From start to finish this was a great marathon. Great organization, excellent fans. Great finish and super course. Highly recommend this marathon.

This was my first marathon, and overall it was a very positive experience. I must disagree with others who were very entusiastic about the crowd support. While there was good crowd participation in the downtown and eastern suburbs, there were whole stretches of the race where there were virtually no spectators. For example, miles 12 - 16.5 along Eastern Street was very sparsely populated, as was the stretch between about 19 - and 23 through the less than visually appealing industrial / decrepit western part of the course. That's about 9 miles altogether with almost no crowd participation. That was my only gripe. Don't get me wrong, I loved this race. The hills from miles 4-7 should be no problem for anyone who has done any hillwork. The bridges at the end are not as large as the hills at the beginning, but are tough all the same since they come in the last three miles. I loved the Eden Park, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout part of the course, tons of crowd participation and a beautiful area. The finish line party was fun, and the medals were very cool. I would recommend this race to all runners, just be prepared to be alone for chunks of the race.

This was the third annual Pig, and it was great! The hills went up 350 ft. between miles 5-7 and down 350 from 7 - 12. The new course was very scenic, including that last @*&! bridge before the finish. Water/Gatorade stops were plentiful and they had orange slices and Clif Shot in the later miles. Great speakers, pig medal, and messenger bag as goodies. They even had 'Flying Pig Lager' at the finish feed. My only gripe is that the finish to start return shuttle was hard to find. Very nice race - bring home the bacon!

My third Flying Pig and it just gets better every year. The best organized, best run, best of everything. Course changes were ok and believe they're going to leave it this way. Tons of support, amazing array of on-course entertainment. The whole city turns out. There are very few places in this city that you run without someone telling you how great you look. Expo was a little hairy navigating but you get a lot of cool stuff. Khannouchi and Bill Rodgers were there this year doing seminars and autographs etc. Your whole family can have a blast the marathon weekend.

Good race, interesting course, particularly in the Eden Park area and crossing the bridges. Downtown hotels are within close walking distance to the convention center, and the start line. They are farther away from the finish, but still within walking distance. I think the walk after the race helped me loosen up again. It was pretty warm but water/gatorade stops were frequent, no problem staying hydrated. There's very little shade on this course, especially the last half so if you're slow like me you might get a little warm.

It was a bit warmer than I would have liked, but there is little you can do to overcome a May morning. The 6:30 start was a good idea.
The race organization and course support was really excellent. These guys really did it right. Just the best.

I'll run this one again.

I just ran the 2001 Flying Pig and really enjoyed it. I found it to be my most challenging of all the marathons that I have run. With the heat and hills and that bridge on mile 26, it took a lot to complete. While reading some of the comments below about the Pig, I would have to disagree with some of them. I consider Chicago to be a better marathon to run. Chicago expo, course and spectators are far more superior then the Pig. My .02 cents.

This was my third marathon experience (Disney and Rock n' Roll the other two) and this one blew them away. Cincinnati loves it's marathon and it shows with the spectators, volunteers and general support. I highly recommend this race to anyone! Plenty of water and gatorade (even for back of the pack like me!) and Clif Shots at mile 17. Tons of fun!

I ran it this year. The course is excellent. Organization is very good, but the bands should play more running songs. Choirs are a really nice touch! Spectators are super, but are sparce in spots. The hills are overrated I think. They are very gentle and long, and can be quite easy if approached properly. The downhill parts are a lot of fun - you can really fly!

If you want a race that will test you, this is a good one to try. The course is quite hilly, with the longest uphills coming relatively early on in the race. But that is misleading as the real killers are the bridges over the Ohio River into Covington, KY and back again from Newport, KY to Cincinnati during the last 3 miles of the race. The race started early, 6:30AM which helped out greatly for the first half of the race, but by the time I reached the half way point the sun was out and things started to get warm. Fortunately, there are water stops nearly ever mile and several had hoses that volunteers used to wet you down. Life Savers!!! The volunteers were wonderful everywhere, and there were race monitors on bikes and in cars all along the course to help those in trouble. While the course did go through typical big city industrial and not too well off areas, there also were the stunning Eden Park, Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout areas. It was at those areas that most of the spectator support took place, although there were music stations scattered throughout the course. The course twists and turns a lot around the downtown area which allowed my wife to easily walk from place to place to cheer me on. I just wish that there were more spectator/music support the last 7 or so miles as you really need it by then.
The pasta dinner the night before was disappointing. While the location at the Newport Aquarium was realy neat, the food was scanty and mediocre. The start is very cramped, with nearly 7,000 runners being jammed in a downtown 'canyon' (I found the starts of the much larger Chicago and New York City marathons less claustrophobic). The finish also could be organized a bit better as I couldn't find a water station there (Probably due to me being too beat to see straight). While the 'goody' bag handed out wasn't much, I thought that the registration/expo was the best of the 3 marathons I've run, Chicago and NYC being the two others.