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38,000 runners will pound pavement for this weekend's Flying Pig Marathon

Spectators hold their hands out to trade high-fives with a woman running in the rain.
Bill Rinehart
/
WVXU
An unidentified runner trades high-fives with spectators during the rainy 2023 Flying Pig Marathon.

Organizers of the Flying Pig Marathon say they expect 38,000 participants across all the races this weekend. There's a one-mile race Friday night, followed by a 5k and a 10k on Saturday, and the half and full marathon on Sunday, with many other events sprinkled through the weekend. Board member Doug Olberding says about half of the entrants are from outside of the area.

“This year we were named the No. 1 marathon in the country. So, I don’t know how much of an impact that’s going to have this year, because it was just announced three weeks ago,” he says. “But we’re going to run with that, and hopefully, we’ll get that up even more.”

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Five thousand people are expected to do the full marathon. Olberding says that's back to about pre-pandemic level.

He says you might not think a marathon is a spectator sport, but it is. “There’s a lot of really good places to watch it. O’Bryonville is obviously really good. Hyde Park Square is really nice. Fulton Yards out on the East End… that’s a great place to watch. Mariemont is beautiful because you get to see the turn right there.”

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The full 26.2 mile race goes through several Cincinnati neighborhoods, as well as Newport, Covington, Mariemont, Fairfax, and Columbia Township.

Bill Rinehart started his radio career as a disc jockey in 1990. In 1994, he made the jump into journalism and has been reporting and delivering news on the radio ever since.