Cincinnati Flying Pig–Expo Day

This is a photo heavy post to sum up an absolutely FAB day in Cincinnati. It all started at 7:15 am when we went for a short jog to the river.

Passing by the stadium

Running over the historic John H. Roebling Bridge into Covington

Running back to see the start of the 10K race

This entire weekend means fun for the entire family. 8 am is the Toyota 10K race. The Tri-State Running Company 5K is held at 10 AM. There is the fun festival from 8 am to 3 pm at Yeatman’s Cove. The Kid’s Marathon 26th Mile by Ernst & Young goes off at 12 pm followed by First Watch Piglet, Pampers Diaper Dash and Mascot Race at 1 pm. All sorts of mid day festivals around town.

After we watched the 10K race, we decided to eat breakfast then hit the expo for packet pick up. Now I have a ritual the day before a marathon BUT I was quite prepared to let it go if the hotel would not/could not accommodate. That ritual is to eat a sweet potato just around lunch time which has to be microwaved in the morning. This was the first time a restaurant said “no outside food”. I approached the front desk to request a microwave in our room. All microwaves were in use BUT, the hotel staff were GREAT! They took my potato into the staff cafeteria and ‘nuked it themselves. And I thought this would be my first marathon without. Gotta love the Hyatt!

But enough about potatoes, what about the expo?!

We arrived before the crowd hit and walked right to packet pick up. No lines. Then meandered our way through Flying Pig memorabilia shirts, shorts, sweats, etc. to the quick moving line for free samples. This was all Proctor & Gamble stuff. We got several varieties of skin creams, tampons (Ted didn’t want those), laundry scent booster, Dawn Power clean, and more. Then we went through the vendor section and picked up more samples such as Bio Freeze, eye health vitamins, assorted snacks and other foods, even a heart shaped donut!

We finally made it to shirt pick up where we were given a nice soft lined Flying Pig cooler, a poster, and our shirts. A lot of nice swag and a lot of nice volunteers. The expo was easy to move through and very well organized.

We dropped off the goodies in our room (right across the street from the expo) and decided to drive the course. This was futile since roads were blocked off as the 12 pm events were going on. We did fall into part of the course accidently but the only way to drive it was in reverse. So we started at mile 25 and made our way back. This was probably not a good thing for me because I found out what everyone meant by “hilly”.

Up and down with more ups than downs. My heart sank and I was reminded that this was going to be a slow haul every time I shifted in the seat of the car. My hip was crying. It was hurting and my thoughts turned to what it was going to feel like after riding out the hills of the Cincinnati Flying Pig. Guess the only way to find out was to do it.

We stopped for lunch along the route at a place called Keystone Bar & Grill

A gorgeous day. We sat outside and had a wonderful lunch. The Keystone offers breakfast and lunch all day. As a side to a burger you were welcome to enjoy a buttermilk pancake. So we shared a wedge salad

Ted fueled with a little liquid carb

I enjoyed a veggie patty on multi grain with tomato, lettuce and Eggbeaters as a side.

After driving most of the course and confirming that it was hilly and no one was going to have a fast race, we got changed for the Pump n Run.

Another pig spotting along the way

The pump n run is a charitable event put on by Lord’s Gym. You weigh in and based upon your age, lift a certain % of your body weight. You have so many minutes deducted from your finish race time based on the number of bench presses you do. Full details HERE. Not sure how “official” it is.

Ted and I both managed to medal. Ted pressed 20 reps and I pressed 50. Silver and gold!

Although a rest might have been the best thing, we couldn’t . We were having a great time and it was a sunny, beautiful day. We strolled around the Fountain then to an early dinner at Trattoria Roma.

I do not recommend this restaurant. It was not gourmet although the prices WERE.

A garden salad. Main course was penne with broccoli, sun dried tomatoes and grilled (dry… very dry) salmon. I won’t go into details but we were very disappointed since there were so many other good restaurants around.

Back to Fountain Square to watch the Derby on the big screen.

The Cinco De Mayo celebration was in full force as we waited for the race to start.

What a way to spend a warm, sunny day in Cincinnati. We had a good time walking and driving and discovering The Flying Pig weekend events. So far, a lot of fun.