talked to her for a while.  Played some hoops in one of the stations where they had a huge party going on.  Didn't eat bacon (shame on me!) but passed by it and it smelled delicious.  By Mile 23 I saw a fellow INKnBURN Ambassador and friend Tasha, and she looked to be struggling, so I joined forces with her and we finished the last 2-3 miles talking and getting to know each other better.  I think that is a great way to spend a marathon, IMO.




We finished in 5:37 or 5:27, I don't recall.  The time is not important; it's the memories that we create from it.  And OH is done!




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