Roadtrip to Cinci Marathon

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With a little over two weeks before our departure, I had one last trip to make, the Flying Pig (Cincinnati) Marathon. Call me crazy, but it was my third marathon of the year. I know that I probably won't get another one in before the end of the year (well, perhaps Singapore, but we'll see when the time comes), so another one seemed like a good idea when I registered a few months ago. Also, it was a good excuse for a roadtrip with my running buddies. Our last trip together for a while as I'll be gone and another friend is moving away this summer.

Along for the ride were Julio, his wife Kathy, and two other avid runners Pam and Betsy. We left the families behind and headed out Saturday morning pointed east on interstate 64 across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and finally up to Cincinnati, Ohio on the Ohio River. Pam and Kathy drove so that Julio and I could rest up for the full marathon (26.2 miles). The rest of the crew ran the half marathon (13.1), which of course is a long way itself, but nowhere near as taxing, draining, or insane as the full. Thank goodness they drove because I was zonked on the ride back and I know Julio was too.

The ride over was a quick 5.5-6 hour thanks to our leadfooted drivers. We got to the race expo in time to get our numbers and do some looking around at the exhibits of running stuff. We stayed in grovel of a place that had only one thing going for it, location. Our hotel was across the river from downtown Cincinnati and the race starting line. This made it really easy for us on Sunday morning to wake up early and start our walk across the bridge. The race started at 6am (it felt like 5am to me as ST. Louis is normally an hour behind).

The race is called the Flying Pig Marathon and the whole city really joined in the fun with all the porcine paraphernalia you could imagine. We could not ask for better weather for race day as it was in the 50's and 60's (F) with an overcast sky. The race was a good one, lots of people for the combined starts of the half and full. I think the numbers were somewhere around 15,000 runners. I didn't expect to get a personal best due to a rather large hill on the course and it being my third race of the year. I wanted to run relaxed (read ..slow) and did, ending up with a time some 8 minutes slower than my best. I didn't mind too much. I was happy to finish and get my 6th state. See, I've decided that I will run one marathon in every state (all 50!) by the time I turn 50! It's still quite a long way away, but you gotta have goals, right? Julio, got his best ever time, and Pam, Kathy and Betsy had a pretty good showing themselves. All in all, it was a worthy roadtrip with some good friends.

The real countdown began when I got home...16 days until we leave for Hanoi...

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Photos

I-64 Eastbound
Heading through downtown St. Louis, Pam behind the wheel approaching cruising speed.

Cincinnati skyline
Downtown Cincinnati from the interstate

oops...
My first attempt at getting the Cinci skyline....The darn signs got in the way...interesting pic anyway.

Race Expo
Picking up our race numbers the day before the race, the group shows an impressive, well almost, display of knowing which way to pin the numbers on.

Carbo Loading, Sort Of
The only place we could find that didn't have an hour long wait served....Macaroni and Cheese! Okay, it's a funny way to get your pre-race pasta dose, but it was actually really good.

After the race
After running such a long way, we were all craving some protein and hit a burger joint. A cheeseburger never tasted so good as after a long long run. Yeah, I forgot my sunglasses...