Flying Piggies

Yay! Just got back from Cincinnati and one of my favorite races, The Flying Pig. This time however I did the half and not the full. (And boy am I glad!)

Even though this event is hard it is so much fun. I actually went back and forth on whether or not Bill and I should drive the course beforehand so I could see what I was in for. I eventually just let it up to chance though...no need to make myself crazy. I am kind of glad that I didn't drive it, because there were some majorly unexpected hills that might have psyched me out and lots of unexpected down hills which I would have been looking for way too early I'm sure. I was already feeling a bit nervous since I hadn't logged a single mile in three weeks (yikes).

This time my for real goal was 10:30 pace (lately I've been telling people 10:30 and secretly hoping for lower). I figured this was a good goal considering my lack of training and the difficulty of the course.

Of course, it was pouring down rain at the start. Yuck. I don't mind running in the rain, but I hate standing around in it, sopping wet, knowing that I will be uncomfortable because of it later. For this reason (and others) I was so glad that I wasn't in for the whole thing.

Right off the bat, I forgot about the minor hill leading up to the road to the bridge. Small but steep, it reminded me of some of the hills in the Queens half marathon. Bleh. My legs didn't react well and I knew I was kind of in for it.

But here's the funny thing: all of the hills I remembered as being torturous were actually not so bad. It was the little ones I didn't remember that sucked. So I just held back in the first few miles and took it easy.

The thing that is great about the Flying Pig is all of the crowd support. It seems to multiply every year. There weren't really any places on the course that were too deserted, and some places (like in front of my old workplace) were as crowded as they are for the NYC marathon.

I am pretty sure they changed the course a little bit though, adding a killer hill in right before we went into the park. Luckily, my all time favorite water stop was there to inspire me. (In the FP the water stops are manned by different volunteer organizations who compete for best water stop.) For some reason I find the guys at this water stop hilarious. (I think they are the Avondale Running Club). I never know if this is because I am tired/not looking forward to the worst hills on the course or if they really are truly inspirational/hilarious. Anyway, they play music over loud speakers and then the guys were singing "Running on, and running on, and running on. The Gatorade is in the green cups, the Gatorade is in the green cups. And running on, and running on..." and they are very enthusiastic and clap and tell you you are awesome and it's just very fun.

I was so dreading the Eden Park hill, remembering that Gina and I thought it was way worse than Harlem Hill. But you know what? Running it this time I was like "Wait. What was the big deal?" I'm pretty sure there are actually worse hills on the course. And this hill actually has a bit of a plateau in the middle of it. Not bad at all!

At this point I felt great, AND I knew from my segmentation of the course (which was ingrained in my head from so many years/times of running the course) that the worst parts were over!

When I got to the split though (marathoners to the right, half marathoners to the left) I was like "all right already." I also decided that I needed to cut myself some slack...as in, not sign up for so many difficult races. I mean seriously, am I a glutton for punishment? It kind of made me laugh.

On Gilbert some woman was like "It's all downhill from here!" But having heard this a million times on a million courses and found it not to be true I was skeptical. And then I saw a man on the side of the rode that said "Once you hit that cell tower you have about 2 miles of downhills!" THAT I could believe because it was so specific. :) The cell tower looked close, but it seemed to take forever to get there. And boy was he not kidding. There was so much downhill that I had to slow way down in order to make sure I didn't hammer my quads.

By mile 11 I was mentally done. So it was a good thing I saw the Avondale Running Club again. This time they were singing "You can make it, you can make it." Which is, consequently what I had stuck in my head for the rest of the race.

As I turned into the finishing corral I was spent, but spent in a good way. I felt like I couldn't have done any better for that race, so I was happy.

Oh yeah, and I averaged a 10:12 pace. Pretty good :)