Runners from 31 countries have signed up for the Flying Pig Marathon this year. Two of those runners are from Ukraine. Maksym Pasichnyk and Vadym Kovalenko are from Cincinnati's sister city, Kharkiv.
Pasichnyk was wounded in the fight for Hostomel airport near Kyiv, and says he's been discharged from the Ukrainian military.
"My goal is to show everybody, to show our military, that basically there are no limits, there are no borders. Everything is in our head," he says. "I will complete this race. And I will fundraise enough to provide rehabilitation for my brothers in arms."
Kovalenko first ran the Pig in 2017. He says marathon training isn't easy in Ukraine right now; just about every training facility in Kharkiv has been ruined.
"Kharkiv gets hit by Russian missiles every other day," he says. "We train pretty much anywhere we can, using any time we have."
Both men spoke through a translator, Sasah Etlin, a member of the Cincinnati Kharkiv Sister City Partnership.
Kovalenko says Flying Pig spectators should be able to identify them.
"We're going to wear blue and yellow (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) t-shirts," he says. "And also there’s going to be a speaker playing Ukrainian songs."
Bob Herring, president of the sister city partnership, says it's "an honor" to have the two men in the city. "The more we exchange, the more we get to know each other; the more visitors that come here, the more visitors that go there, only strengthens that sister city partnership."
Herring says he still has a goal of taking a contingent of Cincinnati runners to participate in the Kharkiv marathon when the war is over.
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"The climate here is very similar to the climate back in Kharkiv, so we feel very comfortable," Kovalenko says. "And the route for the race here is very similar to the route we have in Kharkiv where we have an international marathon as well."
Both men will be at the Streetside Brewery in the East End, Friday evening to talk about their experiences and the effort to build a PTSD clinic in Kharkiv. The Flying Pig marathon is Sunday.
