The final stage in the Skyline 3-Way was the Flying Pig Half Marathon. I was simply having fun with the series and had no designs on making a PR attempt or anything like that. I was shooting for around 1:45, but I knew getting a decent time on this course would be difficult. Everything you've heard about the hills at the Flying Pig are true. The first half was flatter than I thought it would be but the second half was tough!
GF and I made our way to Paul Brown Stadium for the early 6:30 start. It was a bit tough to get into the corrals (I was in B) since the race was huge. I didn't run into any problems, though, and still left with the second wave. Here's my report.
Miles 1-5: I felt good at the beginning, considering the previous day's 10k and 5k attempts. We made our way from Paul Brown Stadium east and crossed into Kentucky. This part of the course was the same as the 10k. The Newport section was very pretty and we saw the sun rise within the first couple miles. We made our way back to the Ohio side and headed toward downtown Cincinnati. I enjoyed the downtown portion as much as any others on the course. The crowd support was outstanding. The congestion of the first few miles was gone and I could maneuver. I was running some very solid splits, too. Here are the first five: 1 (8:50), 2 (8:05), 3 (7:55), 4 (7:45), 5 (7:40). I was executing my plan perfectly and slowly chipping away at the time from the first mile.
Miles 6-10: We continued through the downtown area and getting closer to the famous hills the Flying Pig has to offer. I was still feeling surprisingly great and lowering my time with every step. Until mile 6. The hills started and, good grief, were they long and steep. The first one took a "take no prisoners" approach and was simply cruel. There seemed to be no end to it and it lasted about 3/4 mile. The course flattened out for a very brief time and started right in again with another steep hill. I've done plenty of half marathons with these long hills sprinkled throughout and others that have rolling hills the whole course. I'll take the rollers any day of the week. Having such hills smack in the middle of the course is punishment on the quads. Even looking forward to the eventual downhill didn't really help as I knew my legs would be destroyed before that. We exited Eden Park during mile 8 and the course leveled off for about two miles. Here are the splits: 6 (7:03), 7 (7:52), 8 (7:53), 9 (7:25), 10 (7:25). You can definitely tell the hilly sections from the flat ones. My splits were still below 8:00 and I knew a sub-1:45 was a definite, despite the fact the course was measuring 1/5 mile long.
Miles 11-13.1: Now we hit the steep downhill portion of the race. This was actually a tough part as the quads were destroyed and there was no holding back on such steep declines. I passed a ton of people during this section and just had fun with it. We briefly went around Eden Park and headed back downtown. The final mile was close to the same as the 10k finish. I was feeling great about my time and decided to pump up the crowd during my final sprint to the finish. GF even got to watch the end of my race, which is a rarity at a race this size. I hit the finish line in an amazing 1:40:42. I can't believe I ran such a tough race in a respectable time, especially after running almost 10 miles the previous day. Here are the final splits: 11 (7:08), 12 (6:42), 13 (6:50), 13.1 (2:08). I finished 442/11,527 overall and 75/623 in my age group. Not bad at all for such a huge race! I also finished 98/701 overall in the Skyline 3-Way Challenge.
GF took a few post-race shots and I also took one of the ridiculous amount of medals for the weekend, including an extra for completing the 3-Way Challenge.
I have actually been running every day since The Pig. That's a surprise and it really shows how much improvement I've made over the past year. I do have one half marathon at the end of the month, but I'm starting to switch gears for summer 5ks. GF plans on doing several with me and I'm sure she's going to break her PR several more times.
Next race: Greek Festival 5k- Mansfield, OH
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