CINCINNATI — Kelsey Flynn is a mother, sibling, daughter and longtime teacher. She doesn't consider herself a runner, but that doesn't stop her from running.
Flynn was first introduced to the Flying Pig Marathon in 2006. She was returning home from her junior prom as her brother was heading to his first marathon starting line. With each passing year, her brother participated in more races, and in 2012, Flynn decided to hit the pavement and run the Columbus Half Marathon.
"Without really any training, because my family was doing it, and then that was miserable," Flynn said.
She started training then with the Queen City Running Club to prepare for a better performance in the 2013 Flying Pig Half Marathon. Three years later, Flynn ran the big one.
"That was in 2016 and that was the year I turned 26," she said. "My brother wanted to pace me for it, so he did it with me."
Watch below as Flynn flips through the pages of her Flying Pig-inspired children's book:
Though Flynn has earned a handful of medals from smaller races over the years, 2016 was the first and only time Flynn ran the Flying Pig Marathon. Her brother and friends continue to participate. Flynn's children crawl and waddle in the Piglet race too.
The Pig, along with its encouraging and accepting atmosphere, cemented itself as a family tradition. That's why one night in April last year, that love struck inspiration.
"I was putting my kids to bed and I had an idea and realized, you know, 'I don't think this thing exists,' and it doesn't," she said. "I did some research and there is a coffee table book for the Pig that has all the posters, I think for the 20th year, but there's no kids books and there's all these groups around town that do all these running groups for kids and they have the Piglet right over here and my kids have been a part of it, because it's a part of our family, so I decided to write one."
"ABC, Run With Me" Flying Pig Marathon is Flynn's first book. Self-taught and self-published, she received the first printed copies last week — 318 days from when she first thought it up.
Wanting to stay as true to her hometown of Cincinnati as possible, Flynn reached out to local colleges in search of an illustrator. The College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) at the University of Cincinnati put Flynn's ad in a newsletter, catching the attention of alumnus Kay Victor.
"We connected and we've actually never met in person — it's all been Zoom, email and texts — but we got it done and somehow my ugly sketches turned into beautiful art," she said.
Flynn's creation is an ABC book that associates themes of the Flying Pig with each letter of the alphabet in an educational read-along. You'll find illustrations of real moments in Flynn's own Pig run. Her dog Paxton is featured on a page, too. Readers will also find familiar faces sprinkled throughout.
"(One) gentleman is based off the guy who lives in the blue house on Eastern Avenue, who would sit out in his lounge chair and play the 'Chariots of Fire' theme song (from the movie 'Rocky'). So it's mile 24, of course, and marathoners are tired and you can see the city, you're almost there but not quite, so he would sit there and slowly cheer and it was kind of a landmark moment," Flynn said. "(Another) person is based off of Harvey Lewis who is one of our famous runners around here."
Flynn wanted to create something special that captures the excitement, tradition and community spirit of the Pig, not just for "the big marathoners," but for families who love this race as much as her family does, she said.
"(The Pig) is for all 40,000 people that come out that weekend, they do 5Ks, 10Ks, the Half. For some people a 5K is a huge accomplishment and that is something to be celebrated...so just finding somebody, you know your thing, everywhere is kind of what my purpose was with this," Flynn said.
While she works to get her first publication on local shelves, she's already planning new books. Her next project, with the working title of Queen Bees in Flying Pigs, focuses on female accomplishments in the running community.
You can find Flynn and "ABC, Run With Me" at a few upcoming Pig events. Though she's not participating in any races, she'll be on the sidelines supporting her friends and family.
"I'll be cheering them along," she said. "This (book) was my race this year."
