Flying Pig Race Recap

I just wanted to give a quick overview of my first race of the season, the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon. Ultimately, I ran a 2:06:21, which ended up as my best half-marathon in the past 10 years. I had a very good day, and had a lot of fun, though to be honest I didn’t enjoy it as much as normal because I was in the zone and pushing for a good result. As an old coach would say, I suffered through it.

I had a goal to run the first half, or so, of the race with the 2:10 pace group (9:55/mi) and stick with them until the bottom of the hill. From there, I could gauge whether to push on or to stick with the group up the hill. Just as we reached the hill, the pace group seemed to dial it back a bit while I was feeling good and ready to leverage my hill training here in Garmisch. I stormed past and never looked back. I had it in my mind that I wasn’t going to be defeated on the hill and I would recover at the top before crushing the downhill and cruising back to the finish line. 

The reality is that I never really joined the pace group. I linked up with my buddy Chris, who got me into running years ago by challenging me to run the full marathon at the Flying Pig. Things didn’t work out that year, and his success in training and running the race set us both up for long-term endurance racing. He stuck with the marathon and had great success, ultimately qualifying for Boston and running well there. I enjoyed running and watching him drove me to run my first marathon back in 2009. From there, I found triathlon more enjoyable and found my own success there.

We haven’t gotten to spend as much time as I would like together, living far apart, so it was great to reconnect and run the start of the race together. We stayed together for about 5 miles, before we both went on to run our own races. Having Chris by my side for the fast start to the race kept me engaged and motivate far more than a pace group could have. We got through a challenging portion of the course, and got through the hardest miles mentally, and then went out and conquered the course on our own.

I definitely underestimated the challenge the Pig’s hill would offer. Here in Garmisch, I regularly run far more elevation change on even much shorter runs. There’s not a lot of flat running spots here. But the long, sustained climb was more challenging than I had planned for, but I still overcame it with a strong pace. 

Once over the top, I kicked on the afterburners and didn’t waste the gravity assist in getting to the finish line. I cruised on with a negative split and held on to the finish line. It was a hard effort, but worth it.