Flying Pig, part two

When last we left our fearless runners, the race had just begun.



After the stuff from the starting line, this is the only picture I have from the first three miles of the race. That's because I spent that time doing two things: A) rewording the chorus to "Good Morning Baltimore" from Hairspray so it was about the Flying Pig, and B) trying to keep up with Chele. I stuck with her for two miles, but by the middle of Covington, she was out of my sight.



"Good morning Flying Pig!
We run slow, but we don't give a fig.
Ev'ry day's a half marathon;
Run 13 miles and your energy's gone ..."

Oh, hey. We're headed back to Ohio on the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge.



Sandy's shirt reads, "If you can read this you've just been passed by a member of the AARP. Just finish!" Sandy was doing a run-walk program, so she passed me like six times - she'd run and pass me; she'd walk and I'd pass her, and so on. Just before she left me behind, I got this picture.



I really liked the light downtown.



And it was very cool to see so many people out cheering on the runners. People say the Pig is really great for that compared to other marathons. I wouldn't know. Perhaps I'll never know. Perhaps the Pig will be the only marathon I ever run. I'm OK with that.



As the course left downtown on Gilbert, the first half marathon runners were starting to trickle into the final approach on Eggleston below. This guy wasn't the winner, but he had to have been in the top 20.



Here's something nonrunners might not know about the sport. As you run, you naturally bounce up and down, and the effect is that any, um, stuff that is traveling through your insides will shift and settle and generally move towards the point of its planned exit. This is a very delicate way of saying that those Porta-Potties are an utter necessity.

I first began to feel the need for them on the bridge back to Ohio, but seeing the long lines for them caused me to tough it out until mile 6, at the beginning of Eden Park. That's where I took this lovely picture.



I skipped over all the hilly bad parts of Eden Park to bring you ... the Delta Kings Chorus! I heard another runner saying how cool they were - until she could see them, she thought the music was coming from a CD.



On the other side of the Delta Kings was an amazing view of the river! Let's take a closer look:


Man, you've really gotta love this town sometimes.



All the people in this photo (except for the volunteer on the left) are running the full marathon. That's because this is the point where we separated: half marathoners turn left and go back downtown; full marathoners turn right and continue with the next THREE QUARTERS of their race. (Sometimes I think maybe I could actually run a full marathon. Then I consider that fact - that when I had less than 5 miles to go, they had 18. Yeah, that's insane.)

Coming soon: the thrilling conclusion!

Flying Pig, part one

(Man, I've been busy - does anyone even care about the Flying Pig anymore? I'd better just post what I have so far and make this a two- or three-part series.)

My alarm went off at 3:40 a.m. on Sunday morning. Josh and Chele were coming to pick me up at 5, and I wanted to make sure I had enough time to eat my turkey bacon and bran flakes (breakfast of champions!), get dressed and possibly do a yoga routine before they came.

I didn't get around to the yoga. I never stretch enough before a run - it's a problem.

So they picked me up and we headed downtown, which was of course teeming with runners. 16,000 people participated in Sunday's races. Somehow, we still managed to find a parking space. (After a few blocks of traffic and one false start involving a closed parking garage, we said "aw, screw it" and headed to Fountain Square.)



(Sung to the tune of "Strangers in the Night") "Runners in the daaark, wearing reflectors - filling up Paul Broooown, waiting for restrooms ..." I don't know what the situation was outside at the Porta-Potties, but inside the stadium, the line for "real" bathrooms was so long that we didn't get out until five minutes before the starting time. Well, the originally planned start time. You might have heard of that fire that delayed the start time and changed the course of the marathon. So, there was plenty of time to take pictures before the starting gun.







Why yes, it was crowded!



So now we're moving, and you can see the pile of discarded outerwear in the median. You can also see the starting line! It took us 10 minutes to get there. Once we did, Josh took off, but Chele and I couldn't fight through the crowds, so we walked for a hundred yards or so until people had sorted themselves out: runners on the left, walkers on the right. Then, we were off!

To be continued ...

After I got home from the marathon ...

... I looked at PostSecret. I was still thinking about my achievement, so one of the week's cards really jumped out at me:

I'm up early

To make sure I can go to bed early enough to get a decent amount of sleep before my ride to the Flying Pig arrives at 5 a.m., I got up at 6 this morning.

My brain is still a little bit confused about why it's being asked to type proper English instead of make me a Viking. For example, I went through about about 12 drafts of the previous sentence.

OK. Laundry now. Surely my poor addled brain can handle that.

Carb-loader's pasta

For all you marathon trainers out there, here's a hearty recipe that's just chock-full of carbs. Pasta? Check. Bread crumbs? Check. Beans? Check.

And still, it manages to be low-fat. Go, Mark Bittman!

I'm eating it right now. I made mine with kielbasa, because it's like 8,000 times cheaper than chorizo, and I sprinkled a little Asiago on the top. If you don't feel like rehydrating, then cooking dried chickpeas (which I had on hand anyway), I think two cans and their liquid would work well, although I'd add a little water to thin out the liquid.

Busy

You could be forgiven for assuming that my life has been filled edge to edge with training for the half, but the truth is that I've just had so much going on that I haven't had time to blog about any of it.

This weekend I attended a memorial service (expect a longer post on that later) and went out to brunch with my family for my birthday. While I was at the restaurant, Stacie called. We talked for a minute, and then I said, "I should go - I'm at a birthday brunch."

She said, "Oh, whose birthday is it?"

I love Stacie, plus I forget everything. I did not feel bad at all that she forgot my birthday. Stacie, on the other hand, forgets nothing. She was mortified.

So when I went to her place that evening to hang out and watch a little Psych, she and Chele surprised me with balloons, an ice cream cake, flowers and the DVD set of My So-Called Life.

I have the best friends ever.

This week at work is crazy because we're working on our annual bar guide. It's 160 pages, and we have to send 80 of them to the printer by Friday (our normal deadline is Monday). It has been a head-down kind of week.

Also, this afternoon I bought a Wii. More on that later, perhaps? Well, I'm sure.

Birthday recap

- Wake up. Hmm, off to a good start already!
- Make coffee, open cards from grandparents, aunt and uncle.
- Drive to BMV to renew plates. Am convinced the BMV stereotype originated with people who only go there on Saturday - my weekday morning trip is rewarded with no line and a very helpful young man in stylish glasses.
- While writing check out to the treasurer, miss a call from sister. Voice mail is of her entire first-grade class chorusing, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Best voice mail ever.
- Find excellent parking space in lot. Thanks, City of Cincinnati - but I didn't get you anything! Unless you count my parking tickets over the years. In fact, let's definitely count those.
- Card from co-worker on my desk when I come in. Thoughtful!
- Worky work work.
- Venture out into beautiful spring day to secure expensive takeout salad.
- Workity work.
- Slight miscommunication: I thought I was running with my dad after work; he thought he was planting shrubs at home. I take abbreviated run on my own.
- Dinner with Mr. W. We try tiny blog-recommended noodle shop one block from my apartment. They use fresh vegetables! Also, sesame dumplings amazing. We'll be back.
- Presents! Mr. W provides gifts for me AND my cat, plus a lovely bottle of wine AND a six-pack of cider! He is far too good to me.
- We sip the wine (me) and cider (him) while watching DuckTales. Thank goodness these are GizmoDuck episodes and not Bubba episodes.
- Home.
- Write blog post.
- Bed?

At the BMV

Does anyone else think it's a little weird that checks written at the BMV are made out to the state treasurer, personally?

I'm totally famous now

The lovely picture in the previous post has been accepted for publication by the prestigious Reds snacking blog OMG Helmet Sundae.

I'm so proud!

Guess where I am ...

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