Once again, Pig did not disappoint. In my opinion, of all the marathons I've run, this one gives you the biggest bang for you buck. The shirts are typically awesome. In past years, I've gotten a backpack with my race packet, but this year was a blanket! The expo is HUGE and full of fun and free stuff. Post race, you get a ton of snacks as well as a beer. This year, because it was the 20th anniversary, they gave away these awesome jackets to the marathon finishers. If you are into having some fun while running, there are so many stations along the course with fruit, candy, bacon, beer, and mimosas! I even said "What the hell?!" to one of the beer stations and took a shot!
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| Finish swag. |
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| Close-up of the logo that's hard to see. |
If you aren't familiar with Pig, it is known for it's hilly course. Although Garmin numbers have varied, I think it has been decided that there's over 1,000 ft. elevation gain. With that being said, there is also the advantage of some downhill. Since I ran this year at an easy pace, I was able to embrace the course and experience the hills. When I ran it 3 years ago, I was too focused on the goal to even notice the hills.
It went up and down so much that I had to go back to my Garmin map to jog my memory. The first couple of miles are flat followed by a small gain in elevation (50-ish ft.) from about 3.5 to 5 miles. It's flat for about a half mile before beginning an almost 300 foot climb over the next 2.5 miles. It is in this section you get to see the beauty of the city at the top of the hill. Fortunately, you get some downhill (about 150 ft.) over the next 3 miles. That turns into a 100 foot climb over a half mile. Then you have another big drop of just over 200 ft. over 1.5-ish miles. At this point, you just have some rollers.
The most memorable hill (which was not so memorable in 2015) occurred at 16.9 miles. My other Pig friends kept talking about this hill, and I had no idea what they were talking about. I thought they were crazy. I knew it had to be true because I was the only one who didn't remember it. When I came to it, it was exactly as described...short, steep, and over before you know it. It's just really annoying because it occurs when a lot of people are starting to feel the fatigue.
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Race morning, Sarah, Britt and I woke up at 3:30 to start drinking coffee. We agreed that there would be no conversation...just coffee drinking and pooping.
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| Race ready with coffee in hand. |
Sarah's friend, Traci, lived 30 minutes away, so we agreed to leave at 4:45 a.m. UGH. SO EARLY!!! We had no issues at all with parking. The morning couldn't have been more smooth. Well, except for the fact that I couldn't poop at Traci's house which made me a bit nervous. Fortunately, I was able to go when we arrived to the start line area.
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| I trained most of my miles with these girls. Off we go! [Sarah, Britt, ME] |
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The First Half:
I was assigned to Corral B, but I wanted to make sure I was able to start with Chris. I joined him and Meg back in D (and just happened to see more people I knew).
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| Representing Columbus in Corral D! [ME, Meg, Elizabeth, Anna, Lisa B, Chris] |
The plan was to stay with the 4 hour pacers. The start was pretty smooth, but a bit congested (as expected). Mile one was significantly slower than the 4 hour race pace because of the crowd
[9:40]. *Side note 1: I did not look at my watch (hence the reason I wanted to go with a pacer). I went back afterwards and analyzed my paces from Garmin.*
In the first few miles, we ran over one of the bridges to cross into Kentucky, then ran over another to get back into Ohio. There were a few spots in which the already large crowd had to squeeze together. It made it difficult for Chris and I to stay with each other. It also made it difficult to get water at the water stops. *Side note 2: They have, I believe, 25 water stops on the course!! They were needed that day because the morning was very humid (6:30 a.m. start) and the sun started peeking through the clouds halfway through the race making it warm up fairly quickly.* The bridge and Kentucky miles clocked in at
[9:01, 9:02].
As we entered Ohio, we started our first tiny climb. Apparently it didn't phase anyone because those miles ended up being
[8:43, 8:42]. That made up for the slow start. During these miles, I still had Chris in my sight. He was always somewhere around me even in the crowd. After a short flat section, we started the longest climb of the race. Honestly, I don't recall it being horrible. Maybe it was because I was running at an easy pace, but it was very tolerable in the moment. This was also the section where I lost sight of Chris. I told him my plan was to stay with the pacers, so I was hoping he was just lost in the crowd. The miles up the hill were
[9:14, 9:13, 9:02].
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| Running the streets of Cincy. |
After the climb, we had some decline over the next three miles
[8:48, 8:38, 8:38]. For some reason, I wasn't feeling so hot in this section. Maybe the humidity was getting to me. For a minute, I started to think I might not be able to keep up with the 4 hour group! I then realized it was time to gel which made me feel a lot better. Some of the other runners in the group were semi-freaking out because we had some miles that were faster than race pace. One of the pacers explained to them that it was the downhill (duh, people) and that we'd likely have a faster first half because of that.
The half ended with a half mile climb followed by a significant descent. The pacers helped us finish the first half with miles clocking
[8:38, 8:34] for a half split of
[1:58:38].
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| Miles 1-13. |
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The Second Half:
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| Miles 14-26.46. |
I knew the second half of the course would be easier regarding the hills. Mostly rollers with that short, steep-ish hill at 16.9 miles. At this point, I still didn't see Chris and had no idea about his status. I stayed with the pace group for two more miles before deciding to make a break from the original plan. My last two miles with the pace group were
[8:45, 8:52].
At this point, my only plan was to continue to run comfortably. If at any point I wasn't enjoying myself, I was to slow down. As I was passing the mile 16 marker, I pulled out my phone to say hi to Amanda and Jen. I got more of a WTF, why are you on the phone type of response. LOL. I just wanted to let them know I couldn't find Chris and that I was going on my own for the rest of the race.
The next few miles seemed to fly by with nothing significant happening. I tried to enjoy the crowd when they were there, and pretend I was somewhere else when we were on the stretch of highway (probably the only boring part of the course). Miles 16-20 were as follows
[8:44, 8:46, 8:36, 8:52, 8:58]. You can probably sense my boredom seeing my splits for 19 and 20.
The dreaded last 10k was all I had left. Typically, this is when I feel like complete crap and tend to slow down before getting my head back in the game. I was slightly surprised at how good I felt. I hadn't hit any sort of wall. My only complaint about how I was feeling is that I'd get crampy occasionally. When that happened, I'd pop a salt tab and drink extra water. The next three miles were actually some of my fastest of the race.
[8:34, 8:31, 8:38]
After this, the heat was starting to get to me. I was taking anything they were giving that I thought might put a little more pep in my step...water, towels soaked in cold water, orange slices, etc. I could physically feel my body slowing down a bit, but I had no motivation to go any faster. I knew going faster would take the fun away so I repeated my mantra "Show yourself some grace." Miles 24 and 25 were
[8:49, 8:43].
I knew going into this race that the course is usually long (per Garmin) by about a quarter mile. Most of the race, the distance showed it was 0.20 miles more than it should have been. All of a sudden, when I passed the next mile marker, it read 25 miles on the dot! I thought "Maybe, just maybe, this course is closer to 26.2 this year." They changed the start and finish area so I thought that could have made the difference. The thought of this got me excited. I sped up a bit feeling hopeful that it was actually almost over with.
When my watch beeped for mile 26, I had not passed the mile marker yet. GRRRR!! I finally saw the finish line, but it seemed so far away. I could tell I sped up a bit, but I didn't care to speed up more. I was checking out the crowd in hopes I'd see a familiar face and heard Sarah screaming my name.
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| Finally! The finishing stretch! |
She took better pics of me than the pros did. LOL. After crossing the finish line, my watch read 26.46 miles. All the eye rolls. Mile 26 was
[8:26] with the last 0.46 at
[8:10].
I felt so amazing when I finished. Not just because I was done, but because I just ran a marathon and enjoyed about every moment. Who knew you could run happy the whole time?! I didn't really know what to expect for my finish time. I knew my first half was 1:58 and some change, but had no idea how I'd been doing the second half because the heat was rough. When I looked at my time, it read:
3:53:04!!!
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| Race Stats. Nothing worth talking about. |
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| My first negative split race (first half vs. second half)! Pretty easy when you start easy. |
I couldn't believe it! Considering I stayed with the 4 hour pacers for more than half of it, I was very pleased with my time. It goes to show that those conservative starts can leave you with some gas in the tank at the end. Despite a tough course and less than desirable weather, you can still run a smart race!
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| The marathoners. [ME, Britt] |
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| Good performances all around! [ME, Britt, Sarah] |
Line up feeling confident, excited and happy. Smile even when you don't want to. Encourage those around you. Embrace when it gets hard and fight for the reason you are there. We won't always be happy with our results, but we will always learn something from each performance. Who's ready for summer training?!
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| My marathon medals (minus my PR from Carmel). |
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