Running News Daily

Alex Gold and Caitlin Keen winners of 2021 Flying Pig Marathon

Alex Gold and Caitlin Keen have won Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon.

Gold, 26, was the first to cross the finish line with a time of 2:26:29.

A Chicago native, Gold moved to Cincinnati several years ago, he said, and works for General Electric.

“I’ll definitely have a beer or two and maybe some Skyline Chili,” Gold said on how he plans to celebrate his big win.

Gold was followed by J.T. MacKay (2:28:31) and Steve Matthews (2:29:30).

Keen, 29, was the first woman to cross the finish line with a time of 2:43:45. Keen, who grew up in Hyde Park, is now a two-time winner, also finishing first in 2018 with a time of 2:46:39.

"It's been a really long couple years I think I can speak for everyone when I say the last two years have definitely been a storm I struggled a lot with running," she said. "This is my first race since the Olympic trials and I wanted it so bad I just wanted to be back on the course and have fun and that's what I did and I loved every second of it. "

Keen was followed by Amy Manning (3:00:24) and Allison Pitt (3:01:18).

Samuel Montclair and Daniella Townsend won the Flying Pig Half Marathon.

Montclair, 30, of Raleigh, North Carolina, finished with a time of 1:09:53, beating the old record of 1:10:34 held by Zachary Ripley.

He was followed by Eric Gruenbacher (1:13:15) and Greg Lemmon (1:16:42).

“The hills of Cincinnati are pretty tough, man, I just wanted to put a good effort in,” Montclair told us after the race.

Townsend, of Cincinnati, was the first woman to cross the finish line, finishing 13.1 miles around 1:21:02. She was followed by Christine Frederick (1:21:40) and Katarina Smiljanec (1:25:41).

After a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Flying Pig Marathon returned to Cincinnati for the 23rd annual race. The Pig has historically been run in the late spring, but last year’s run was hosted virtually and this year’s race was postponed to the fall.

The total number of weekend participants this year 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.

ABOUT THE FLYING PIG

Many may wonder, "Why 'Flying Pig'?" Officials said the name stems from the 1800s when Cincinnati was called “Porkopolis” because of all the stockyards and the meatpacking industry. Officials said many often ran pigs through the downtown streets. So when the founders of the marathon were looking for a name for the event back in 1997, “Flying Pig” brought smiles to everyone's face, so that seemed most appropriate.