Guest Blogger: Flying Pig Marathon (Lisa's Perspective)

Got up at 4am, yawn….

Made our way downtown to the sisters’ hotel via expressway – exits are closed – drove over the bridge into Kentucky and then back again, all the while the GPS woman telling us to turn around to get back on the expressway that we can’t exit off of.  Got good parking when we did get there though, so that was good.

The sisters’ hotel is jumping with racers everywhere!  Crazy how a hotel has to tell it’s guests to give themselves an extra 20 minutes to wait for elevators.  Another toilet mishap in the room – I guess we only get so many flushes… 

Put on our rain ponchos and head out into the dark, rainy morning to the starting line.  Good luck Sherry, Julie, and Scott – see you in a few hours!  Stood near the starting line and saw Julie and Scott run by in the pouring rain.  I decided to go find the finish line so I’d know where to go when it was time to see them finish.  Wow, what a walk!  I saw all the stations of bagels, fruit, and water they were setting up but I saw no finish line.  I had to ask someone where it was – it was on the other side of this ramp/structure to the Cincinnati Reds Stadium.  Finally got there after climbing a huge hill and going around this structure.

Ok, so now I know where I need to be later, time to head back to the hotel and eat and take a nap since I’m the designated driver.  Getting back to the hotel took about 20 minutes walking up a few hills and walking through an almost empty city – I guess no one wanted to be out in the rain.  At the hotel I changed my water logged pants and headed down to our restaurant – I call it ours because we’ve already eaten there twice after not being able to find anything open or not so crowded.  I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, which were pancakes.  The menu said “pancakes topped with bananas and raspberries” – YUM!  After about a half an hour, I get my pancakes with 5 raspberries and 7 blueberries on the side…..hmmm not what the menu said but I’m not waiting any longer, I’m hungry. 

Breakfast was done now it’s time to take a nap.  I laid down, turn on the tv because the local news station was covering the race – thought I might catch a glimpse of my husband and friends.  Half hour later I get a text from Sherry saying she was done with her half marathon!  Great for Sherry!  Congrats!  Not so great for my nap.  I asked her where she was and I could meet her. Sherry says she is at a big stadium and that I’d never find her.  I told her to make her way up Broadway and go left on either Forth Street or Fifth and that I’d meet her along the way.  The tv anchors said the rain stopped, so I head downstairs, leave the lobby and it’s still raining – what the….  I run back up to the room to get my poncho but it ripped apart so it was useless. So I grabbed the keys to the van so I could get an umbrella and practically ran to the parking garage.  Thinking I’d take the elevator this time to avoid another “void” but the elevator at the parking garage never came.  So I took a deep breath and gathered my courage and ran up the stairs of the parking garage.  I grabbed the umbrella and ran as fast as I could down the stairs hoping not to see any more poop!  Phew, made it.

By this time Sherry was almost at the hotel and I met up with her a block away.  After Sherry was changed she was hungry so we made our way to our restaurant, again.  Got back to the room and I laid down again. Ten minutes later I got an Athlete Tracker email telling me Scott was at mile 19.7.  We decided earlier that at about mile 20 we’d head down the finish line.  So much for resting….  Sherry did not want to do any more walking – really, who could blame her – she just ran 13.1 miles!  So I geared up again and brought the umbrella – luckily it wasn’t raining any more.  I made the 20 minute walk back to the finish line to wait for Julie and Scott.  As soon as I got there Scott called me and said he was about 3 miles out and that Julie might be done already.  Unfortunately I didn’t see Julie, but I did see an old friend – Al, he was running for TEAM and after he finished his race he kept going back to help his fellow TEAM teammates finish.  Way to go Coach Al.

After about 40 minutes, Al ran by and said “Your husband is a little ways back!”  Thanks Al!  I saw Scott running down the straight away!  Yay Scott!  When he was close, I squeezed through the baracade and ran the rest of the way with him across the finish line!  Woooo hoooo!  Awesome job Scott!  I’m so proud of you!!!  I walked with him through all the food and water tables – he grabbed two of everything.  Alrighty, time to get back to the hotel. With no sign of Julie, we figure she headed back already.  As Scott and I start our 20 minute walk back to the hotel, Sherry texts me “How’s it going?  I hear Julie finished?? I heard they are both done?!?”  I think 'uh oh, isn’t Julie with Sherry?'  I texted Sherry back “Yes….. Julie’s not there?  Scott and I are on our way back.”  Thankfully her reply said that Julie is there at the hotel.   Phew.  I thought we lost Julie!

After walking for a few, Scott asks how much further to the hotel.  I said he didn’t want to know let’s keep walking.  He said 'No seriously, how much longer?'  I said about 20 minutes, but don’t worry about it you can do this.  Let’s keep going.  Running for 5 hours really messes with the body and mind!  Poor Scott, he was tired.  I’d be dead….  But I digress.

We finally make it back to the room so Scott can shower and we can get packed-up to leave.  I related the story I heard on the local tv coverage of a guy running the race naked.  Hee hee hee.

We got all packed-up and ready to get on the road.  First stop the airport in Kentucky to drop off Sherry so she can fly home to Boston to see her cutie pie Ruby.  Got to the airport no problem, now trying to get back to Cincinnati was another story.  Construction had I-75 down to one lane so traffic was at a standstill.  Nowhere to get off the highway either. We finally clear the traffic jam and are good to go.  On our way home to see our boys and Julie her kids!  Scott and Julie took a much needed nap on the way.

It was a really interesting and fun weekend and hope we can have more crazy adventures soon.  Thanks Scott, Julie, and Sherry for letting me tag along.  Congratulations to all of you for running and finishing The Flying Pig!  You are an inspiration and I admire each of you.

Until next time….

Lisa, the groupie, bag lady, chauffeur  J