CINCINNATI — Minutes before the race, with a storm system headed toward Cincinnati, Iris Simpson Bush, the race director of the Flying Pig Marathon announced the race would go on as scheduled with a system to issue a potential shelter-in-place order at the ready.
Tens of thousands of runners and spectators descended on downtown Cincinnati as the race took off, and storms approached the city.
Before the race began, Simpson Bush told runners the decision not to cancel or delay the race came down to her team’s beliefs about personal responsibility.
“You need to make your individual decisions,” she said. “We have your safety available and covered so listen to the information.”
About thirty minutes into the race, frequent thunder and lightning prompted race officials to issue a shelter-in-place order through the app and course officials and volunteers stationed throughout the race. The order, however, was not mandatory and the course clock didn’t stop.
One runner, Tatum Burke, said she found out about the order as she was crossing the bridge around the fourth mile of the course and saw the lightning in the skies.
The female winners of the Flying Pig Marathon, Caitlin Keen (center), Katie Hallahan (right) and Lauren Mullins (left). (Spectrum News 1/Michelle Alfini)
“I looked at the guy next to me and I said, ‘We’re not sheltering in place on a metal bridge. We need to get downtown and we can shelter in place there,’” she said.
When Burke did make it over the bridge, she said she didn’t notice many runners getting off the course, so she decided to keep going, unless she heard otherwise from race officials.
“Obviously safety comes first for any race, so they could cancel it at any point,” she said. “Every mile it was like a blessing. It was like, ‘Yes, we’re still going, we’re still going.’”
Officials lifted the shelter-in-place order after about half an hour later, after the thunderstorm had passed through. The rain, however, continued to fall in torrents, slowing down even some of the elite runners.
Caitlin Keen, the first-place female finisher, said her goal coming into this race was to hit an Olympic trails qualifier time of 2:37:00.
The male winners of the Flying Pig Marathon Jason Salyer (center), Will Cadwell (right) and Jack Randall (left). (Spectrum News 1/Michelle Alfini)
“Once the rain really started coming down, I knew that if I really stressed myself out to reach that, I was probably going to do more harm to myself than good,” she said.
She finished at 2:45:34, not her fastest performance on the course, but fast enough to earn the Cincinnati native her third Flying Pig Marathon win.
Jason Salyer of Tipp City, meanwhile, won the men’s race with a time of 2:27:10, just two weeks after his victory in Toledo’s Mercy Health Glass City Marathon. He set a course record in that race of 2:20:27, but said with the challenging nature of Flying Pig course and the weather, he too was focused on position, rather than speed.
“You had to accept it,” he said. “You had to deal with your shoes being soaked and you just had to fight through it and persevere.”
Most of the runners who started the race finished, though many took minutes off the course to shelter in place, chose to run the half rather than full marathon course or drop out entirely due to the weather.
For those who did finish, many said they appreciated the opportunity to continue running, including Billy Barren, who finished the marathon alongside his brother.
“It’s one of those marathons you’re not going to forget it in the rain and the storms, so fun to be out here and glad to finish today,” he said.
In its 25 years of running, the Flying Pig Marathon has never been canceled due to weather. Previous races have been delayed.
