Flying Pig Half Marathon - We're Big Pigs!

What's my favorite thing in the entire running world?? Being with my friends. My first ever follower was Michael who also happened to be the winner of my first ever blog giveaway! We just kinda hit it off and she soon became one of my very best friends even though we hardly ever get to see each other! She's in Missouri and I'm in KY. Frown. The good news is, she's only a text away if I've fallen off my bike and scraped up my gorgeous face or had a crappy run. We're both training for a our first 70.3 and I know when I cross that finish line that I'll owe her a huge thank you for encouraging me on when I wanted to just melt into a puddle some days.

Anyway, for months I've been excited about us getting to run the Flying Pig Half Marathon together! We haven't had a race since the Mo' Cowbell back in October and that seems like it's been forever ago. Maybe it's good that we live farther away. I can't imagine the shenanigans we would be up to if we lived closer. She and her husband Jim both came to Cincy and as you can see, we made the expo our .....

See that lady in the background?? She asked that I take "only one". One toothbrush? Try 7 amiga. Why would Proctor and Gamble want to deny me clean teeth? Plus, see all those brushes!!? They're all SOFT!! Good thing I work out. I'll have to scrub twice as hard.

When someone is in costume, they are fair game. Bear behinds are incredibly soft by the way. We were disappointed that there was no Charmin toilet paper shreds stuck to his tush. Thanks Proctor and Gamble for the cool bear! It totally made up for getting yelled at over the toothbrushes.

Jim, Michael and Me. 14 hours till race time! Just a side note... when you run in 80+ degree heat, it often feels as if everything you do could take 14+ hours.

 It's 5 am, do you know where the pre race dance party is?? Yeah, 6th floor hotel hallway is where it's AT!
We had seen The Avengers the night before so I was doing my best Hulk impression.

When I smile, I go big or I go home. Obviously, I went big! I was all psyched up for our race!

Race report - 


Weather - Hot and Humid
Finish Time - 2:30
Fun Meter - Defcon 1 (that's a nuclear blast of joy)


Michael and I decided, as the race began that we were gonna hang back and use the porta pottys. I've never experienced this before but we were literally the last people to start a 20K person marathon. It was kinda cool actually. We spent the entire race working our way through people. The odd part was that we never felt too crowded. If you've never run this race, YOU SHOULD! The crowd support, race, water stops, EVERYTHING is like a well-oiled machine. It's a hilly one, but oh so worth it!! We talked a lot and enjoyed laughing at signs and people dressed up. We stopped at almost every water station and just enjoyed the day. I had some weird stomach thing going on so I was happy that we weren't going all out.

After all was said and done, we got our medals and hoofed it 8 city blocks to my car. I had to take Michael back to her hotel and say goodbye. Such a bummer. She had a super long drive home so I felt bad that she had to be cooped up in a car for 9 hours. Plus, we had our arms full of post race food so it made the walk more interesting. I'm talking chip bags flying everywhere.

So, next stop is my first Olympic distance triathlon in 2 weeks. I'm nervous of course but then again, if I weren't then I'd be worried.