Flying Pig Marathon Part 2 and 3

Flying Pig Marathon
Part 2 - Expo and Pump N Run, Saturday May 1, 2010

After breakfast at Superman's house (his trail name from hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2008) I met the rest of the group from Seattle at the expo around 2pm, went through the expo for a 3rd time. After wandering around, I went to get weighed in for the pump-n-run for the lifting portion of it. I had to bench press 60% of my weight and arm curl 40%, I ended up with 14 reps for bench and 10 for the curl, ending up with a silver medal for a combined 20-29 reps. Interesting diversion and a way to encourage runners to work on upper body strength as well.

Dinner was delicious Italian food at Pompilios in Newport, KY, just across the river from downtown Cincy. It took us an hour to get seated and got our table just as the delayed Kentucky Derby was starting, we were watching at a nearby pub while we waited. We were also staying nearby in Bellevue, KY so this was a quick drive.


Part 3 - The Marathon Sunday, May 2, 2010

Awake at 5am for the 6:30am start. The hotel had put out the continental breakfast an hour early to accommodate the runners which was very nice. A thunder storm with heavy ran rolled through around 3am or so and it was still raining when we got up. It was warmer outside than inside the hotel lobby, we would be wet but warm. We had some difficulty finding our way to the start and several of us in the car were getting nervous, we got there with 15 minutes to spare. The rain decided to downpour 5 minutes before the start, soaking any last dry parts on our bodies, half of the crowd had garbage bags on.

I felt OK for most of the race, stopped at several port a potties anticipating needing to use them, not wanting to get caught in between them. However, I did not need one until mid race, so I lost about 15 minutes with the frequent stops. After actually using the port a potty I started to feel a little peppier, and actually ended up feeling better for the second half and ran a negative split. I had some weird spasms in my right calf during the loooong hill from mile 5.5 to 8 which made me start to plan to bail on the race at the half marathon turn around, but once the climb finished it started feeling better so I continued on. The rain was off and on all race long. Tons of great spectators along the route and VERY frequent aid stations. Nice course, but I feel like I zoned out for most of the race. But I got my pig medal and learned a bit more about the US of A along the way.

Marathon #7, State #6.

To celebrate, I am going to do a giveaway of one black Flying Pig Marathon Asics duffel bag, I somehow ended up with two of them. To win, post a comment with 1 random fact about the town/city/area that you live in. I will randomly choose the winner and post the winner on Saturday May 15. Entries limited to those living in the US of A due to shipping costs.