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| 2 hours and 12 minutes! |
In all honesty though, my PR was one of the only highlights from this race. I will try to keep it honest in this race report.
This was my first Rock and Roll race. The Rock and Roll Marathon and 1/2 Marathon Races is quite the franchise. They do races in many different cities, and draw quite a crowd. This race was a full and half in Savannah, GA. I will state at this point this was the first year this race was held in Savannah. It sold out at 23,000 people. One of the first things that was a little crazy was that the race was on Saturday. Every other race I have done, except for the Thanksgiving 1/2, is done on Sunday. But I figured with Daylight Saving Time, and it would be nice to go out Saturday night all was good. Because Rock and Roll did not give the option of race day number pick up, nor would they mail the numbers, 23,000 racers and their cheer team had to get to the Expo Friday afternoon by 7:00. The expo was held on an island, that had one road to and from it. It was an absolute disaster.
We were stuck in bridge traffic for over an hour, then had to drive almost 1 mile past the expo building to park. Then walk to the expo. We passed a lot of parking spaces that were not being utilized to the best it could have been. It was a bit frustrating. After finally getting in to the expo I was pleasantly surprised that it was really well organized. I walked up to pick up my number, was ushered to my race bag. The shirts were also well organized, and the people who were handing them out were allowing people to change sizes if they needed. This is something I heard was not the case for everyone, but really very few races will allow you to change your shirt size, so to me this was a plus. The expo seemed well organized, and there was enough room to walk around, but by that time it was after 6 pm, we still hadn't found our hotel room, and we needed to get some dinner. Jacob and I met up with a couple of Get Fit people, and finalized some plans.
Jacob and I found our hotel and it was in an okay place. We had booked late, so we were much farther away from the start/finish line I prefer, but I was happy just to have a place inside of Savannah. We did a search for dinner, just to find everywhere we stopped had a wait, and it was already almost 8:00. We finally found a small local diner, and just ate there. I had an omlet, no cheese, but lots of veggies, wheat toast, and grits. Jacob and I discussed our final plan for race day. Our hotel was going to run a shuttle to the start, starting at 5:30 am.
RACE DAY!
The alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. Our hotel was a bit ghetto, and didn't have a working phone, so no wake up call, and no real life alarm clock, so we set both cell phones, and my iPad. All worked out and we got up on time. We were down in the hotel lobby by 5:00 a.m I had brought a deli thin and peanut butter, so I had that before we left. Here is where things got a bit harried. The shuttle driver comes in the lobby at 5:15 and says since there were so many runners ready to head to the race he would start taking us. He says it will take 15 minutes. Well it was super cold out so I didn't want to get out there too early. So we decided to wait. 40 minutes later the shuttle was just getting back. The driver says that all the roads are shut down so he has to take us out to the Savannah Mall where the race has shuttles to take us to the start line. This was one of the biggest confusions of the whole race. BACKTRACKING--> So almost 2 months ago Rock and Roll sent out an email saying they only had 1000 free parking spots available and it was first come first serve. I was not one who got a spot so in following emails we were told to pay to park downtown. Then we were told that there were shuttles available but you had to pay $35 (which I was not doing, because I had paid quite a bit to be in the race in the first place), and then we got an email telling us not to go downtown, and then we got an email that said free parking at this mall, but you had to take a shuttle...blah blah blah. So I was already pretty confused on how I would get to the race <-- BACK TO RACE DAY So we get on the hotel shuttle to be taken to a mall where we got in really, really long lines to get on another shuttle. I will say when we went through there were race volunteers telling us where to line up, and moving buses quickly. We only had to wait for two rounds of busses and we were on.
We are on the shuttle, and it is no 6:30 and the race starts in an hour. I start to get a bit nervous. All of a sudden someone stands up on the bus, and yells at the bus driver. She states that we must have taken a wrong turn, but this road will have us end up in a swamp.....yes, one of my fears realized....our bus driver was lost. THANK GOODNESS we had a native to Savannah on our bus. She was able to give our bus driver directions to get us downtown. Then we had to go through two police blockades, but we made it to the start line....at 7:25. On the bus I ate a Powerbar, and drank my water bottle. When I got off the bus, my corral #21 was pretty much right there, so I got in line for the port-a-potty. While I was in line the race actually started. I was a bit angered at the idea I wasn't even in my starting position, but what could I do at that point? I jumped in my corral position as they were making their way to the start line....and I was off.
Rock and Roll marathons are so popular because they have live bands playing throughout the course. According to the map I was going to hear 11 bands. The first band was playing, and that was cool. My stomach began to growl about mile 1 but I had a plan to wait until mile 4 to do my first gel. My fingers and toes began to thaw about mile 1.5 and I put my sunglasses on during mile 2. It warmed up soon after that. I took my first gel right on time about mile 4. Band 2, and 3 were not playing as I went by. It was a bit disappointing. Around mile 7 I took off my arm warmers, to my short sleeved shirt, and I passed those off to Jacob as I passed him at mile 8. I felt really strong. The miles were literally flying by. I took another gel around mile 8. I got to see a lot of Get Fit people as I weaved myself through the crowd. The marathon and 1/2 route were the same for the first 11 miles, and it was crowded. I spent a lot of energy watching where I was going, and dodging through people. I didn't get to look around at my surrounding too much. The elevation was much flatter than I am used to, so I just kept plugging along. I only walked through water stops, and that was to grab water, gulp it, and start running again. The water stops were close to every mile, and they were well manned, and had plenty of water and energy drink when I went through. Everyone was really positive, and cheering on the runners. The next two bands were actually playing and it was a well needed mental break just to hear the music.
My stomach started rumbling about mile 10 so I took my last gel I had on me. I really only figured on taking two gels, but my stomach was litterally growling, and I had it with me, so I figured why not. I was watching my pace on my watch, and it was in the 11 min, for the first 2 miles, around 10 min miles until mile 10 and then I pushed it to 9:30 min miles. I was really pushing myself, and still feeling super strong. The last two bands were playing, and it was a nice change to get something other than my thoughts in my head. I got to mile 13 and did a very strong, sprint finish to finish line. My watch said 2 hours, and 12 minutes. I was ecstatic! Jacob was right there, and so were some other Get Fit peeps. I didn't really feel completely exhausted, I felt like I could have kept running if nessessary.
The end of the race was pretty well organized. Plenty of volunteers helping move the lines along. The food was nothing exciting. Some fruit cups, bananas, Marathon Bars, and bottled water. It was still only in the 50's, in the sun, so they had wraps for us. They had a spectator meeting place with large letters set up in Foryth Park. It was easy to find the G for Get Fit and there we celebrated many racers who finished, and many came out of the race with PRs. They had free beer (not for me...) for finishers, and a band playing. There were tents set up around the park, but I didn't feel like moving around too much, as I got cold quickly after I stopped running.
When we finally felt that it was time to get a move on, the line for the shuttle to the mall was SUPER long. They did move it along quickly, but then we had to ride the shuttle out to the mall, and then wait another 30 minutes in the mall parking lot for our hotel shuttle. By the time we got back to the hotel it was after 1 p.m. and I was so hungry we got straight in the car and went for lunch.
I am happiest about how flat the course was, how trained I was to run it, and how I executed a almost perfect race. I know I say it over and over again but this race was so successful in part to Get Fit Atlanta. I love my Get Fit family!
I am not sure how I will feel about signing up for another Rock and Roll race. I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt as this was their first time in Savannah, and you learn a lot after the first time. But I am happy I did this race, as I am not sure the perfection of a great race will align the way they did Saturday ever again. 2:12 might be a PR for a long time, but a great record to chase after for a while!
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