On Sunday morning shortly after I woke up at 4:15 AM, I said “this is going to be the best day ever.” I was, of course, being highly optimistic. It was the morning of the 2012 Flying Pig Marathon.
After over a month of having issues with my right IT band (I blogged about it here and here and here and here) I knew what I was potentially walking into. But because of how fabulously stubborn I am, I decided I would still participate in the Flying Pig Marathon, even if I had to walk it. Or crawl it.
Let me start at the beginning: I run with some really fun and amazing ladies. Earlier this year, a group of us decided to run the Flying Pig Marathon and Half in Cincinnati, OH. I was just coming out of my first marathon, and determined to get right back on that horse.
Amazingly enough, I don’t have a single photo of all seven of us together. But with a few pics from this weekend, I got us covered:
Left to Right: Molly, me, Rachelle, Emily and Erin
Rox
Me and Wendy
Emily, being the traveling pro that is is, found us a great brownstone rental in Covington, KY. Covington is conveniently located just across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati and the house was just a tiny bit over a mile away from both the expo and the start line. And it was super cute with a rooftop deck (not that I could access said rooftop deck after the marathon):
Our view of Cincinnati
Sunday morning I woke up around 4:30 AM. I ate half of a bagel with peanut butter, drank some black coffee, used the restroom and got dressed. The night before I had laid out all of my stuff:
This included:
- Running tank
- Sports bra
- Running tights
- Running shoes
- Socks
- Bib number (filled out with emergency info)
- My borrowed Garmin
- Fuel belt (equipped with $20 bill)
- Fuel – Vanilla Stinger Waffles and Clif Shot Bloks
- Head band turned into my wrist band
- (not pictured) Cheap $15 sunglasses from Target
The rest of our group left the house around 5:40, while Rox and I ran fashionably late. This is not new for us. We’ve run several races together, and I’d say we’ve been running up to the start as the gun goes off for about half of those.
We left the house around 5:50 AM. We were just about to start crossing the bridge into Cincinnati when Rox looked down at my knees and asked where my IT band straps were. An expletive flew out of my mouth. I had forgotten to set those out, therefore forgetting to put them on.
We turned around to get them. Ten minutes and two IT straps later, we were crossing the bridge, where we got this lovely view of the super moon while we ate our bananas:
We followed the crowds towards the stadium and started to feel the energy created by thousands of runners ready to run their hearts out.
The corrals, or pig pens, at the start.
Especially this guy:
Praying or Tebowing?
Sure, it looks like Rox was doing the same, but she was just tying her shoes:
Here we are looking fairly relaxed for two girls that were running super late:
We stretched during the intro then Rox and I wished each other luck and split up to join our separate corrals pig pens. I tried to find the rest of the ladies, but had no such luck. I set my watch, stopped to say a prayer for strength and waited for my coral to start the race.
To be continued …
I Sweat Pretty 
Hey! Wendy runs with my group in Marathonfest. But she is FAST. I’m usually back with the slow pokes.
Oh yeah. She runs with us only when she’s injured or in recovery… Ha! I think she was taking it easy for this run. 🙂