Eileen and Barry ROCK!!!!

This past weekend Eileen, Barry and I went to Cincinnati to participate in the Flying Pig Marathon. This was Barry's first marathon and Eileen’s second but first "real" marathon. They did awesome finishing in 5hr and 21min. They maintained an average pace of 12:15min/mi for the entire course. Based on our training I honestly thought that somewhere after mile 21 we would stop and walk the rest of the way. Instead they ran the entire 26.2 miles and finished with a strong dash to the end. I am really very happy for their accomplishment. Our only walking was every two miles through the water stops. Overall a great trip.

The trip up:

What should have been a 6hr 30min trip ended up being a 8hr 30min trip. That is because we stopped approximately 30 times to use the bathroom. It also did not help that we stopped for an hour at the American Restaurant and took the scenic route. Overall it was a very nice relaxing trip. Highlights from lunch included a pizza burger, not ordering a fish tail sandwich and Eileen having to go through the kitchen where everyone was smoking to get to the bathroom. We also noticed that every place we stopped to use the bathroom included a condom dispenser. I guess not much else happens in Ohio; our favorite choose was Savage Bliss. We also saw a million barns painted with the Mail Pouch logo.

The marathon:
In my opinion this was a good marathon. The crowd support was sparse with part of the run going down a highway but where the crowds were they were very enthusiastic. It was also by far the hilliest marathon I have done so far but I liked it. Barry and Eileen did great on all the hills. The people were very nice but untrustworthy as several people told us at various points it was all downhill the rest of the way. Eileen and Barry were skeptical about wearing their names on their shirts but I think they were glad they did.
A few highlights:
(Photos: Eileen, Barry, Me)
Sign at mile 13.1 "I thought they said 2.62 mles"
Eileen made it to approx mi10 before someone sang "Come on Eileen"
Top ten reasons: (select few)
     7 More miles for the money ($2.10 per mile)
     6 Chance to hear Rocky theme*
     2 Because you CAN do it
     1 Real runners do 26.2
All the stuff we got (bag, towel, shirt, poster, pig nose and medal)


These pigs









* as you ran past this sign the kid was holding out his cell phone playing the Rocky theme.

Leaving town:

On the way out of town we stopped by the zoo. I really enjoyed the layout they had and think it may be one of the better zoos I have been to. We then stopped at Skyline Chili to get our taste of Cincinnati chili. Unfortunately I misread the parking meter thinking we had plenty of time. Instead we got a ticket. Ooops. We tried to take the most direct route out of town and paid for it by losing a lot of time. For a bit we thought maybe the map makers had fooled us and then we ran into a lot of traffic. After that it was a nice ride home.