Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon Race Report

The marathon chewed me up and spit me out. Let me just start by saying that I have a new respect for the distance of the marathon, the hills of Cincinnati, and the training it requires to do well.

How it started...

Yesterday my wife and I went down to the city for the expo. We had a great time and I got my shirt, bib, timing chip, and various other things. While we were there I talked to the pacers. The 3:30 pacer was not there, but I learned his name was Roger. I planned to try to catch up with him at the starting line and find out what his strategy was.

Tiffany and I got home around 7:30 and I spent awhile getting everything ready. At around 10:00 we went to bed. I tossed and turned and ended up only getting 2 hours of sleep. Last night was one of the hardest parts of the entire marathon. There were times when I thought I would not be getting any sleep at all. I was so stressed out that I was going to be running a marathon after staying up all night.

At 4:30 Tiffany woke me up telling me my alarm had gone off, I was so confused because I had dreams that I slept through the marathon and thought that was reality.

By 5:00 my dad and I were on the road down to Cincinnati.

By 6:05 I was at the starting line. That is when I caught up with Roger. I asked what he hoped to run the first few miles at and he said right on pace. I decided at that point to start out with the 3:40 pacer. So I tucked in next to him and waited for the gun to go off. At this point my nerves were down and I was ready to run. The gun went off and I was going.

Now for as close as I can get to the mile by mile report...

Mile 1 8:37 -Just off pace for 3:40, it was really difficult to navigate through the crowd.
Mile 2 7:49 - I already decided to leave the 3:40 pacer. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!!!
Mile 3 7:53 - Feeling good, but knowing I was running too fast too early.
Mile 4 8:02 - I had finally slowed back down to goal pace, but in reality I had gone up and over a large bridge so it was still too fast.
Mile 5 7:45 - Just getting caught up in the atmosphere. I had no business running this fast.
Mile 6 8:05 - Started going up some serious hills. I was passing a lot of people and the adrenaline was flowing.
Mile 7 8:39 - Up a huge hill. Finally running smarter though.
Mile 8 8:17 - Still going up hill, but running at a more manageable pace.
Mile 9 8:07 - Getting back to goal pace.
Mile 10 8:11 - Really starting to feel it.
Mile 11 7:33 - Not being smart again. I was just behind the 3:30 pacer for a while around mile 6 and I was trying to reel him back in.
Mile 12 8:29 - I was paying for the 7:33.
Mile 13 9:00 - Starting to unravel.
Mile 14 8:44 - Holding onto hope for a 3:40 and realizing 3:30 was now done.
Mile 15 9:06 - Still out in front of the 3:40 pacer and doing my best to keep it that way.
Mile 16 12:51 - I walked!! I still can't believe that I had to walk. The reality is that I walked a bunch the rest of the way. When I started walking, I thought it would just be for a couple of minutes and I would start running strong again. That was not what happened. The rest of the race is pretty embarrassing and very demoralizing, but here it is...
Mile 17 8:37 - I ran the entire mile but it really hurt.
Mile 18 12:40 - There was a decent amount of walking. Since I had not planned on walking I really had no strategy for walking and probably walked more then I needed to.
Mile 19 11:23 - A little less walking, but walking none the less.
Mile 20 9:18 - I actually ran an entire mile again.
Mile 21 12:00 - Emotionally it was really starting to get to me as I realized that the rest of the race was going to be like this.
Mile 22 12:32 - More walking.
Mile 23 13:33 - I started out this mile running for 4 minutes. When I stopped, I could barely walk. I was actually concerned that I might not finish for a minute. But I hobbled for a couple of minutes and it slowly started coming back.
Mile 24 14:41 - Much more walking then running.
Mile 25 11:52 - Was able to pull it back together a little knowing the end was near.
Mile 26.2 12:22 - Which equates to a 10:18 pace. Of course I pulled it together to run the last half and cross the finish line.

Total 4:16:18 46 minutes behind goal

There was a time during the collapse that I was so disappointed that I started thinking I might never run again. I have since regained my composure and I have chalked my poor time up to a few things. Lack of weekly mileage, which I will share more of in a future post (It was actually just my legs that kept me from doing well, I seemed to be in great cardio shape, and despite the side stitches I had over the last week of training, I did not have any during the marathon.). Lack of sleep. Starting out way too fast on a course that climbs 500 feet from miles 5-8. Not getting enough calories in before the run.

I am already ready to do another one and can't wait to get back out and running again. I will be running a fall marathon. I will break 3:30 easily next time. After this week, which I plan to take pretty easy, I will have 24 weeks to train. This time I will show some respect.

I want to say thank you to Tiffany, my wife, who has put up with a lot of early alarm clocks, a lot of long Saturday runs, and a lot of talk about running. She has been amazingly supportive and she makes chasing this dream possible.