Defending Flying Pig Champion Looks at Future of Running

Anne Flower holds a number of titles: Two-time and defending Flying Pig Marathon champion is one of them; Olympic Marathon Trials participant is another; and now, perhaps most notably, Doctor.

Dr. Flower is wrapping up her residency in emergency medicine at the University of Kentucky this month and will be heading closer to home, in Northern Kentucky, to start her practice this summer. In between her shifts at UK before the running calendar was shut down, the Anderson High School grad was one of four former Pig champions to participate in the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta (joining Caitlin Keen, Autumn Ray and Amy Robillard in the field).

We’ll talk running in a moment, but first, Anne reflects on being on the frontlines of medicine during the pandemic. “I think we were blessed in central Kentucky in the sense that we were not the first wave,” she said, “we got to see how Europe and then New York City dealt with the pandemic and then when it finally got here, we were ready.”

A recent New York Times article described running as “a natural for social distancing” and Anne says her running routine helped her make it through med school. “I ran a little through high school and college, but when I was stressed and doubting myself in medical school and not really sure this was what I wanted to do, running was really something that was rewarding every day,” she said.

“It got me outside, definitely did incredible things for my mental health, especially when the sun’s out. I’m here in Lexington, so I can go out on the trails, I can go out to the horse park and get away from it for a little while.”

Running opportunities, at least in an organized sense, have been few and far between for all runners since the spring shutdown, which makes Anne’s appearance at the Olympic Marathon Trials even more special. “Oh my gosh, so much imposter syndrome,” she laughed. “You’re walking down the hallway at the hotels and you’re seeing all the Olympians, it was so amazing.

“They treated us all like we might be one of the top three, everything from organizing travel so that when you got off the plane, there was someone there to direct you toward the bus or train and when you checked in at the Omni, all the stops were pulled out for us. There was so much athlete support, it was really, really cool.”

The Olympic Marathon Trials, held at the end of February, just made it under the wire before activities began to shut down to control the pandemic. So what does Anne think it will take to get running events back on the calendar, given her unique perspective as a runner and as a doctor?

“I think that spacing out people would be the best way to mitigate corrals,” she said. “Also making sure there’s some signature form that says you haven’t had symptoms in 14 days. Maybe that’s part of picking up your packet now, the accountability that you sign to say that you don’t have symptoms.”

She also said the development of faster, more reliable rapid testing at the event sites might make participants feel safer about returning to the start line. “I know that folks like the NBA and other sports organizations are interested, so there’s a lot of effort being put toward it. It will be interesting to see where biomedical research goes with that.”

As for her own schedule, even with a new job on the horizon, Anne’s planning to continue running. “I love traveling for races. I got to fly to Moab last October (for the Dead Horse Ultra) and to see a new city, run a race the first day and then travel for three or four after, was really fun.

“I don’t know if I need to do 50 miles again, but I would love to run marathons when the world opens up, in Europe and Japan and Chamonix and all these incredible places. Even San Francisco, they shut down the entire city and you get to run through it for the morning, so that’s my hope. I love marathons so hopefully I’m staying on with that.”

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Coke & Conversation with Dudley Taft

Dudley Taft is a world-renowned blues rocker from Cincinnati. He sits down with Betsy Ross to talk about his love from music and his upcoming show in this latest edition of “Coke and Conversation.”

See Dudley Taft in concert with Johnny Fink on February 23 at 7 p.m. at the 20th Century Theater. Learn more here.

A Coke & Conversation with Harvey Lewis

Harvey Lewis is a Flying Pig Streaker, an ultra-running champion and spent his summer traversing the Appalachian Trail in one of the top 10 Fastest Known Times. Betsy Ross sits down with Harvey in this latest edition of "Coke and Conversation."

A Coke & Conversation with Santa

Santa is one of the most popular people this time of year. He found time in his busy schedule to sit down with our Betsy Ross for “A Coke & Conversation.”

Santa talks about his joy of talking to children and how Coca-Cola helped shaped his current image.

If you have an idea for a Coke & Conversation, drop us a note.

Laura Chrysler Moves Cincinnati, One Step at a Time

By Betsy Ross, Contributing Writer
Photos and Video by Madison Schmidt

If someone tells Laura Chrysler to take a hike, she sees it as a compliment. The former corporate sponsorship specialist for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber wants us all to become a more peripatetic society in her latest job as executive director of go Vibrant.

She’s starting with Cincinnati’s neighborhoods through this summer’s go Vibrant Million Step Challenge, the second year of the friendly competition to see which area of town can log the most steps. And although she didn’t realize it at the time, this mission came about through her extended stay in Europe.

“I had the opportunity to move to Geneva, Switzerland for a few years,” she said (through her husband’s job transfer with P&G). “What I noticed about Europe overall is how much walking they do. It’s just integrated in their lives. They walk to the store and they walk through their neighborhoods, it’s their way of life. And what it does is gets you in touch with your surroundings and it makes you stop on the corner and talk with someone you might not have met before.

“When I moved back to Cincinnati in 2014, I remember walking through downtown and seeing how much development had happened and how many people were outside taking a walk. So when I was approached by go Vibrant, it just made sense.”

go Vibrant is responsible for those wayfinding signs that you might have seen downtown and in Cincinnati neighborhoods that map out walking routes from one mile up to five.

In 2016, go Vibrant started incentivizing neighborhoods to use those routes through the “Million Step Challenge.” Last year, five neighborhoods were involved in the Challenge: This year the event kicked off with a two mile walk downtown on Taste of Cincinnati Saturday, with 15 neighborhoods now included.

“We wanted every neighborhood that has embraced the walking routes to have the chance to win this Challenge,” she said. “What we found last year was when Avondale learned that Madisonville was winning, they got all fired up and said, ‘how can we win?’ We’re already finding out that’s happening now among the 15 neighborhoods as they figure out how they can knock Avondale out of the top spot.

“But Avondale is a great model for the Challenge. (Avondale won last year with more than 30 million steps, earning the top prize of $1,500 from go Vibrant, and $2,500 from the Gen-H “Step Up Cincinnati” challenge.) They’ve done a great job at mobilizing both the neighborhoods, and the companies there, like Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the Cincinnati Zoo. They get it, they bring the mission into the neighborhood.”

That mission is to make an active and energetic lifestyle irresistible for each neighborhood, and Chrysler is finding out it’s not a tough sell. “They (the neighborhoods) are coming to us,” she said. “They’re saying we want to hear about this. We find the gems of their community, like the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Walnut Hills that people don’t even realize that is there. It’s walking within your neighborhood and finding these gems to be proud of, that’s what gets the City Council and neighborhood associations fired up.”

“And then, having those Wednesday at 6 p.m. walking groups start from, for example, Café de Sales and take a three-mile loop. You get to meet folks in your community, but there’s also a safety aspect. That’s not originally what we started with, but neighborhoods are telling us it’s a huge benefit. If people know there’s going to be a dedicated group of people walking every week on these routes, then it curbs crime.”

The 15 neighborhoods (yes, Laura can rattle them all off from memory) are, in alphabetical order: Avondale, Clifton, Covington, Delhi, Downtown, Mt. Adams, East Walnut Hills, Evanston, Golf Manor, Madisonville, Mt. Washington, Newport, Northside, Pleasant Ridge and Walnut Hills, with Pleasant Ridge and Delhi the early leaders. (you don’t have to be in one of these neighborhoods to participate in the Million Step Challenge, but only the designated neighborhoods can win prizes).

The Challenge wraps up with the Zombie Walk at the end of October.

And even though it may have seemed like a big step (pun intended) to triple the number of neighborhoods involved this year, Chrysler says it’s just the beginning.

“We’d love to get all 52 neighborhoods involved. Our ideal would be to have a citywide challenge, then take on another city like Cleveland or Pittsburgh, and have some years of experience under our belts.”

Last year, some 2,000 walkers took the challenge: This year, the goal is 6,000 participants and 250 million steps.

Whether it’s walking neighborhoods or playing at the go Vibrant scape along the river, Chrysler says it’s all about staying active.

“It’s so great when I’m talking about go Vibrant and somebody says, ‘Oh those purple route signs, I didn’t know that was you.’ It shows that our mission is getting out into the communities and people are using it. They are aware of how important it is to get healthy and get your steps in.”

For more about the Million Step Challenge and to register, visit www.govibrant.org.

Christina Gorsuch, Coach of #TeamFiona

By Betsy Ross, Contributing Writer
Photos and video by Madison Schmidt

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team of health experts from around the world to raise a prematurely born hippo. Welcome to Team Fiona, whose job it has been since January 24 to care for a hippopotamus calf born at least six weeks early and a third of the size of most to-term hippo newborns.

To say that Fiona has captured the world’s imagination, if not our hearts, might be an understatement. For Christina Gorsuch, curator of mammals at the Cincinnati Zoo, it’s a once-in-a-career experience measured in challenges and celebrations, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Her job is to make sure team members have the resources, the personnel and the knowledge they need to give Fiona the best care possible. In other words, a coach, of sorts, for Team Fiona. 

The fact that Fiona is at the seven-week mark (and more than 100 pounds!) is a milestone few would have thought possible after her mom, 17-year-old Bibi, gave birth early. 

“I saw her born on video and I ran in,” Christina said.  “Another keeper was here when I got here and she was so tiny I said, ‘Is she alive?’ He said ‘Yes, it looks fine. Small but fine.’ That in itself was very exciting for us.”

After the birth, then it was a waiting game to see how strong the calf was, and how Bibi would react to her newborn. 

“We gave Fiona really good footing and made sure she was warm and had her wits about her. Then we let Bibi back in and Bibi behaved perfectly. But it was clear the calf couldn’t stand up to feed and was really weak, and that’s when we made the decision to pull her out.” 

That decision set in motion the group now known as Team Fiona giving around-the-clock care for the tiny calf. “In the beginning, it was triage and all hands on deck,” Christina said, “and I don’t know when or if our veterinarians ever slept or went home, as well as our nursery staff.” 

Once care became more routine and stabilized, the team created shifts based on bottle feedings. The daytime task of feeding Fiona fell to the two primary nursery keepers, Michelle Kuchle and Dawn Strasser, with the night shift feedings going to Teresa Truesdale, all working seven days a week. 

“It was important to provide consistency with the feedings and to make sure the caregivers could pick up immediately any slight changes in Fiona’s attitude or behavior.”

As Fiona grew, so did her legions of fans who demand their #FionaFix every day. (Remember the outcry when the zoo announced the daily social media Fiona updates would be less frequent? Yeah, they won’t do that again for awhile). And the zoo has been transparent with her fans throughout the milestones, as well as the challenges of Fiona’s development—perhaps none as challenging as when she started teething. 

“In the early days we were all just kind of amazed every day that she was making it, so when she started teething, she just sort of crashed on us and that was really hard on everyone,” Christina said. “But everyone did a good job of remaining optimistic and realistic at the same time and we decided we were going to do our best to make sure she stays here and that we’ve done our best.”

And that’s when #TeamFiona truly became a village—or more specifically, a neighborhood, because it was the Cincinnati Zoo’s neighbors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital who came through when Fiona stopped gaining weight, became lethargic and showed no interest in her bottle. “I can’t remember if was an offer that Cincinnati Children’s made to us by email or through Thane (Maynard, zoo director). They let us know they have this vascular access team and their job is to get catheters in veins you can’t get catheters into.   We needed that, to get fluids into Fiona.

“Our veterinary staff and vet techs are amazing with blood draw so they weren’t having trouble placing the cath, but she was so dehydrated and her veins were so small and weak that they kept collapsing. So I called the vascular team and they offered to come over and help and bring over their incredibly amazing equipment.”

It took about a half hour for the Cincinnati Children’s team to place the first catheter, which blew out after about a half hour. So the team came back to place a second one which lasted four days, just enough time to replenish Fiona’s fluids and nourishment and get her back on track with her development. 

“It was great to have that kind of support for her, because I think a lot of us were at the end of our rope—we just didn’t know what more we were going to be able to do for her.” 

Because as you can imagine, there’s no handbook for how to raise a premature hippo calf. A lot of what Team Fiona has done is based on their combined experience in raising baby animals at the zoo. “We also were taking some from the black rhino hand rearing book, and there’s an orphanage in South Africa that’s raised some orphan hippos. They gave us a lot of ‘this is normal, this isn’t normal’ information.”

Information, for example, on what kind of formula to feed Fiona. “In South Africa, they’re feeding whole milk and eggs because that’s what’s available to them. Here at the zoo we have several powdered formulas and fats and carbohydrates can be adjusted. But no one knew what hippo milk was supposed to be like.”

“The fact we were able to milk Bibi was great because the only other milk sample of a hippo was from 1955. Analyzing Bibi’s milk gave us an idea of what the formula for Fiona should be.” 

This past week has been a big one for #TeamFiona as not only has she reached 100 pounds, she’s been spending part of the night (midnight to 5 a.m.) by herself. As she gets bigger and stronger, of course the next logical question is, when will she be allowed to be with her parents in the exhibit area? Christina says, that’ll still be a while. 

“One of the challenges of neo-natal animals is their ability to regulate and maintain body temperature. For a preemie, it’s even more extreme. When Fiona was first born, the air temperature in the room had to be the same temperature we needed Fiona to be. So it was 98 degrees in her room so she could maintain 98 degree body temperature. When we started giving her pool time, the pools were 100 degree water. 

“We’re easing her into normal hippo temperature range—she’s currently in 85 degree water and 80 to 85 degree air temperature. So to be on exhibit many things have to happen, but one of the biggest things is, body temperature. The water in the hippo exhibit is 65 degrees and air temperature varies. She needs to be able to maintain her temperature and not shiver before we can even consider getting her out there.” 

The other factor in Fiona’s public debut is her compromised immune system. That’s why staffers are starting to feed Fiona hay pre-chewed by Bibi, to give Fiona a boost of her mother’s immune system. “Once we feel she’s strong enough,” Christina said, “introducing her to the great wide outdoors is the final hurdle.” 

For the millions (yes, millions) of people around the world who have watched Fiona grow and thrive, that moment can’t come soon enough. The way that Fiona has fascinated us, well, it’s something Christina hasn’t seen in her 20 years of working with animals. 

“I think we were at a time as a country, as a world, that we wanted something good, something purely good. Everyone likes a success story, and everyone likes an underdog. I think she was tiny and fragile and just pure energy, and it was love and dedication that got her here.

“As an individual little animal, she’s a sweetheart. She’s very expressive, she has a little personality, like all our animals do. Personally, it’s been an interesting experience for me as a manager because I’m making sure everyone has everything they need versus being there, but I still have been able to sit with her. It’s a once in a lifetime experience. She is a sweetie.”