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.

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.

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 :)


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


This was a good race, I'd do it again.