The Flying Pig

So here is the abbreviated version for those of you in a hurry...

We left Saturday afternoon, went to the Expo in Cincinnati, and then ate dinner in Kentucky.  Dinner was very good, and we had a lovely view across the river to Cincinnati.  (The weather cleared, and it was warm; this is good, since we had to wait about an hour and a half to be seated.)  After dinner, we went back to the hotel room and laid all of our stuff out. Then we all tried to sleep, which was definitely unsuccessful for me.

We were up at 4:30am to torrential rain and storms.  But we got ready, grabbed breakfast, and joined all of the others leaving for the marathon.  We found a good place to park, and then walked about a mile in the very heavy rain and lightning to the start line.  The crowds were pretty amazing!

And then I walked.  For 13.1 miles.  In the rain, but, thankfully, no more storms.

That’s the short version. 
 
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Here’s the long version…  (I'll try to put in lots of pics to make it less painful for those of you brave enough to read this whole thing!)

 

The four of us met at the church: Gail, Judy, Melissa, and I.  We were soon off and on our way, stopping to eat at Gail’s favorite restaurant in Mason.  After a good lunch, we were back on our way, timing it out quite well to check in to the hotel.

Everybody seemed to like the hotel, and I was glad, as I had picked it out.  We called it the IKEA hotel.  So after a bit of settling in, we headed into downtown Cincinnati (less than 5 minutes from our hotel) for the Expo (at the same place as the homeschool convention).

We had fun at the Expo, checking in, picking up freebies, and shopping a bit.  Three of us got Spibelts.  I also got a 13.1 pin for my dorky hat (which is the most awesome hat in the world, I might add), and a cool glass souvenir.  (I like my souvenir—a glass suncatcher-type of thing—because it is made here in Ohio from recycled glass, and the proceeds benefit recycling efforts in Appalachian Ohio, which also means supporting jobs there.)

 (I had to pose with Pigippides! LOL!)

After the Expo, we headed to Kentucky to eat at Buckhead Mountain Grill which came highly recommended.  We had a very long wait, but we didn’t mind.  We sat outside on the deck overlooking the Ohio River, with a lovely view of Cincinnati.  The sky began to clear, and we all took some very nice pictures of the sunset.

 

For entertainment while we waited, we had groups of prom-goers.  They looked so pretty (and some looked so skanky—LOL!).  Judy offered to take pictures for them, and we moved our table so they could have a backdrop of the Cincy skyline.  Eventually, Melissa and I got into the photography business, too, as more and more cameras appeared.  It was fun and kept us busy!

Then we had English sparrows visiting us.  (Sadly, we had no food to offer them.)  I spotted a flycatcher hanging out in the trees below us by the riverbank.  (I thought it was a crested flycatcher, but now I’m not so sure.)

Anyway, we finally got seated and ended up with the best seat in the restaurant, I think.  (Basically, we had as good of a view as we had outside on the deck.)  Yummy dinner, lots of laughter and fun, and a free dessert (for our long wait), and then we were back to the hotel.

 

We met Gail’s friend, Christy, there, and she hung out with us from then on.  We were all nervous and excited, putting together our stuff for the marathon.  I am a worried, neurotic packrat, as evidenced first by how much I packed for one night away (3 times as much as everyone else), but also evidenced by how much I packed for the race!    I just don’t like to be caught somewhere without something I need or really want.  In my backpack, I had: my camera, a plastic bag (for the camera and anything else I didn’t want to get wet in case it rained), glasses and contact case (not as ridiculous as it sounds—if I have a contact lens failure, there is no turning back from that.  Gas permeable lenses must come out, and then I must have my glasses.  If I don’t, there will be no walking the race, as I am, for all intents and purposes, blind.), gum, hand sanitizer, half a bottle of diet Coke, powder and brush (for my shiny nose), safety pins (in case the toggle straps on my spi-belt fail, and I need to pin my racing bib to my coat), and Clif bars.   In my spi-belt, I had a pack of Kleenex, Gail’s keys, and lip balm, with my Gu packs in the handy-dandy loops.  In my coat (waterproof), I had my iPod and my cell phone.  

Obviously, I’m not worried about speed.

So then we try to sleep.  I didn’t get stressed out, because I had prepared myself for the fact that I wouldn’t get any sleep.  And I didn’t.  Surprisingly, we all seemed to do fine anyway.

We were back up at 4:30am and busy getting ready by then.  It was storming outside and raining heavily.  The hotel was nice enough to have breakfast for us, so that was cool.  We left a little later than I thought we would, but it didn’t make a difference in the end.

Christy snapped a picture of the four of us from church before we stepped out of the parking garage.  It was the last time we were dry for many hours!

 (Photo swiped from Gail's Facebook page!  Thanks for taking it, Christy!)

We stepped out from the parking garage into a flood of people and a flood of rain.  Walking to Paul Brown Stadium took us some time, and we were drenched within a minute.  Lightning was flashing every so often, lighting up the scene to reveal a huge crowd of people all walking the same direction toward the starting line.  (Think the attack at Helm's Deep, only we weren't a crowd of angry Uruk-Hai.)  Some of us were wearing raincoats or ponchos or even garbage bags.  (Melissa had even decoratively cut the bottom of her garbage bag to have scalloped edges.)  Others were simply wearing their running/walking clothes (and, in some cases, that wasn’t much!).

We soon lost Gail and Christy in the crowd, but Melissa, Judy, and I managed to stay together at first—which was just a wait at the port-a-potties.  In fact, the starting horn sounded while we were in the restrooms!  It didn’t really matter with so many people, though; it’s not like we could’ve started right at 6:30am anyway.  (Our time didn’t start till our foot with the chip on it passed the starting mat.)  There was a tremendous energy in the air.  It was really cool!

As we waited with the crowd for our chance to go over the starting line, I decided that the tape I had on my toes was not going to work.  I had been told that it was likely to be 20 minutes or so before we made it to the start.  So I took off my shoe and sock and peeled off the tape.  Just as I was starting to put my sock back on, the crowd started to move.  I shoved my bare foot half into my shoe and started to hobble forward, waiting till the next pause to get the situation squared away—only, the next pause never happened!  And the starting line was looming!

I asked Judy to wait for me, but Melissa had gotten too far ahead to stop.  We stopped, I quickly put my sock and shoe on, and off we went!

The first mile went quickly and soon we were crossing the bridge over the Ohio River.  The storm seemed to be fading a bit (the lightning anyway), which was nice, as I didn’t like the idea of being on a bridge in a lightning storm.

 

Every time I cross the Ohio River, I can’t help but think of the escaping slaves as they encountered this body of water.  It would have been so daunting!  It’s really quite wide.  Could they swim across?  Many didn’t know how to swim at all.  Could they float across on a log or something?  Possibly.  If they were lucky, they’d find someone to ferry them across, and, if they weren’t lucky, they’d have no choice but to plunge in as the slave hunters and their dogs closed in on them.

I must admit that I’m proud of Ohio’s Underground Railroad heritage.  What a blessing those brave souls were who lived in Cincinnati and risked their lives to help the slaves!  Later on in the marathon I walked by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house.

Anyway, we were greeted in Kentucky by an oompah band.  (I had to cheer.  I'm a band geek.)  We climbed up another bridge over a tributary, and then, near mile 3, we began our journey back across the Ohio.  There was an R&B band there and lots of cheering bystanders.

That really was a fun aspect of this race.  People lined the streets (even in the crappy weather!) to cheer us on.  Some just shouted encouragement or clapped.  Some had noise sticks or clapping hand sticks.  Others made pig grunts and oinked at us!  Some were silly, dressed up funny, doing a hula hoop, or dancing around.  It really did make you smile and want to keep going.

And it was neat at times to think about all of the people on this journey together with you.  Tens of thousands of others walking or running with you.  (The crowds didn't bother me; maybe because I was walking instead of running the crowd had thinned out, and I had plenty of space around me.)

Anyway, miles 3-5 took us through an industrial part of Cincinnati, next to elevated train tracks, docks, and the Wonder Bread factory (which smelled wonderful!).  There was also some sort of jail downwind from the bread factory.  That would be the real torture of being in that jail!  And we passed a Hudepohl Beer smokestack.  (Craig says this is where “Whodey?” comes from.  ??)

Mile 5 took us through the heart of downtown, and then mile 6 began the long climb.  If I’m reading the elevation chart correctly, we climbed a total of about 350 feet between miles 5 and 9 or 10.  By the time we got to mile 6, we could see runners passing underneath our road.  (We were on an overpass.)  It was the runners for the half marathon, on the homestretch!  Wow.

Just before mile 7, I decided I should go to the bathroom (yet again—I’m paranoid about having to pee and getting trapped without a port-a-potty in sight.  I’d forgotten to bring a map, so I would’ve known where all of the restrooms were.).  Judy kept walking, and I waited in line.  If I had waited another mile or so, I wouldn’t have had to wait in line, but, anyway, it all worked out in the end.

I was on my own, then, for the prettiest part of the race—and the most difficult.  The Mt. Adams/Eden Park area is very picturesque, with the Art Museum, Mirror Lake, Krohn Conservatory, and the overlook of the Ohio River.  Even when you left the park, it was still pretty, with old houses and interesting architecture.

My music was my friend, especially as it started raining hard again.  (It rained for nearly the entire time, as it was.  This is why I said I love my dorky hat.)  The guy dressed up as Elvis, singing outside of Krohn Conservatory, was pretty terrible, but it made me smile anyway.  I thought the guy dressed up as Batman, blasting Lady Gaga, had made a better choice.  The guy between miles 7 and 8 who encouraged us all by letting us know we were almost out of the uphill climb was pretty awesome too!

We passed St. Ursula’s Convent, which is, evidently, the highest point of the race.  There were some fun spectators in this area.  There were the boys who formed a tunnel that we had to walk through.  There were the families with cute little toddlers and preschoolers—all of whom wanted a high five as we went past.

 

This is also the area where the full marathoners split off from those of us doing the half marathon.  Up ahead was a beautiful, old church.  Was it the church I had taken pictures of from Kentucky?  I don’t know, but that would be cool if it was.

The other fun group of spectators and volunteers were near mile 9.  The football team had formed a gauntlet that we got to run through and get high fives.  (By the way, I waited to use my hand sanitizer till I was out of sight from anyone I’d given a high five to.)

 

I had my head down and was settling in for the long torture these last few miles would be when I spotted Melissa!  She was hobbling along, obviously injured.  She had had a catastrophic sock failure and was in severe pain.  As I said, the potty break worked everything out in the end, because I caught up with her just when I was beginning to wonder if I could make it the last few miles without someone to talk to (to keep my mind off my aches and pains) and just when she was ready to quit because of her injuries.  So, together, we made our way till mile 12, when she spotted her family waiting for her.

I left her at mile 12 because her family was walking along beside her now, and I put on some extra speed for the last mile.  I finished at 3 hours 55 minutes—a little slower than I wanted but that’s okay.  It was less than 4 hours!

Some of the full marathoners were coming in at this point.  It was hard to imagine that they had just run 26.2 miles.  Crazy!  One lady told me that she had run 25 marathons, and that this was by far the most difficult one.  “It makes the Boston look like a piece of cake!”  The reason I mention that is because the full and the half do the most difficult parts together.

Anyway, I got a medal and a shiny blanket.  So that means I was official and important, too, right?  And I got to eat the food that was back in the recovery area.  (It was the best Granny Smith apple I've ever had in my life!  Oh, and I ate some Cheetos, too.)

Poor Melissa was having a hard time of it, and when she peeled off her socks I could tell why.  Ewwww!  She had an enormous blister on the heel of one foot, and other blisters scattered around.  We ended up spending close to an hour in the back of the race area.  (It's a long story, and this is already long enough!  We lost Melissa for a while, but we did find her!)

And then we had a long and painful journey back to the parking garage.  Finally, Melissa headed off with her proud family, and Judy and I drove back to the hotel.  (Judy drove—bless her heart!)  We just pretended like we were supposed to be at the hotel, and it was so wonderful to change into dry clothes.  We then went back out to the lobby and flopped on the couch, propping our feet up on chairs.  (The people at this hotel are so nice!  The janitor came over and got pillows for our feet! LOL!)  We waited there till we got a call from Gail that she and Christy were done, and then we went and picked them up (as close to where they were as possible!).

So that's my first marathon!