CINCINNATI — The Flying Pig Marathon course record was shattered Sunday as thousands of runners participated in the annual race.
Both the half and full marathons kicked off from Rosa Parks Street at 6:30 a.m. Sunday before the “finish swine” was crossed by half-marathoners shortly after 7:30 a.m. and full-marathoners around 8:45 a.m.
Zach Kreft, 26, broke the course record, finishing the full marathon with a time of 2:17:40. The Sunbury, Ohio, native broke the record for the fastest time by more than two minutes.
Prior to Kreft, Cecil Franke held the record after running a 2:20:24 full marathon in 2006.
“Felt like the hard work had paid off,” Kreft said. “Everything for today went as good as it could have and very happy to walk away with the course record.”
Kreft said this is his fourth marathon win after previously winning the Columbus Marathon, Cleveland Marathon and the Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.
Cincinnati native Katherine Hallahan, 32, won in the women’s division in the full marathon. She finished in a race time of 2:48:43.
“It’s been such an honor to be able to do that,” Hallahan said. “This race is not easy. Not easy to win either.”
Wilmington native Simon Heys, 24, finished first in the half-marathon with a race time of 1:09:58.
“It’s just a full circle moment. I’ve worked hard in a lot of aspects — mostly the running side of things. It’s just a really special day,” he said.
Cincinnati native Amanda Zerhusen was roughly 10 minutes behind Heys, finishing in the women’s division of the half with a race time of 1:19:50.
“I’m kind of like in disbelief,” she said. “I kind of did not even expect to be in that position.”
Festival organizers said 45,197 runners were registered for the various races throughout Flying Pig Weekend, beating the previous 2018 record of 43,127 participants. The runners represented all 50 states and more than 30 countries.
“We get plenty of Boston Marathon qualifiers on this course so, there’s some hills in the beginning, but it’s a good course,” said Doug Olberding, CEO of Pig Works.
Olberding said the chilly weather Sunday morning made for perfect competition conditions, calling it “ideal running weather.”
Kreft said he wouldn’t have been able to break the record without his community around him and the community at the Flying Pig.
“You cross a line, and it looks like an individual result, but it’s really the accumulation of a lot of people putting love, effort, support into your training,” he said.
The Weather Got A Little Scary
