This was the farthest I’ve driven for an event, arriving at the Savannah International Trade Convention Center around 4pm. Just finding a parking spot took 30 minutes of slowly being directed to the parking lot, waiting in line, and ultimately, getting lucky. An officer, who was directing traffic, mentioned that over 18,000 participants were expected between the various events to be held over the weekend.
As with most marathon type events, there’s no race day packet pickup. In the case of the Rock’n’Roll Marathon Series, they have a Fitness Expo, usually at the respective city’s convention center, which lasts two days and is an opportunity to pickup the bib, timing chip, and t-shirt. Afterwards, you’re thrown into what I call the sales funnel. They dump you onto the Expo floor, where various vendors have set up tents.
Everything is represented; t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, gu energy gel and sports beans, sun glasses, running shoes, running gait analysis, chiropractors, mechanical bull riding, with banks and healthcare provider sponsors handing out branded swag. This was the biggest one I’ve seen so far. Apparently it’s the 5th year for the Rock’n’Roll series in Savannah, and it shows. They’re attracting huge crowds.
It looks like the weather will be quite nice. Around 70 degrees? That’s actually a bit more than I prefer. My ideal temperature seems to be in the low 40s.
Once I had my stuff, I hung around for a bit longer, in hopes to avoid the busy roads. It mostly worked. I drove across the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, through beautiful downtown Savannah (even in the dark), to my Airbnb place on Wilmington Island. I spent the evening getting everything ready for the morning, watching Netflix, and went to bed early, which I find much easier these days. Pre-race jitters seem to be a thing of the past.
Getting to the Race
Generally when I’m not running in my home town and less familiar with the roads and parking situation, I fall back to using ride sharing services. Wilmington Island is probably 20 minutes from the start line. Alarm was set to 5:30am. As soon as it went off, I fired up Uber which told me, to my surprise, that it would take 23 minutes for a driver to come get me. I requested the ride right away and figured leaving at around 6am will get me there around 6:30am, so I’ll have 30 minutes to get myself ready and check my gear.
Countdown to Start
The street was absolutely packed. I wanted to see how far back it went, and ended up hanging around corral 22 and chatting with people while standing in line for what seemed forever to take advantage of the porta potties, which had already run out of toilet paper at this point. By the time I was ready to get to find my place around corral 5, the first corral had already left.
Runners in corral 6 waiting for the race to begin
Runners in corral 4 and 5.
Waiting in Corral 5
Corral 4 is about to take off
Off to a great start
The start was fairly smooth. Corrals left the starting line in 30 second intervals. I did take off just a bit too fast, and soon ran into the guys from corral 4, which were just seconds in front of us. I attempted to dial it down a bit, since I’m not exactly known for negative splits. In fact, I have to really watch my Garmin closely to ensure I don’t over-do it. Unfortunately I was caught off-guard by something else, entirely.
Weather
Medal acquired. And I’m beat.
It was over 70 degrees, which was somewhat problematic. It felt so much worse than usual, however. At the time I couldn’t figure it out, but I was dehydrated immediately. Those notches in the pace chart (e.g. at 14 and 28 minutes) is me gulping at the water stops. And the last four notches is me walking. I’ve never, ever walked before. I find it really difficult to get back into a groove afterwards. It feels like the blood is just rushing back everywhere and as my body’s damage reports come in from various places, my internal dashboard is just lit up. Alas, I was absolutely overheated and soaked. One of the stops wasn’t water, but well-meaning spectators handing out Swedish Fish in paper cups. It was rough.
It wasn’t until after the race that someone finally clued me in: Humidity hovered slightly above 100%. At least, that’s how it felt.
In fact, it was so bad, that they cut the full marathon short and re-routed people. They sent out a follow-up email at 11:30am:
Race Day Diversions
At approximately 9:45am ET this morning in consultation with local officials we made the difficult decision to divert runners along the course due to the health risk posed by over-exertion in the unseasonably warm and humid conditions. As previously communicated, we did implement a comprehensive heat plan, which included water misters, sponge stations, and air-conditioned cooling buses along the course. Unfortunately, these tough running conditions were deemed excessive and dangerous by our medical officials and their consulting team, including the Southside Fire Department, St. Joseph’s/Candler Hospital, Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management.
While we want to provide a fun and memorable experience for all runners, our number one priority is to maintain their safety at every event. We greatly appreciate your understanding, and we sympathize with all runners that were unable to finish the race for which you worked so hard to prepare.
We know that nothing can replace crossing the finish line in Savannah this weekend. We will be in touch via email with all affected participants to arrange a complimentary entry to another Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series event.
After Party ft. Rascal Flatts
After the race, I picked up my checked gear bag and head over to Forsyth Park, right next to the finish line. Initially that was fairly empty.
Panorama shot of Forsyth Park before the crowd gathered.
But over the next hour, it picked up quite a bit, with more 13.1 finishers, and eventually the full marathon folks coming in.
Getting fairly crowded
The highlight was the Rascal Flatts concert.
Rascal Flatts performing live
Despite the heat and humidity, I enjoyed this race quite a bit. It’s an awesome experience, concert and all. And I think I’ll grab the Rock’n’Roll TourPass 3-pack for next year, and run Raleigh, Virginia Beach, and Savannah again.
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Arrival Generally I make it a habit to pick up the race packet first, but DC is one of the cities where it makes sense to first get situated and the car stowed. So the first stop after arriving in the city was to check in at The Donovan. Centrally located right by 14th and …
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Rock’n’Roll Marathon Series Savannah 2015 Race Report
Packet Pickup at the Fitness Expo
This was the farthest I’ve driven for an event, arriving at the Savannah International Trade Convention Center around 4pm. Just finding a parking spot took 30 minutes of slowly being directed to the parking lot, waiting in line, and ultimately, getting lucky. An officer, who was directing traffic, mentioned that over 18,000 participants were expected between the various events to be held over the weekend.
As with most marathon type events, there’s no race day packet pickup. In the case of the Rock’n’Roll Marathon Series, they have a Fitness Expo, usually at the respective city’s convention center, which lasts two days and is an opportunity to pickup the bib, timing chip, and t-shirt. Afterwards, you’re thrown into what I call the sales funnel. They dump you onto the Expo floor, where various vendors have set up tents.
Everything is represented; t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, gu energy gel and sports beans, sun glasses, running shoes, running gait analysis, chiropractors, mechanical bull riding, with banks and healthcare provider sponsors handing out branded swag. This was the biggest one I’ve seen so far. Apparently it’s the 5th year for the Rock’n’Roll series in Savannah, and it shows. They’re attracting huge crowds.
It looks like the weather will be quite nice. Around 70 degrees? That’s actually a bit more than I prefer. My ideal temperature seems to be in the low 40s.
Once I had my stuff, I hung around for a bit longer, in hopes to avoid the busy roads. It mostly worked. I drove across the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, through beautiful downtown Savannah (even in the dark), to my Airbnb place on Wilmington Island. I spent the evening getting everything ready for the morning, watching Netflix, and went to bed early, which I find much easier these days. Pre-race jitters seem to be a thing of the past.
Getting to the Race
Generally when I’m not running in my home town and less familiar with the roads and parking situation, I fall back to using ride sharing services. Wilmington Island is probably 20 minutes from the start line. Alarm was set to 5:30am. As soon as it went off, I fired up Uber which told me, to my surprise, that it would take 23 minutes for a driver to come get me. I requested the ride right away and figured leaving at around 6am will get me there around 6:30am, so I’ll have 30 minutes to get myself ready and check my gear.
Countdown to Start
The street was absolutely packed. I wanted to see how far back it went, and ended up hanging around corral 22 and chatting with people while standing in line for what seemed forever to take advantage of the porta potties, which had already run out of toilet paper at this point. By the time I was ready to get to find my place around corral 5, the first corral had already left.
Runners in corral 6 waiting for the race to begin
Runners in corral 4 and 5.
Waiting in Corral 5
Corral 4 is about to take off
Off to a great start
The start was fairly smooth. Corrals left the starting line in 30 second intervals. I did take off just a bit too fast, and soon ran into the guys from corral 4, which were just seconds in front of us. I attempted to dial it down a bit, since I’m not exactly known for negative splits. In fact, I have to really watch my Garmin closely to ensure I don’t over-do it. Unfortunately I was caught off-guard by something else, entirely.
Weather
Medal acquired. And I’m beat.
It was over 70 degrees, which was somewhat problematic. It felt so much worse than usual, however. At the time I couldn’t figure it out, but I was dehydrated immediately. Those notches in the pace chart (e.g. at 14 and 28 minutes) is me gulping at the water stops. And the last four notches is me walking. I’ve never, ever walked before. I find it really difficult to get back into a groove afterwards. It feels like the blood is just rushing back everywhere and as my body’s damage reports come in from various places, my internal dashboard is just lit up. Alas, I was absolutely overheated and soaked. One of the stops wasn’t water, but well-meaning spectators handing out Swedish Fish in paper cups. It was rough.
It wasn’t until after the race that someone finally clued me in: Humidity hovered slightly above 100%. At least, that’s how it felt.
In fact, it was so bad, that they cut the full marathon short and re-routed people. They sent out a follow-up email at 11:30am:
After Party ft. Rascal Flatts
After the race, I picked up my checked gear bag and head over to Forsyth Park, right next to the finish line. Initially that was fairly empty.
Panorama shot of Forsyth Park before the crowd gathered.
But over the next hour, it picked up quite a bit, with more 13.1 finishers, and eventually the full marathon folks coming in.
Getting fairly crowded
The highlight was the Rascal Flatts concert.
Rascal Flatts performing live
Despite the heat and humidity, I enjoyed this race quite a bit. It’s an awesome experience, concert and all. And I think I’ll grab the Rock’n’Roll TourPass 3-pack for next year, and run Raleigh, Virginia Beach, and Savannah again.
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