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Comments: So, the start was packed, it took a while to get across the timing mat, and even after crossing the mat, really ran with alot of people for the first couple miles. But it really is a nice course, downtown Cincy is really beautiful, we passed by both the Reds and Bengals stadium and across the river. Actually, it never really spread out, it was just such a big race. Well, I take that back. It was better once the half and full marathon split from one another. So, the last 3-4 miles were pretty good crowd-wise. For some reason, at the start, I was freaking out about all the people that were passing me. I started at what I thought was a good pace, but tons and tons passed me for the first several miles. And it was even worse when the 5:00 pace group passed me. All the sudden I saw the balloons bouncing in front of me. I was feeling pretty good though-and I was thinking, should I speed up to keep up with this group? Should I just keep going? I really had trouble with pacing, and how fast I could/should be going. I didn't want to poop out halfway through the race or something. But, I didn't want to walk either. I was afraid I'd get way behind the pace group. I thought, as long as I could keep the balloons in sight, I know I'd be okay. So, no walk breaks! I ran the whole thing. I'm sure at some points very slowly though. My knees were aching early on, which usually doesn't happen on the long runs. Crossed a couple bridges in the first 4 miles, I didn't really have trouble with these-you know, the bridge hills can be deceiving, but I felt good. And it is always a nice view across the bridges. Miles 5-9 were the hills. Surprisingly, I handled these well. Don't get me wrong, they were tough, but I felt good, like I was getting up them well. There was a great, beautiful view at one point, the course circled through a park-like area, and enjoyed that. It was like a reward for making it up the hills. The harder part for me was actually the downhill at around 10. It was a long gradual downhill and it hurt my knees. I feel like that affected my running during that part of the course. However, the big slow down for me came with about 3-4 miles left. My stomach got more and more upset the further I went. I passed porta-potties thinking, should I stop, should I keep going? Still concerned that it would take too long to stop-and I didn't really want to stop at a porta-pottie. Normally, not such a big deal. Don't really know what was going on with my stomach. I'm not sure if it was a nutrition problem, or other issue. It was at around 2 hours that it started to get worse. In the last few months, I think my stomach has become more sensitive, but I didn't really seem to have any problems before on my long runs. However, my long runs were never so early. I always had a chance to go to the bathroom several times before I did my long training runs. It also could be related to the wedding food I ate the night before, some appetizer type stuff like chicken fingers and pot stickers. So, the stomach issues really slowed me down I think. I seriously thought about walking, with about 1 mile left to go, but then I decided to to suck it up :) I took two gels one at 45 mins and one about 1.5. Drank gatorade and water along the way. Probably 18-20 oz of fluid throughout the race. Overall though, great race, happy with my pace--11:23! In training, I was around 11:55-12:20. And it really is a great course. I enjoyed it. What would you do differently?: Get to the start earlier? Get in a better position to start, closer to the pace I wanted to run. Probably not wear fuel belt. I like the convenience of not having to stop at the aid stations, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. I probably lost more time messing with it the whole race then I would have stopping at every aid station. Maybe stop at a bathroom. I did think about it several times.  Post race
Warm down: I got a great parking place-for the start...but it was far from the finish...so I walked, very slowly back to my car. I did stop at a porta-pottie along the way :) What limited your ability to perform faster: Not getting enough sleep the 3 nights before-esp. not getting into bed before midnight the night before, eating wedding food/cake the night before, messing with the fuel belt the whole race, stomach problems Event comments: This was a good race, I'd do it again. Last updated: 2007-04-05 12:00 AM
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United States
Flying Pig Marathon
Sunny
Overall Rank = 3600/Alot
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 276/456
Picked up packet on Friday. Got some nice swag. Drove to Indianapolis on Saturday afternoon for wedding, and drove back that night. Got home about 11:30, so in bed about midnight. Woke up at 4:15. Not enough sleep, but wanted to make sure I had time to get downtown to get what I thought would be a good parking place :) Ate oatmeal and pb english muffiin, about 1/2 cup tea-normal pre-long run meal. Also drank water and gatorade during the drive. Got to parking about 5:20. So had over an hour before race start. Stayed in the car for a bit, because it was cool!!! Got number, fuel belt, all that stuff ready. Went to use the bathroom (luckily the Bengals stadium was open, so no porta-pottie), then back to car to stay warm. About 6:10, I went up to the stadium to use the bathroom again, and of course the amount of people that had arrived in the last 20 minutes was crazy!! I met a very nice lady in line who was running the relay, and we chatted for a bit. We then walked down to the start. Although, it wasn't really walking...It was more like squeezing amoung the thousands of people down at the start, trying to get inside the gate that would allow us to be on the right side of the street when the race started. I was looking for the 5:00 pace group sign, cause I figured that if I could start out with them, I wouldn't start too fast. Well, there was no way I was getting through all the people. It was really crazy actually. I did not like it at all. I'm not claustrophobic, but it made me somewhat nervous. I couldn't even bend down and retie my shoe. So, I ended up in the same area as the 3:30 pace group, or something like that. Way faster than I wanted to be.
And, I ran into a mentor from TNT. We chatted for a bit, he told me he was working with a coach for Lake Placid. Then he asked what pace I wanted to run, so I said, 11:30-12:00. Is it really that slow? He said, "oh.." which really sounded like: are you kidding me? that is so slow! And had this look on his face, like he couldn't believe it. I didn't really know what to say to that, so I just kind of laughed it off and said, yeah, I'm a slower runner. Then I think he realized what he said and he said something like, but you make up for it in the pool, or something. Not a good confidence booster before you run your first half mary.
Walking to and from car. Being squeezed amoung lots of people.