When Pigs Fly - Part One

Howdy, intrepid blog readers!

I know it's been a hot minute since I put up new content, and I hope everyone has been well in that time.  We've been up to all sorts of things - celebrating the winter holidays, taking a few great trips, both on our own and with our closest buddies, surviving another crazy Kentucky winter, visiting with family, and now that the weather has warmed up again, prepping the garden for what will hopefully be another incredible growing season.

Amongst all of this, I trained for and completed my first distance running event in almost five years, the Flying Pig Half Marathon, held up in Cincinnati on the first weekend in May.

At the start line with my erstwhile Race Sherpa

That's Paycor Stadium, where the Cincinnati Bengals play football, behind us

After we moved to Kentucky in April 2024, I gained a non-trivial amount of weight (rural living in bourbon country while entering perimenopause is no joke, y'all), and I'd been working to take off much of it since then.  As I reached my updated goal weight last summer (135 pounds is roughly where I now like to be - it allows me to fit into my existing clothes and still enjoy a cocktail or piece of cake every now and then), I pivoted a bit to focus more on building endurance and aerobic capacity - that is, to get back into a more fitness-geared mindset, rather than just weight loss (although the two often go hand in hand).  Preparing to hike Scotland's West Highland Way in October 2025 was a great motivator, and upon returning from that adventure, I entered the holiday season thinking about the possibility of getting into running shape once more.

At the Thoroughbred Classic/Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving 2025 -

I was able to run almost the whole 5K, which was exciting

(yes, it was very cold that morning)

Hunting around for half marathons that were local-ish, I suddenly remembered the Flying Pig.  I subscribed to Runner's World magazine for many years, and almost every issue had an ad for the Pig somewhere amongst the pages; I'd always thought it sounded fun, and since we now lived just an hour and a half from Cincinnati, it seemed like a perfect fit.  We could drop the girls off at daycare early Saturday morning, be in one of our new favorite cities in time for lunch (people are seriously sleeping on Cincy - it has an amazing food scene, interesting history, and friendly folks, plus multiple major league sports franchises), spend one night, then head home after the race and a celebration lunch on Sunday!

Once I was registered and we booked an Airbnb in the Over the Rhine (OTR) area of the city, I put together a sixteen-week training plan for the buildup to the race.  Sixteen weeks is a bit longer than I've done in the past, but I hadn't run this distance in awhile; I wanted to give myself plenty of leeway to take time off for any illnesses or injuries that might pop up (we took a few trips during this time period, and I ended up getting a gnarly head cold on the way home from one of those), as well as for my older body to adjust to the process of endurance training once more.  

Overall, things went well, and eventually, it was the first Saturday in May!  While the rest of the state was heading toward Louisville (for a small gathering you may have heard of), we were on the road north toward Ohio.  Doggo drop off went well, and the short drive was uneventful.  Arriving right at 11am, we found a convenient parking garage and headed to our lunch destination, Shires Rooftop, a bit earlier than our planned noon reservation.  They had space for us right away, and we tucked into a great lunch - I had the breakfast sandwich (with an amazing scratch made cheddar biscuit), and Chris enjoyed the short rib hash.  Of course, I have zero pictures of the food, but here's the incredible view from the window near our table:

Looking south toward Paycor Stadium

Not in the shot are all of the 5K/10K/fun run participants,

who were finishing their events as we arrived in town

The lounge area at Shires - it's a lovely place with great food,

as well as a gorgeous rooftop seating area.

The rooftop wasn't open this day, as the weather had once again turned cold

(midwestern spring can be, let's say, variable).

Shires is located inside a fancy apartment building called The Parisian on Vine, and the lobby is equally picturesque.

The elevator area - those are vintage maps of the local area in the facade

Not too shabby, right?

Post-lunch, we took a brief stroll to the car to drop some leftover potatoes in the cooler we'd traveled with (don't worry - I ate them for a snack later), then kept on strolling the short distance to the First Financial Center (formerly the Duke Energy Convention Center) to attend the race expo and packet pick-up.  The Pig is a massive event, running over three days and with a huge field - this year's attendance for all races set a record at 43,000 people!  Thankfully, the event organizers are prepared for the huge turnout, and things at the expo flowed relatively smoothly.  Picking up my packet (and associated t-shirt, poster, car towel, and whatnot - they really give you a lot for your money with this race) was easy to navigate and understand, and the volunteers were well trained and knowledgeable.

Looking down Elm Street, toward Paycor Stadium and the Ohio River (not pictured)

An art installation at the Center

The pig theme is very present at this event, and the entry balloon arch

had several "tails" sticking out of it.

The perspective is a bit off here, but you get the idea

We claimed all of my essential race items, then stood in line for free Proctor and Gamble samples and Chiquita bananas (both major race sponsors); after wandering the expo a bit longer (and spotting celebrities, like the Charmin bear), we were ready to escape the crowds and headed back to the car.  The Airbnb wasn't quite ready, so we drove over the OTR area, intending to kill some time at one of our favorite local spots, Rhinegeist Brewing.  As we drove, we happened upon a different tasting room - this one for Boston-based Sam Adams Brewery; it turns out they have a decent sized facility in Cincy, and their tasting room has a lovely, chill vibe.  Although I'm not normally an IPA drinker, Sam Adams has a great N/A hazy option, and I enjoyed that while Chris had a different hazy made on the tap room's smaller, experimental brew system.

That's one of the brewery buildings across the street

Relaxing with our dueling hazy's

We received word from our Airnb host that our spot was ready, so after finishing up our brews, we headed over to check in.  Free parking in a nearby garage was included in our rental fee, but we found an empty curb outside to unload, before moving the car.

Cincy has tons of great murals and other street art, but this one really caught my eye - it's so 3D!

That was our room on the second floor at the end, just above the tattoo parlor -

thankfully, it was closed while we were there

(I say thankfully just for reasons of sound - I clearly have no problems with folks getting tattoos)

Since our dinner reservation wasn't for a few more hours, and it was going to take us all of 5 minutes to walk there, we put our feet up and watched the F1 Miami Grand Prix sprint race.  Chris also took a nap, while I chilled on the couch and surfed my phone.

Hooray, F1 is back!

Before too long, it was time to get dressed for dinner at Pepp & Delores, a great Italian restaurant in OTR.  Like at lunch, we were too busy jamming their amazing food in our mouths to take pictures, but here's one from the internets:

This looks very much like the limone pasta Chris had, albeit somewhat blurrier

We started with P&D's house made ricotta and bread service, then split a little gem salad.  For our mains, Chris had the limone pasta while I went with the funghi, and we did a side of veal cutlets (most of the pastas don't have a meat component, so you order any necessary proteins for the table as a side).  Everything was absolutely delicious, and it's a spot we look forward to visiting again.  Although we planned to eat dessert there, too, when our server brought us the menu, the only sweets available were ice cream options.  Since that doesn't work with my milk intolerance (I was very much not interested in testing that the night before the race), we settled up and headed out, our bag of leftovers in tow.

Wandering down Vine Street (the main drag in OTR), we popped into a few other spots to see what sweet offerings might be available.  After reading the menu at Alcove, MadTree Brewing's airy gastropub, we found seats at the bar and ordered their chocolate cake.  We'd first visited Alcove a few months back, when we did a quick birthday/Jungle Jim's shopping trip for me in December, and the cake was as good as our lunch that day.  Before too long, we were bidding adieu to the staff there as well and heading back to our lodgings for the night.

For our evening wind-down, we watched the Miami qualifying runs, stretched, and hit the hay - we'd be up early the next morning!

On the next blog, I actually run this thing!

Later!

Amy