Flying Pig Marathon: Toeing the Starting Line

On May 6, 2018, I ran the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, OH. The rationale for such an early marathon was that Jody and I were going on a babymoon at the end of May (a trip to Utah) so I could not run the Green Bay Marathon. And with Melanie due at the end of August, I could rule out any marathon after she graced us with her presence. Thus, to keep my annual marathon streak alive, we would drive the 6.5 hours to Cincinnati to run 26.2 miles.

In the months leading up to the marathon, I thought I had a good plan. I followed a different plan than the Hal Higdon plans that I had used in the past. This plan was from Strava and included a lot of speed workouts akin to sprints and interval training. I thought I would give strength a try over just running miles, which is the focus of most of the Hal Higdon plans.

I had a solid 12-weeks of training. Heck, I only I only missed one workout and came up short of my target mileage in another one when a massive snow storm hit Milwaukee on the day I was scheduled to run 20 miles. Instead, of running outside in blizzard conditions, I tried to run 20 miles on the treadmill. OMG! Worst experience ever! I binge watched Bosch on Amazon but could only muster 17 miles. Not bad, I guess, given that I was bored out of my mind after the fifth mile.

When it was time to leave for Cincinnati, I felt pretty good and confident that I could obtain my goal of a 4:30:00 race. I had even started to carb load a couple days prior to the race -- focusing on eating extra bagels, pretzels, and drinking a bunch of water ... but not too much.

The drive to Cincinnati was smooth and easy. and our our hotel was only a handful of blocks away from the running convention and starting corrals. 

At the time, I thought this was worth a picture...

The pre-race dinner was perfect. A bowl of spaghetti, bread, and water. The weather was even looking good. Maybe too good. No rain, but warm.

Overall, I wouldn't say I felt out-of-this-world great, but I felt good enough that I could achieve my goal to run the race in 4 hours and 30 minutes.