The Flying Pig 5k



The Flying Pig is a marathon in my hometown of Cincinnati. It's a huge event with people coming from all over the world to participate. This means that there is a whole glorious weekend dedicated to this amazing events including a wellness expo, 5k, 10k, kids runs and then the half and full marathon as the culmination event on Sunday.

I'm glad that this event was my first race experience because it was so nice. You could choose to pick up your race packet on Friday or Saturday morning. My race was Saturday morning and I was so nervous that I chose to pick it up Friday. The expo was packed! I will be honest and say that I was so intimidated prior to this event. I don't look like a runner and I wondered how many people would be wondering what I was doing there. I realized that it was really ME doubting my abilities so I sucked it up and soaked in the energy of the event.

Friday night I went to sleep at a decent hour, laid my clothes and bib out and set two alarms for the morning! I didn't really need to set them because I tossed and turned all night with anxious energy. I woke up before my alarm, woke up my friend who had stayed over in preparation for our early morning and off we went. We stopped to get a bagel and made it to our meeting location in plenty of time.

Our running coach calmed our nerves and we did a large group stretch and received some last minute instructions on how the race would go and pointers regarding our timing chips. We then walked to our corrals at the starting line. On my registration form I put that I thought I'd finish in 45 minutes so I was in corral F. I have found that people tend to underestimate their time and I wish that I had put a faster time so that I didn't have to spend so much energy dodging in and out of other runners for the first few miles.

 

 

 



We joked around and laughed and then the race started and we were moving! It took around 3 minutes to get from our corral to the actual starting line but when I got there I took off! My first mile pace was 12:30 but then I slowed from there. I didn't use the pacing I practiced but I ran the majority of the race. I walked up the huge hill which I know affected my time. Around 2 miles I was beat. I wish I had taken some gels or jelly beans to give me a quick burst of energy to finish the race. I walked a bit but when I saw the finish line I ran the rest of the way.

I'm glad I did the race with friends even though once it started we didn't see each other until the finish line. No matter how exhausted I felt once I reached the end I felt so accomplished. I felt invincible!

If you are considering doing a race do it! If you finish in 20 minutes or 2 hours you'll feel like a beast when you cross that finish line!