By Shannon Russell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Running enthusiast and Western Hills resident Cindy Witt doesn't let anything stop her Flying Pig Marathon training. Not the five reconstructive knee surgeries she has had to correct ligament damage. Not the special shoe insert she wears to balance a left leg that's 6 millimeters shorter than the other, a byproduct of surgery.

Not even the bi-annual Synvisc injections she takes to lubricate her arthritis-ravaged, 41-year-old joints.

"My doctor is always telling me to find a new hobby," Witt said cheerfully, calculating the days until the Flying Pig's start. "I have hardly any cartilage in either knee. If I didn't have the (injections), it would be bone on bone."

Looking at Witt's 5-foot-4, 131-pound frame, you'd never guess her knees used to be the least of her worries.

Three years ago, she weighed 221 pounds and fought to stabilize a size-22 figure. Overweight her entire life, Witt said she couldn't bear to start another year financing ineffective diet books, aerobics classes and gym memberships.

So she started walking. Slowly at first, and just in her neighborhood. Witt picked up her pace to a brisk walk in her 3.2-mile route, working her way up to jogging.

She cut back on carbohydrates, eliminated junk food and banished her favorite guilty pleasure - Coke - from her fridge.

In 10 months, Witt lost 91 pounds.

She was shopping at Bob Roncker's Running Spot when she saw Roncker's Flying Pig medal. That, Witt said, was when she made running the Pig her goal.

Witt joined the Cincinnati chapter of the Jeff Galloway training group to train for her first Pig. She finished in 4:40 and achieved her biggest goal: crossing the finish line "vertically."

Dr. Bob Burger, Witt's physician of 10 years, had mixed feelings about Witt's success.

"I was very proud of her personally, because I'd seen where she started from. But I also didn't want her to be naÔve to that fact that running marathons were probably not the best things for her knees," Burger said.

Burger cautioned Witt about long-term problems she might face, including potential knee replacement surgeries. Though Witt's hobby has rejuvenated her life and inspired others, Burger is worried her knees may wear down.

Witt is undaunted. She looks at her Flying Pig medal every day and remembers where she was before she started running.

"I don't ever want to go back to what things were like before," Witt said.

She still cringes when imagining running without the Synvisc injections - it's like "pounding against rocks against your joints," she said - and has learned to live with her knees, despite arthritis and bone spurs. She's also had operations on her left ankle and left foot.

Her saving grace?

"The one bad thing my doctor says is that I have a high pain tolerance. Most people with these knees wouldn't be running, but I had a bigger goal in mind," she said.

This year, Witt wants to run 10-minute miles in the Pig, and she's already planning to run January's Walt Disney World Marathon.

"I never had a positive outlook for myself, but I finally realized I have a heck of a life," Witt said. "Never in a million years would I have dreamt that this would be me."

E-mail srussell@enquirer.com