Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon - RunMarathon

Start line area was pretty cool, really loud music, lot of nervous chatter. Chatted with a dude named Doug from Florence and basically talked about how much the rain sucked.

Here's the race as I remember it...I'm sure some of this stuff occured during a different mile...but, whatever.

Mile1:10:01 Was told by everyone not to go out too fast, so I was really conscious of that. Took me three minutes to get to the start line once the gun went off. Lot of weaving around walkers and general trouble finding lanes to run in. Went over the first bridge into Kentucky.

Mile2:9:02 Settled into a good pace and tried to think of something good that has come out of Kentucky. After about three minutes, I decide that they probably would have been kicked out of the Union if they weren't land locked by states that contribute to society.

Mile3:10:00 Bridge back into Ohio, slight hill. Rain begins to come down even harder and I wonder, "is this the dumbest thing I've ever done?" A few minutes of introspection reveal, not even close...but it is stupid.

Mile4:9:05 Flat stretch...feeling pretty good. Only two minutes off the 4:00 hour pace group, so I feel like I'm in good shape as we head through downtown. Only two more miles to the family (and the massive hill in front of our hotel!).

Mile5&6:18:48 I missed the mile 5 marker (I don't think they had one). We went through downtown, a ton of people out cheering despite the rain. Took my first gel and hope it doesn't cause any stomach issues. Head up the hill and catch Le, LoLo and Daniel right as I turn the corner to go up to Eden Park. I was planning on stopping and saying hi, but there are far too many people to do that safely.

Mile7:10:15 Ugh. I've backed off the pace considerablly, because I can feel my heart rate going through the roof on this uphill stretch. The hills were weird, because they were never "straight up", just long stretches of mild grade. From the start of mile 5 to the middle of mile 8, the climb was about 350 feet. Not a lot of relief on the downhills either.

Mile8:10:02 For the ninth time, someone shouts out "it's all downhill from here!" For the ninth time, they are wrong. Around this time, I came to grips with the fact that I wasn't finishing anywhere near 4:00...and that was a little discouraging. But, on the good side the rain has let up some.

Mile9:9:21 Beginning a pretty good stretch of miles for me. Mentally, I know the worst hills are over, now it's just a matter of covering some ground.

Mile10:9:31 The proveribial split in the road. Half marathon goes left and marathon to the right...I'm tempted to go left, but decide to stick it out. Really cool scene to be part of as everyone parts ways, lots of half marathoners shouting good luck, and vice versa. Eat half my Clif Bar and another gel.

Mile11:8:57 I stumble into a scene from Sister Act, minus Whoopi. About a dozen nuns sitting outside their church, ringing cow bells and blessing runners. Not one of them under 100 years old. Funny.

Mile12:9:13 Huge crowd as we go through a relay zone.

Mile13:9:31 Old guy running next to me let's me know that we're halfway there, as if it hadn't occured to me. I know one thing, my legs feel like we should be done. I don't feel like I'm in trouble, but I know I'm wearing down already.

Mile14:9:23 Maybe not! I'm feeling pretty good right now...still out ahead of the 4:15 pace group, although I can see their damn balloons in the air behind me, gaining on me like the grim reaper himself. We're running through a neighborhood that kind of reminded me of Lake Forest, for some reason. Lot of trees, narrow roads, everyone on their porch yelling and waving.

Mile15:9:46 From this portion on, I walked at least 30 seconds of each mile, as was part of my plan. Usually at the water stations, just to drink without spilling it down the front of me. Another gel, rest of clif bar.

Mile16:9:44 Still feeling okay...hard to believe we've got 10 miles left.

Mile17:9:49 Some church is passing out orange wedges...delicious.

Mile18:10:25 I think we're on the interstate now. The 4:15 group passes me...and I run them down and hang with them for the next mile or two. Nice guys. One of them runs ahead and pisses on the side of the road, pretty much for everyone to see. I'd do that, but I'm concerned with the amount of women who would stop and offer to help.

Mile19:9:48 The balloons from the 4:15 group are still in sight...but getting smaller!

Mile20:10:18 At this point, I officially become concerned about finishing under 4:30. Math is tough at this stage of the game.

Mile21:10:24 Last relay zone. A bunch of asshole fresh legged people come busting out of the gates. I hear one guy say to his buddy, "no one has passed me yet." No shit. I'm on mile 21, you've done 1. If I could run faster or was 10 years younger, I would have passed him and pissed on him. I decide I need to save the energy...and the water.

Mile22:10:32 Hitting the wall is basically when your body runs out of glucose, you've burned all the available carbs, and your body switches to burning fat (which requires a lot of energy you don't have). I've always been 50/50 on whether this was true...I've been of the opinion you just get tired. I now think it's true.

Mile23:11:20 The wheels have officially come off. It hurts to run.

Mile24:11:08 I remember thinking at this point, I wonder what Grandpa and Grandma Hathway would think about me running a marathon? Weird thought to have...not sure what even made me think it. Maybe some dude on the side of the road crushed a birds egg or something. I'm sucking down water and G2 at every stop and have just had my fourth gel.

Mile25:11:51 At this point, I'm kind of kicking myself for being such a wimp. I'm thinking I need to pick it up, get in under 4:20 (my math is getting better) and ride off in the sunset. That's when I could see a bunch of bikes on the ground up ahead, meaning the medics and course marshalls were off of them. By the time I got up there, a runner was laying flat on his back with a blanket on him, shaking. Not a seizure, but shaking pretty bad. Not much you can do but say a prayer and limp on by, but it puts things back in perspective. Listen to your body, keep moving forward, don't overdue it.

Mile26:11:19 They have a big sign up at the last mile marker that there's an award for the fastest last mile. I give brief thought to stopping and pissing on the sign, but realize I might not be able to start moving again, so I laugh and move on.

Mile.2:2:03 The "Finish Swine" is visable down the hill...just trying to hold it together. I spend most of the time looking for the family, and find them a few hundred yards out! About 100 feet from the finish, my left hamstring cramps. Oh dear God, don't let me fall down here in front of 2,000 people! I modify the run gait and "stride" across. Wow, it feels great to stop moving!

Choose a flat course!

Spent 30 minutes trying to find the family. They closed off the spot we were going to meet at, so I'm wandering around. All I want to do is sit down!!! I'm cursing LeAnn, knowing it isn't her fault...I find a guy with a cell...she doesn't answer. I drop my medal and consider just leaving it instead of bending over. It's takes me three minutes, but I pick it up. It occurs to me that despite threating to piss on everyone and everything, I've yet to use the bathroom once in 4.5 hours. I'm worried.

Back to the family. I'm going up the hill toward the parking garages now, knowing if she's not up there, I'm not coming back down. I find another cell...first time, no answer...the girl tells me to try again and miraclously, she answers. We figure it out and I'm in the car in 2 minutes. Unfortunately, no post race pictures though, we've got to check out in an hour, so off ot the hotel.

Post race, I had three cups of G2, a bottle of water, a donut, a banana, and an apple. Real food tastes good! What I wouldn't do for Chipotle right now.


Needed more miles and some type of hill training.


You know, I was expecting to feel a lot different about the finish. Everyone said I would be on cloud nine and I am proud of the accomplishment. I will have a "26.2" sticker on my car until I die. However, it wasn't the euphoric experience some people explained to be. Not sure why that is, but it is. I was slightly bummed about 4:21, since I wanted to be closer to 4:00. Later on that night, Taneen (the veteran marathoner) emailed me and said it was the hardest marathon course she's ever done. I feel better!

Over the last four months, a lot of people have asked "why are you running a marathon?" For a lot of reasons, I guess. For starters, I enjoy training FOR something. It's not as much to run or bike just to run or bike. Secondly, my hope is that the two sets of little eyes watching Dad's every move see that living a somewhat healty lifestyle is important and that they pick up some of those habits. Not that I don't drink my share of beer and eat my share of wings, but hopefully I'm balancing it out and finding a medium between the extremes. There's probably even an element of crossing something off the "bucket list" that I have going. Don't ask what else is in there.

But more than anything, running a marathon is something I thought was next to impossible four months ago. Heck, maybe even four days ago. To me, there's something powerful about finding something that scares the hell out of you and overcoming it. That's part of what life should be, getting out of your comfort zone and stretching your abilities, whether that's through physical endevors or mental, it makes no difference.

So what's next? I think I'm going to do another marathon, on a flat course this fall. This was supposed to be a lead up to a half-ironman this summer, and a full-ironman next year, but I just don't think I have the time. I think I'll stick to shorter tris and road races and see if I can get faster!