Hogging the Spotlight
Photos by Shae Combs
Cincinnati’s combined Flying Pig and Queen Bee weekend kicked off its Saturday events with the Toyota 10K, Tri State Running Company 5K, Queen Bee Medpace 4 Miler and Flying Pig Flying Fur presented by Cuddly.
The total number of weekend participants in 2021 was 15,833, including 1,979 for the full marathon, 5,420 for the Paycor Half Marathon, 1,277 in the Queen Bee Half Marathon, 2,190 for the Toyota 10K, 2,200 in the Tri State Running Company 5K and 1,155 for the Queen Bee Medpace 4 Miler. Other totals include 252 (63 teams) in the City Dash 4-Person Relay, 221 in the Flying Fur and 1,139 for Friday’s Fifty West Mile.
Alex Gold, who came in third in the 2019 Flying Pig Marathon powered by P&G, and Caitlin Keen, who won it in 2018, were the winners in the Marathon division of this year’s combined Flying Pig/Queen Bee weekend.
The 26-year-old Gold, from Cincinnati, won in a time of 2:26:29. Second in the men’s division was 25-year-old J.T. MacKay, also of Cincinnati, in 2:28:31 and third was 33-year-old Steve Matthews of Evansville, Indiana, in 2:29:30.
“It was beautiful out there,” said Gold, “and the fall colors made it even more spectacular. I told Jack (J.T. MacKay) that it’s so cool to be racing at the place where we train every day. I love this city, and this race is what made me fall in love with running in the first place.”
In the women’s division, the 29-year-old Keen, who grew up in Hyde Park and now lives in Fort Worth, took an early lead and never gave it up, winning in 2:43:45, the second fastest time ever, and besting her 2018 winning time of 2:46:39 by nearly three minutes. Second in the women’s division was 34-year-old Amy Manning of Columbus in 3:00:24 and third was 33-year-old Allison Pitt of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, in 3:01:18.
“I hadn’t raced since the Olympic Trials (February 2020), and last year was really hard for me. I think I can speak for a lot of athletes that it was hard,” said Keen. “It took a little bit more motivation, and a lot more time to get back. It’s been a long time coming, but I needed this.”
In the Queen Bee Half, 34-year-old Kelly Fisher from Oregonia won in a time of 1:26:26. Second place was 37-year-old Natalie Leverone from Covington in 1:29:09 and third was 39-year-old Laurah Lukin from Cincinnati in 1:31:48. Leverone finished second and Lukin was third in the 2017 Queen Bee and Lukin finished second in the inaugural 2014 Queen Bee.