Reflections on the Flying Pig...

Tim and I finally ran "The Pig"

After eight half marathons and five full marathons, Cincinnati's Flying Pig seemed like the only course around I had yet to attempt.  Each spring I run a half marathon with my running buddies and Cincinnati was always one of the races we said we would do if "nothing else came up."  In the past I've traveled with a sometimes large group of running friends to races in Indy, Louisville, Columbus, Nashville, and Carmel, Indiana to name a few.  Often times the race was more of an excuse to enjoy a long weekend in the city.  As the years have passed my running buddies have come and gone, the long weekends of enjoying the city have turned into short overnight stays, and this year "nothing else came up."  It was time to run the Flying Pig and I had one buddy left that was willing to join me.

Tim Kearns and I have run enough of these half marathons to know what it takes.  We know we're never going to win one and we know the minimum amount of training required to complete one.  During our training   we ran a few Saturday morning long runs with some locals, which prevented us from getting too lazy.  Special thanks to Amber Cordonnier, Matt & Julie Magoto, Tyler Phlipot, and Tommy Francis who were also training for The Pig and kept Tim and I honest.  Believe it or not, I've always enjoyed the camaraderie of training with friends as much as the actual event we are training for.  Those people I mentioned are also all faster than Tim and I, so it was nice to be pushed a little as well.

Amber pushed me on a few Saturday morning training runs

The Flying Pig weekend finally arrived this past weekend.  During those early running years we might have taken a half day off work on Friday and got an early start driving to the city.  This year we waited until the high school track meet was over Saturday afternoon and left after that.  Instead of staying at the Embassy Suites, this year we stayed at the Travel Lodge.  And instead of reservations at a fancy Italian restaurant, we were treated to hamburgers on the grill at my brother-in-law's house in Newport, Kentucky (which were better than any restaurant in Cincinnati!).

The race morning atmosphere was great, the weather was ideal, the crowd support was awesome, the hills between miles six and nine were killer, and the finish was rewarding.  Overall, it was motivating to be out there with so many different kinds of runners and in retrospect, perhaps we should have ran The Pig years ago.  I'm always inspired after running a half or full marathon and maybe that's why I do it.  Maybe that's why I'll run another one again next year.  Maybe that's why I'll run the Flying Pig again someday... if nothing else comes up.  

Fish Report's year in review...

While some people like to recall world events and national news as what they remember most about 2012, I choose to focus on the local events and small town news that defined my year.  Here's a toast to those listed below on an awesome and amusing year in my eyes.

THE BEST OF THE BEST
St. Henry won the title of best tap water in the U.S. back in February. It was just another honor for the village that's home to numerous state championships, professional athletes and even a Miss Ohio. Minster repeated as D-IV state baseball champs in June even after losing OSU bound pitcher Adam Niemeyer earlier in the season. While I doubted the Wildcats could pull it off, seniors Doug Huber and Austin Knapke teamed up on the mound and all they did was win. Russia runners Lauren Francis, Emily Borchers and Lauren Heaton dominated the girls cross country scene for most of the season. They were one of the best running triple-threats this area has ever seen and I'm glad I got to witness it.  In November Marion Local volleyball captured their fourth state title in six years under coach Amy Steininger and seemed to be absolutely unbeatable after Josie Winner returned from injury. The Flyers proved it by winning the last 15 sets in a row close out their season.

These three Running Raiders stuck together and were hard to beat in 2012

SOME GREAT PERFORMANCES I SAW IN PERSON

The pitching gem from Russia and Ft. Loramie to decide the SCL championship back in May. I typically enjoy baseball offense more than defense, but the 12-inning 1-0 Russia win started by Treg Francis for the Raiders and Jared Albers for the Redskins was a masterpiece. Girls softball pitchers Katelyn Herron from Russia and Paige Ordean from Ft. Loramie also battled to a 1-0 Redskins victory in May. These two aces own too many school records to count and seeing them work was a pleasure. Watching Tammy Berger of Versailles win the 800 meter run at the Troy regionals the end of May.  It was a great race that came down to the end and the last individual victory for the OSU bound star. Country Concert in Ft. Loramie back in July was another amazing spectacle with some of the best country music talent in the world. I've been attending Country Concert for many years and I always go home thinking that was a great time. Sidney's Konner Harris scoring 49 points against Russia back in November. I never witnessed a high school girl or boy score that many points in a game, and although she did it against my team, it was remarkable to watch someone that was truly "in the zone".

We brought along our own talented group to Country Concert this past summer

SOME PERSONAL FAVORITES I ENJOYED

Attending the Russia ceremony honoring State Track Meet champions Luke Pohlman & Katie Borchers back in early January. Realizing they were the first state champs in the lifetime of the current Russia students was pretty cool.  Russia coach Rick Gold's baseball camp in February was a star studded event.  As I watched professional baseball players Craig Stammen of Versailles and Jared Hoying of Ft. Loramie giving instructions to the boys, I got the impression the pros were the ones enjoying it most. Interviewing Jackson Center boys basketball coach Scott Elchert back in March in the midst of a tournament run with his undefeated Tigers for Fish Report LIVE! was one I'll always remember. I'm positive Coach had more important things to do than talk to us, but I'll never forget how friendly and thankful he was about the interview. The Bohman Tractor Pull & Family Picnic in August was as much fun as any of the other area festivals I attended all summer.  The Bohman's are great people and they sure know how to entertain.  

The Powder Puff division at the annual Bohman Tractor Pull is sports and entertainment

FEEL GOOD STORIES 

Unless you were visiting another planet in June you heard all about Meghan Vogel of West Liberty-Salem at the state track meet. She helped someone in need, just like she always does, only this time the spotlight captured it...and it went viral. Alexis Sharp made Minster school history in the fall becoming the first girl to play football for the Wildcats. The gridiron girl decided after a mission trip to Haiti that no one could make football happen but her, and she was right. In October New Bremen's Ralph Boerger was honored with some World War II medals that were long overdue. After six decades we're positive Ralph waited long enough.  In the middle of chasing another state football title the Coldwater Cavaliers sported yellow to support a player’s father battling cancer. Football teaches a lot of life lessons and this was certainly a big one.

Hanging out with Meghan Vogel before she helped the Reds throw out the first pitch

AND PEOPLE THAT WILL BE MISSED

Harry Brown, who established the Versailles Sweet Shop in 1939. Virgil Arkenberg of Ft. Loramie, a lover of VW Beetles and my grandpa. Donny Yingst, a sports guy who gave his service to the Covington community. Joann Gariety Shipley, just a Russia gal living in Virginia and a huge Fish Report contributor. Don Meyer from Newport who seemed to be everyone’s friend, including ours.  And Linie Hausfeld from Minster who founded Hausfeld Motor Sales and was a Firefighter of the Year.

Blogging about Russia history and posting old pics like this was a passion of Joann Gariety Shipley

Farewell 2012,

Fish

First place and first class...

Liberty Center head coach Tim Atkinson (left) and 

his daughter Brittany (second from top) were guests 

on Fish Report LIVE! back in early October

The Liberty Center Tigers girls cross country program came into the 2012 season as last year's Division III state champions.  Their top runner is last year's individual state champion, sophomore Brittany Atkinson, and their head coach is Brittany's father, Tim Atkinson.  Before this past Saturday's OHSAA State Cross Country Meet, I had never personally met Coach Atkinson or Brittany.  My only previous contact with them was three weeks ago when both were kind enough to do a short telephone interview for my Fish Report LIVE! webcast.  At the time, Coach Atkinson suggested that perhaps we could meet if both Liberty Center and  Russia were fortunate enough to make it to the state meet.  Fortunately, both teams did make it to the state meet and on Saturday Liberty Center managed to defend their title, beating a very good Coldwater team that had just beaten them at the regional meet the week before.  Brittany ran another great race and individually finished second behind super sophomore Sarah Kanney of Coldwater. Since I was doing some reporting work for Fish Report at the state meet, I wanted to get a few post-race comments from Brittany and her coach about their performance.

I found Brittany at the finish chute shortly after the race was over.  She was busy talking to a newspaper reporter and seemed to have a serious demeanor as she answered his questions.  As I waited a couple minutes for her to finish up, I wondered what the chances were she would recall our telephone interview from several weeks ago.  Who? Fish Report?  After Brittany was done with the reporter I approached her and introduced myself.  When I said I was with Fish Report she gave me a big smile and said she remembered our conversation.  The interview went great and I was impressed with her well spoken answers.  I also asked Brittany where I could find her dad and she pointed me in his direction.  Just as she turned to leave I called her attention to a young boy outside the fence that was waiting patiently for her to autograph his souvenir program.  Brittany came over to sign the program as her high school friends behind her shouted "awww" and snapped a picture.

By the time I located Coach Atkinson he was up around the awards podium.  He was getting ready for his top three runners to be honored as All-Ohio, which included his daughter Brittany, senior Kelly Haubert and junior Paige Chamberlain.  Assuming there would be a couple minutes before the awards ceremony started, I thought I might as well take a quick second and just say hello.  I didn't want to take up his time with an interview because after the All-Ohio awards, his team would then be presented with the state champions trophy.  I walked over to Coach Atkinson and extended my hand to offer congratulations.  I told him who I was and mentioned that I interviewed him a few weeks ago for Fish Report.  Coach Atkinson immediately got a smile on his face that reminded me of his daughter's smile a short time ago.  He told me how glad he was to meet me as we talked about the race and another dream season for his team.  Coach Atkinson then told me he had someone he wanted me to meet.  He yelled over to the podium area where his runner Paige Chamberlain was getting ready to be announced All-Ohio.  He told her to come over and introduced me as the guy from Fish Report.  Paige had just ran a time of 19:00, which was 1:28 faster than her regional time the week before.  I asked Paige how in the world someone can improve that much in one week.  Paige had the biggest smile on her face and said she felt like she let her teammates down the week before and didn't want that to happen again today.

Liberty Center's Paige Chamberlain cut 1:28 off her

regional meet time the week before to help the Tigers 

past the 4th-place Russia Raiders

As Paige returned to the podium area Coach Atkinson told me one more thing.  Liberty Center Schools received some sad news a few weeks ago when one of their math teachers was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.  He's a teacher that is very well liked by the team and before the girls left for the state meet, they decided to visit him this past Thursday.  As terrible as his situation is, all he wanted to talk about was the success of the cross country team.  Coach Atkinson said his girls rallied around that and perhaps that's who they ran for on Saturday.

As much as I am a Russia Raiders fan, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with happiness for the Liberty Center Tigers.  I've learned how they went from a program that almost didn't have a team several years ago due to lack of participation, to a two-time state champion.  Coach Atkinson, Brittany and Paige gained at least one fan from Russia this past Saturday and I look forward to hopefully another meeting with my Raiders at next November's state meet.  Until then, congratulations Liberty Center, you're first place and first class!