| 1 Mile Map | 10K Map | 5K Map | Marathon Map |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elevation | Elevation | Elevation | Elevation |
What is it? So Flying Pig is a very famous marathon in Ohio. Actually there are a bunch of races on this weekend. Jamey and I were in Minnessota and for a while he kept saying that he keeps hearing good things about it and so, signed up.
What races do they have you ask? Well, here's a list for you:
To that end, there are a bunch of choices as you can see. There are also challenges. You can do any of these races. You can do a bunch of these races. You can also sign up for the 2 challenges.
Skyline Chili 3-Way Challenge: 10K(Saturday) followed by the 5K(Saturday) followed by the Half-Marathon(Sunday). You can also make it with "Extra Cheese" which means you would also run the 1 Mile race on Friday.
Skyline Chili 4-Way Challenge: 10K(Saturday) followed by the 5K(Saturday) followed by the Marathon(Sunday). You can also make it with "Extra Cheese" which means you would also run the 1 Mile race on Friday.
Is it obvious enough that we signed up for the "Skyline Chili 4-Way Challenge with Extra Cheese"? Well, we did...
We signed up for the race(s). Jamey got us a hotel. I booked a flight as well and got really really good seats. I mean I was row 5 if I remember. Small airplane. I wasn't in first or biz but I was close enough. I also had a huge leg room access.
Few weeks before, Jamey got serious. He realized that the hotel was expensive and got us something 6 miles away that was WAAAAAYYYY cheaper. He got the car too and he booked a flight. Nice...
Less than a week away, Tomsky wrote on facebook that he was doing the FP Marathon and Jamey commented that we would be there too. Tomsky sent us a message asking if he can run with us on the Sunday. We had no problem with it as long as he realizes that we might be extra slow after all the races. He was only doing the marathon.
I should mention that the idea was really cemented in Jamey's head at Pistol. Logan (Wolverine) really spoke highly of it and then others too. By the way, they kept talking about training hills. This race has hills. Trail hills. Whatever... Mind you, I think it was 2 or 3 weeks before FP, that we did the Philadelphia Trail Marathon which had 3,000 feet of elevation while Pig "only" has 1,200 of it.
We ended up, by the way, with 2 different flights. I didn't want to give up my good seat... In any case, Jamey came here and left his car and I got us an Uber. I flew out an hour earlier then he did and would meet him at the car rental in Ohio.
I used my Clear pass as the general line seemed longer but we had to wait for the K9 officer to make an appearance. Oy. Still, got flying colors and cleared TSA. Security flagged my Aquafor and I was offered to check it in. I tossed it.
I was sitting next to someone doing the 3-way and we talked. Landed in Ohio and it was interesting how the town reacts to the race. There was an arch in the airport with the Flying Pig thing on it. Nice!
Took the tram to the car rental and waited for Jamey. Cool. No problemo...
He got there and we went toward the expo. We got there but it was way too early so we got lunch and the hotel let us check in early. Back to the expo and it was HUGE! Actually, it was very overwhelming for me personally. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. It was seperated into 3 sections. First you get your bib(s). Then you get your shirt(s). Then you go through the expo itself getting free garbage or buying stuff.
So far, they seemed really well organized BUT I did not like the shirt lines. Let me explain. The bibs (for us anyway), had 2 lines. The first line got us our Friday 1 mile bib. The second line got us the 2 bibs we needed for Saturday and Sunday. Ok - I get it. For the shirts tho, we had to go to a line for the 5K shirt and a line for the 10K shirt and a line for the Marathon shirt and a line for the Challenge shirt and a line for the race poster and a line for the free bag they gave. Sheesh!!! Then of course there was the expo itself...
Finally we left. Went to Walgreens to get Aquafor and some food. I should also mention that on Wednesday I got my Allergy shots. I'm on maintenance schedule so every 6 weeks. That's important for later... I was feeling fine so except for the Aquafor and food, I didn't get anything else.
Back to the Hotel to drop stuff off and relax. Then we left and went toward the expo again (3rd time now), since all the races were near there. Found parking. Found the start. Got ready. Jamey wore his "free the hostages" shirt again. In Philadelphia he got a lot of love - that was November. We were wondering what he would get now as the situation is back to normal in the sense that people hate Israel. Actually, things are even worse now with all these stupid kids supporting Hamas with their ignorance, not realizing what they are saying. More on that later...
Back to the hotel. I showered and ate and chilled out and went to sleep very early. Jamey decided to be multi-cultural and went to get a skyline chilli which is basically a chilly dog with cheese. Look in the images for his exact dinner. I couldn't believe it when he told me later what it was...
We parked and got our bearing. Found the start. Lots of people... Seems like a lot of people doing either the 3way or the 4way challenge. Used the port-a-potty. I saw people climbing up into the stadium (the Bengals play there). I figured there would be indoor plumbing but I wasn't gonna do extra bonus climbing for no reason. Took the little blue pill. Used the port-a-pottie yet again. Oh boy... Hoping for the best.
The 10K allegdly has about 200 feet of elevation. Hm... We started. I believe we have 3 bridges to cross today. The first and third are real bridges as in up and down. The second is pretty much a small flat affair. It's a little annoying that the elevation map they provided with the map is different than the one that google has in their link. Their map seems BAD. Google's map doesn't seem that bad. Converning...
We start. Seems like things are okish... That being said, lots of walkers immediatly in front of us. Either we were pessimistic about our time OR people lied about theirs OR both. Bottom line: We started in the wrong corral and so did they. Oh well. That's ok though as we have a lot more ground to still cover. Not going fast is fine.
Lots of people walking up that first bridge. Too early to do that. The course is pretty enough. We talk to people.
Jamey hears someone say "y'all" and he gets triggered. He loves it. He starts saying it to everyone. It's all good until someone tells him that a local told him that "y'all" is singular while "all y'all" is plural. And now we start a poll asking everyone on the course their opinion.
We did say hi to a Maniac (Erika Hamel) and we seem to be leap frogging with her. Anyway, I was taking count and we were running. It got to the point where we had votes for singular, plural, I don't know and something else.
We are on our last bridge and then on our last big hill. It was mile 4 and we were happy that it's almost over until I spied a "5K - 1 mile" sign. Well, that's a bummer... We get through it and continue on. We met a runner doing her second marathon (tomorrow) and we finished with her. I don't remember her name anymore unfortunatly.
We hugged and then got some delicious pancakes and some water. We forgot to bring a bag to check in the medal while we do the 5K and didn't want to go to the car, so we managed. It wasn't huge or anything. Definitly not like Phliadelphia last year.
We talk to some more people and then eventually, we line up for the 5K. All good. Lined up for it and all good until the announcement... Due to a nasty thunderstorm cell that's about to hit (full with lightning), we will postpone the 5K by at least an hour. Sucks but I get it. Apparently, last year, there was a nasty storm and there was a shelter in place order but not everyone got it and so people were running in a lightning storm through knee deep water. They did not want that to happen again. We were gonna go to the car when again we met up with Erika. She had her crew with her. I don't remember all the names (sorry) but there was a Dave. Anyway, they wanted to hide in the stadium. I wasn't sure I wanted to climb all the way there but I liked having company and I was afraid that we would NOT hear when the race is starting so we joined them. They were gonna huddle on the side of the stadium with minimal coverage. I said that we should continue as there must be something up ahead. I was right. There was an entrance. We hid out and oh yeah, indoor plumbing too.
It started raining a little. Big deal... The weather app was showing all sort of pretty colors coming our way. NOT GOOD!!! Still little rain. No big deal. And then a huge light (lightning) and an immediate boom with a shaking of the stadium. Guess it's for real now.
We were there with a bunch of people. All hiding. At one point tho, I started sneezing. Violent violent sneezing. Not regular sneezing but violent. I was constantly grabbing napkins from everywhere. Eyes tearing. Coughing due to sneezing and due to blowing my nose. It was bad. Real bad.
The 10K started at 7 and the 5K was supposed to start at 9 before the shelter in place. It was eventually started at noon. Sucks! Still, at least no rain...
Wd cic 1:01:43 for the 10K and 28:33 for the 5K.
Got some food and back to the hotel for shower and food. I was done for the day. Jamey went out to get more food later.
Small stats tangent here for some fun...
| Distance | Athletes |
|---|---|
| 1 Mile | 3,074 |
| 10K | 4,194 |
| 5K | 4,540 |
| 13.1 | 10,536 |
| 26.2 | 4,057 |
| 26.2 Relay | 296 |
| 3Way | 217 |
| 3Way+Chz | 484 |
| 4Way | 51 |
| 4Way+Chz | 171 |
We were moving. Thankfully, the first hill was us walking through the corrals to the actual start line. We finally got to the start line and started.
Remember those violent sneezes? My allergies really took a beating. I did get an allergy shot the wednesday before and they did tell me that they lowered my tree pollen a little bit but this was overwhelming. Elizabeth was annoyed with me that I didn't take meds with me AND that we stopped at a pharmacy multiple times and I didn't get anything so after the 5K, we stopped at Walgreens (again) and I got some. I was in a bad bad place. I knew it. As soon as I got into the store, after sneezinf a bit, I asked the salesperson and she told me where they were. On the line, I tore through the box. And I could not open the single pill dispenser thingie... I'm sneezing and couldn't do it and without shame, I asked the person in back of me for help. "Excuse me... You're a mom... Please help!". She finally did it and I swallowed a pill even before I paid for it. I was a mess... Made sure to take a pill in the morning too. The severity of the sneezes was a little less. The frequency was a little less but the sinus were heavy.
Looking at the map, the worst hills seemed to be from about mile 4 to mile 13 with hills before that and hills after that. It is what it is.
At around mile 1, we saw a pro-hamas person waving a huge terrorist flag and chanting terrorist things. When she saw Jamey's "bring them home" shirt, she doubled-down on that. He just sang to her "Am Israel Chai". Fortunatly that was it for now. We continueed on.
We ran up. We ran down. We ran a little flats to the next up. We were talking. Having fun really. We also talked to different people along the way. There was a guy that Jamey and I saw the previous day and we weren't sure if he was wearing a bear hat or a wolf hat (check the images) and so, I left Jamey and Tomsky and ran to him and asked. His reply, "It's a bear hat as I'm bare-ly making it". Nice!
I don't know what else to say. Most of the course was beautiful. Most of the course was hills. It was extremly well supported. It was well marked. Aid stations were awesome. It was pretty much water/gatorade but later on they were much more frequent and sliced oranges made their appearance everywhere. There were 2 puffs tissue aid stations where they handed out tissues. There was a girl scouts cookie aid station. I'll let you guess what they had. I'm not a fan but at the other cookie station, I took a chocolate chip cookie. I didn't find too much humor in the twizzler stop at twizzler road or twizzler hill (whatever). Then again, not a fan of twizzlers. I did see the irony there so there's that.
Erika suddenly appeared and I left the boys to run with her for a short while to tell her some jokes. Someone told us to get through things and that around mile 18 (I think... Getting senile), I wish I would rememeber the name, things would get better. Didn't know what that meant but we found out. It was breezy and the whole neighborhood came out. Even more support. Impromptou aid stations everywhere. There was an out and back section and they had a bacon station that you see twice. Not a fan of bacon but I'm sure some people loved it. More Oranges. And then... I spied a coke bottle and I sprinted and got some of that magic elixir.
Tomsky kept commenting on the guy who leap-frogged with us who kept vaping during the race. Crazy stuff...
I ran into a tiny Asian woman and I said Good Morning to her and she replied with, "Just got here. Not much English". I asked her where she was from and when she replied Japan, I immediatly showed off my 3 phrases of Japanese. Her eyes lit up and she started talking to me in full speed and of course being the Gaigin that I am, I could not understand a single thing. So, naturally I called Jamey over and he started talking to her in Japanese and she then really lit up. Nice.
We did see 2 female runners sporting a small terrorist flag unfortunatly. One of them immediatly started chanting stupid things at Jamey and he replied with "Bring Them Home" but then Jamey being Jamey, asked if she's ok and told her that she doesn't look good. She did admit she was feeling bad and he gave her some good advice i.e salt, liquids etc.
Jamey's story as ripped from Facebook: This past weekend I completed the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon, participating in a special challenge running a 1 mile race that Friday, then a 10k and a 5k on Saturday, and lastly the full 26.2 mile Marathon on Sunday. I wore a special shirt that congregants gave me for all 4 races. In total, I ran with around 38,000 people. Over the course of the 3 days, I received 40 compliments - numerous "Go Israel's" - chants of, "Bring them Home" - people thanking me for wearing it, pats on the back, and a few took selfies with me. I came across anti-Israel protesters during the marathon. It started with Free Palestine posters plastered across a prominent stadium wall. At mile 1, a woman with a megaphone was chanting Free Palestine, and I passed 4 runners wearing small Palestinian flags on their hat or backpack. Only 1 person interacted with me. A young woman at mile 18 took her flag and start waiving it at me while chanting Free Palestine. I gave a low-key "Go Israel" - then after a look at her, I inquired about her health - she did not look healthy. It was a hot and humid, sunny day - dangerous for runners who are not trained for heat running. I asked her if she's been hydrating - taking electrolytes - doing things to cool herself down. She said she's been trying but the weather is hard, and she's just wants to finish the race one step at at time. I offered her salt tabs, water, Tylenol - and offered advice for things to do at the upcoming aid stations. She thanked me multiple times, said she just has to complete the race, and continued on. I think these people truly have no idea what they are protesting or why. Am Yisrael Chai!
At one point, I did see a woman running the Marathon while dribbling a basketball and (of course,) I immediatly ran faster yelling "the white Michael Jordan makes the steal to seal the game". She heard me and smiling actually passed the ball to me. Awesome! I threw it back and wished her luck.
Miles 22-24ish sucked for the most part except when we got to an area where they threw small basketballs to people and people shot the balls into lowered basketball hoops. Yet again, me being me, I acted out. Truth: I cannot dunk. Can't jump that high. Tried many times. Just cannot reach the rim. But this hoop was lower... Hm... I grabbed the ball and ran right through that aid station and dunked. YES! And as I am hanging on to the rim swinging, I realized that I wrenched my lower back badly. I then landed and realized that I may have also scored 3 black toe nails. Fast forward to now, my lower back still hurts. No black toe nails tho. Every so often, wife asks if it was worth it and the answer is (obviously) still YES!
Somewhere around this time, a race official did warn Jamey that there are some terrorists acting stupid at the finish line and just to watch out. Fortunatly, nothing came of it.
Eventually, we made it to that last 1 mile that we saw for the 10K and the 5K. Finally we finished... Yay.
Said goodbye to Tomsky, got our extra medal, got some food and left. Who do we see? Tomsky. He's lost. Walked him toward his car.
Tomsky tangent: Tomsky at one point asked me if we still run with Michael Prayor. I answered him that "no, we don't. He pulled a Tomsky on us and completly disappeared without saying a word.". I enjoyed that answer. It was true on both counts. He realized it. It is what it is.
Showered and then later, I went out with Jamey and got a nice size burger (yummy) and then we went to an ice-cream place. I got a scoop of Vanilla and a scoop of Sherbert with whipped Cream. Later, went out again and got soup (delicious) and a salad (delicious too).
Next morning, airport. Returned the car and chilled out. His flight left an hour before mine and that was ok. Said goodbye and went to mine. I saw a girl there who ran her first Marathon at Pig. Why?!? She's a 21 year old and apparently missed a BQ. What?!? Missed it by 5 minutes or so. Wow!
Apparently daughter's friend Sammy was there at the race. Her brother ran the race too. Wish I knew.
Landed early at JFK but Uber took forever due to construction at JFK. Jamey landed at LGA and Ubered to my house, got the car and immediatly went to work where he stayed until 10pm. Jeez...
