Savannah Half Marathon

This was the first of the Rock n Roll series races I've done.  I've always heard awesome things about them, so I definitely wanted to get in on one.  We had originally planned on picking up our packets on Friday, but John had changed projects and is in the busy stages of a new, big building starting to go up, so, we didn't leave until around 5 on Friday to head up to Savannah.  I knew this ahead of time, so after initially freaking out about not getting our packets at the expo, I called and they said we could pick it up the morning of the race.

We got into town around 10, got checked into our hotel and got everything ready for the next day.  We were asleep by 11.  The alarm went off at 5:30.  We got dressed, ate some food and went to pick up our packets, giving us enough time to walk back to the hotel and to the start by 7.  We were lucky enough to be less than 1/2 a mile from the start.  They only gave us our race numbers before the race and told us to pick up the rest after the race.

We eventually got in the corral and waited for the race to start.  The national anthem started was sung a few minutes before the race start, accompanied by "I Love Rock and Roll", but they finally got it together and knocked off the background music.

I was representing the Disney Marathon.  I wish I had another shirt I love so much to run it, but they give out a comfy shirt!

About 20 minutes after the start, we were off!

Brothers

Go Robin!

We started out running over an overpass, through some sides roads, and then through some neighborhoods.  The residents in this area really came out to cheer!  They were all happy yelling 'good mornings' and clapping for us!  It was pretty fun.  Then we had a bit of time where we were running through industrial areas.  We were keeping at a 10:00/mile since none of us were sure how we'd do that day.  We were feeling pretty good.  Around mile 6-7 we had to make a pit stop to the port-o-pots and then we were on the road again.  

I believe it was around mile 8, we started getting a little more into the downtown area of Savannah and there were crowds everywhere.  It was great and made me want to punch people all at the same time.  I enjoy the crowds cheering.  Love it.  Need the motivation.  And I know watching a endurance running race isn't that exciting for those who aren't passionate about it, but get off the course!  There were people way off the curbs causing us to have to go through bottlenecks every so often.  It annoyed me.  I feel that there should have been race officials making sure people stayed off the course. Disappointed.  Rant over.

I had a side cramp starting at mile 8 and became ridiculously crippling between 10 & 11.  Robin and I fell back from the guys because she was also battling a side cramp and walked a little.  I'm pretty sure it was where we were running in the roads and the slant because they were both right side cramps under the ribs.  Haven't had one of those in forever!

Somehow going through mile 12, the cramp disappeared and I sprinted out the last .2 miles.

I thought the half race course was pretty good. It is in a pretty city, but you don't go through it as much as I expected we would.  The course was pretty flat.  There were a few elevation changes, but I didn't think they were too bad at all.  I would probably rate the race a B+.  I'm not sure if I would do it again there, but I had an enjoyable experience.