Sophia Dick, 22, signed up for her first half marathon at this year’s Flying Pig in Cincinnati. Months of training. A goal of 13.1 miles. On race day, she missed a turn in East Walnut Hills and finished a full marathon instead.
The Flying Pig drew a record number of runners this year. Dick was one of them, and she said she felt good in the early miles. Her family was on the course, cheering her through.
“I think there’s a clip of me and my family cheering me on. I’m just, I’m feeling the energy,” Dick told WKRC.
The trouble was that her longest training run had been 12 miles. She had planned to ride the last mile of the half on adrenaline.
“And to be honest, I had never run past 12 miles,” Dick said. “I figured that final mile, the endorphins would be pumping and that would get me through.”
Then came the split. The Flying Pig half marathon and full marathon courses run together until East Walnut Hills, where the half peels off toward the finish and the full continues on. Dick missed the turn and kept running with the marathoners around her.
She figured it out a few minutes later, when the streets stopped feeling like the route to the finish line. She turned to another runner.
“As a Cincinnati native, I know I was going further and further away from that finish line. And so, I actually asked a runner next to me. I said, ‘When does the full marathon course versus the half marathon course split?’ And she said, ‘You missed it.’ And at that point, I realized I had two choices,” Dick said.
She kept going.
Somewhere in the next 13 miles, she fell in with a pace group being led by another Cincinnatian: Harvey Lewis, the ultramarathon world record-holder. Dick didn’t know it was him at the time. She was just running next to a guy giving very good advice.
“He was saying to calm your breathing, relax your shoulders, and just focus on the mile we are in, not the miles we had to go,” Dick said. “And actually it wasn’t until later, when I finished, that I realized it was none other than Harvey Lewis, who is just a legend in terms of the ultramarathon community. It was his 100th marathon. And I really just want to thank him for what he’s done for me.”
Lewis was running his 100th career marathon that day. Local 12 connected the two after the race so they could speak.
“Hey, congratulations,” Lewis said. “Gosh, what an accomplishment. Oh, well, honestly, I think I’ve never heard a better story from our pace group.”
Dick crossed the line in three hours and 30 minutes. Her first marathon, run by accident, on a 12-mile training base, with a world record holder pacing her through the back half.
