Flying Pig Marathon RECAP

 I wonder if Montrel had any idea at the end of the marathon the power of his words that he spoke to me. 

"You know that's what God does, He will give us a storm.....but He always clears the skies.." 

My "Storm" started way before the Flying Pig Marathon started. 

We had about 16 Complete Runners caravanning down.

My storm started on the drive down to Cincinatti Saturday. I met at 6am, drove down and shared a hotel with Audrey and Sarah. My storm was a culmination of several symptoms leading up to a disastrous belly rumble. 

 The 4-hour drive wasn't too bad but about the middle of the day at the Expo my head was pounding, I felt weak, and my belly was churning fiercely. 

I couldn't get to the hotel fast enough, some of them were meeting up for a 3:30 run, the only running I was doing was to the bathroom! 

I was so weak, I texted Andy from bed and asked him to pray for me. He suggested taking some Pepto Bismol. I seriously thought I heard him wrong. 
It was the craziest thing, the expo actually handed full packages of Pepto Bismol out! I have never even taken the stuff and laughed when they put it in my bag. I wasn't laughing anymore!

Audrey, Sarah F, me, Joe, Antonio, Sara and her kiddos, and Nate. 

Oh, I would discover the power in those little pills to hold off the rapid disaster in my belly. 

Sarah F and I being goofy. 

"HOG-WILD" 

CRU- 

Flying Pig Marathon

Sunday, May 7th 6:30 Am.

Cincinnati Ohio. 

Goal: A group of us went down to encourage a Sara, a Complete Runner member for her first marathon. I wanted to help cheer her on and watch her achieve HER goal. 

It was Sara's Day. I was just blessed to be part of it. I was hog-wild to be part of all 26.2 miles! 

Sarah F, Alex, Shane, Erika, Tanya, Sarah and I heading to start, before the skies opened!
 

Not a PIG-ture Perfect Morning! 

The Thunder was ROLLING but we all acted like everything was just "swine" ignoring the lightning and thunder. 

We took off to run but within a few miles the rain was pelting us, the skies opened up and we were trying to "pig up" our feet in flooded roads as volunteers telling us to "Seek Shelter". 

Flooded Roads!

There were "sow" many more reasons to keep running and that is what we did! 

Too Stub-BOAR-n

Sarah and I were soaking wet, it stopped long enough to snap a photo! 

I had taken 2 Pepto-Bismol's determined to get through all the marathon. I had thought my biggest issues for the day would be residual damage from racing last weekend. I honestly thought it would have been my "ham-string" but nope! I was checking out all the port-a-poopers and counting the miles as my stomach seized. I was running low on energy, I was "sow" afraid to have any coffee that morning and I had hardly any food in my stomach. 

I just kept running with Sara determined to get to the next mile without pooping my pants. 

Collab-Boar-ation

All of us little piggies worked together to encourage Sara to the finish "swine". But she had a goal only a couple of us knew about. A 5-hour marathon. 

I would set little goals to break up the marathon for her. At the halfway point we had run through rain twice, scaled several hills and we were still keeping pace. All the worst-case scenario and Sara was still killing it. 

My stomach was confused, there was no food in it but it really wanted to eat. The course had "sow" many aid stations with water, Gatorade, Gu's. oranges, bananas, cookies, GraHAM crackers, Grooves and even BACON! When I saw the GraHAM Crackers and Grooves, I was hog happy! 

Together we would grab Sara's water bottle and fill it up for her so she could stay on pace. 

The Finish Swine

The race gets real at about mile 20. The rain was stopping, and it was heating up. Nobody was "swining" in the humidity, even Sara who had ran farther than she had ever ran and felt like she was going to "up-chuck" at any moment never complained.  

Even my stormy belly had settled down from the may-HAM. 

With just a couple miles to go, the time was tight but we all brought something different to help her, there was laugher, and there were tasks, there was thoughtfulness and even little tips to get her out of the head storm. And there were prayers, that's what I am good at. 

The last quarter mile Sara sprinted to the finish with only seconds to spare and made her time of.....

5:00:00!! 

Yep!! SHE did it! What an honor to be part of that!! 

Somewhere in the race we saw Montrel, another Complete Runner crew member and he stayed with us. Because I wasn't feeling "swine" I was not my normal self. I didn't say much but he didn't either, however, what he said at the end of the race is all I could have asked for. 

Yes, Yes, Montrel the Lord does gives us storms, but He clears the skies for us too. 

**I am pretty sure I had food poisoning from my dinner Friday night. The crazy thing is I had made up goody bags for everyone and put Liquid IV in them. I didn't give them all out because I didn't have enough for everyone, I was able to open those bags and take that along with the Pepto-Bismol, I don't believe in chance, I believe the Lord has his hands in everything. 

Big SHOUT out to our FIRST TIME marathoners; Audrey Donny and Sara! Audrey is 19 and jumped in at the last minute to race, Great Job Sarah K. for Pacing her to a 4:15 marathon!!!

Donny ran his first marathon at 57 with a epic time of 4:45! 

Also big shout out to ALL that were out there running the half marathon, the full marathon or encouraging all the RUNNERS!! 

Antonio, Nate, Doug, Sarah K, Sara F, Amanda, Shane, Will, Erica, Donny, Mark, Tanya, Carol and Elizabeth, whom I am so sorry I didn't get to see! 

Psalms 107:29 " He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed." 

In Peace, not Pieces, 

Anita