My fabulous traveling running partner and I completed The Flying Pig Half Marathon on Sunday, after running the Indianapolis 500 Mini Marathon on Saturday.
After running the Mini Marathon, we had a shower and breakfast, then headed right to the next expo wearing our shirts and medals. We got such fun reactions when we indicated we were going to run another half marathon the next morning. We picked up lots of goodies at the expo: a nice fitting tech shirt complete with a pig tail on the back, a poster, and a perfect sized collapsible cooler, in addition to a whole lot of samples.
Bright and early the next morning we headed to the stadium for the start. A really nice touch was that each "pig pen", otherwise known as a corral, had several porta-potties inside. This really eliminated the long lines usually associated with the start line area and people were more willing to enter their corrals instead of milling about. After a touching rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, a moment of silence was held to honor the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. That was followed by an enthusiastic audience sing along to Sweet Caroline. And, we were off.
A bit sore from our run the previous day, we took this race nice and easy. The course traipsed around some neighborhoods and over the Ohio River. There were "party zones" for spectators, but they were few and far between; honestly, nothing like the spectator support we had experienced the previous day. There were a couple of rolling hills and one steeper hill from about mile six to eight, and these Florida girls had to walk for a few minutes. The view of the church at the top of the hill was spectacular - such pretty old architecture.
Thankfully, we finished just in time to avoid the rain. The finish area was large, and a lot of vendors were there, however, they were selling their wares. I had not experienced the sale of items at a finish area before and was not prepared as I usually don't carry money when I run. This was a bit disappointing as I would have liked to try some of the offerings.
The picture waited until we had hurried back to the hotel (in order to stay as dry as possible). All in all, it was a great trip. We decided we would try to make a "double" weekend a yearly event.
After running the Mini Marathon, we had a shower and breakfast, then headed right to the next expo wearing our shirts and medals. We got such fun reactions when we indicated we were going to run another half marathon the next morning. We picked up lots of goodies at the expo: a nice fitting tech shirt complete with a pig tail on the back, a poster, and a perfect sized collapsible cooler, in addition to a whole lot of samples.
Bright and early the next morning we headed to the stadium for the start. A really nice touch was that each "pig pen", otherwise known as a corral, had several porta-potties inside. This really eliminated the long lines usually associated with the start line area and people were more willing to enter their corrals instead of milling about. After a touching rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, a moment of silence was held to honor the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. That was followed by an enthusiastic audience sing along to Sweet Caroline. And, we were off.
A bit sore from our run the previous day, we took this race nice and easy. The course traipsed around some neighborhoods and over the Ohio River. There were "party zones" for spectators, but they were few and far between; honestly, nothing like the spectator support we had experienced the previous day. There were a couple of rolling hills and one steeper hill from about mile six to eight, and these Florida girls had to walk for a few minutes. The view of the church at the top of the hill was spectacular - such pretty old architecture.
Thankfully, we finished just in time to avoid the rain. The finish area was large, and a lot of vendors were there, however, they were selling their wares. I had not experienced the sale of items at a finish area before and was not prepared as I usually don't carry money when I run. This was a bit disappointing as I would have liked to try some of the offerings.
The picture waited until we had hurried back to the hotel (in order to stay as dry as possible). All in all, it was a great trip. We decided we would try to make a "double" weekend a yearly event.
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