I ran the Kentucky Derby Marathon Saturday and the Flying Pig Marathon on Sunday making it a double weekend, but it was worth it. The Flying Pig was one of the best city marathons I have run. The start is by Paul Brown Stadium which was very cool. I stayed downtown and it was easy walking distance. The finish isn't far away, at the Cincinnati Reds baseball park, right down the street, so again, easy walking distance back to downtown hotels. The expo is also downtown at the Duke Energy convention center and it was great. TONS of vendors and great swag! Fun shirt (the logo this year was awesome!), plus a poster, plus a nice gym/duffle bag. Logistically, this is a pretty easy race on all fronts. Stay downtown, or even right across the river in Kentucky and you can walk everywhere.

The race start was well organized with corrals (pig pens). The course is really great. There are numerous hills, but it's kind of known for that. Cincinnati really seems like a cool city - we ran across a few bridges, through the city, by the river, next to parks, and ultimately ended up back downtown. Really scenic for a city marathon. The crowds were fantastic too. It's not Chicago, but I swear it was just as good - they were enthusiastic the whole way. Great volunteers and 25 (!!) stocked aid stations. There was plenty of water and Gatorade, plus chews, and stations giving out bacon, fig newtons (pig newtons), twizzlers, chips, peppermint patties (pig mints), beer, cold wet towels, Swedish fish...and much more. No need to carry your own water as there is plenty of support along the way. It got hotter and sunnier than any of us expected (initially called for rain, then storms, then just overcast...don't know where that sun came from!) so people brought out hoses to spray runners. It never felt too bad because it was a 6:30 start, so you're done fairly early in the day.

The finish line (actually the Finish Swine) was festive and the medal was really cool. I LOVE how this city and race embrace the logo and name - everything is pig-centric and fun. They did an absolutely wonderful job organizing this event and made it so simple for runners to enjoy the actual run and not sweat the logistics. Highly recommend the Pig!!