28 - Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon, Georgia

Finisher medals waiting for finishers

In August of 2010, I received an email about the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Savannah, Georgia Marathon. The email encouraged you to sign up early to receive a huge discount on the entry fee. Because Georgia was still on my list of states to complete a marathon,  I seized the opportunity for early registration and only paid $65. That was the cheap and easy part. I then learned it was super-expensive to fly to Savannah directly from NYC (about $1200 round trip). In addition,  the hotels in the area of the start and finish line were astronomically priced (over $250 per night; 2 night stay required).

All this just to run a marathon in Georgia?  I was considering taking a loss of $65 and finding another Georgia marathon to complete.

The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series is "run" by an organization, Competitor, that puts on half and full marathons throughout the United States and is expanding internationally.  I had never run a Rock 'n' Roll marathon and thought it would be fun.  Little did I know that the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series is only concerned about the money!  They charged for things that at most marathons are included in the entry fee. The big thing that got me was that they charged you to ride the shuttle to the start of the marathon from many of the hotel locations. 

But let me go back to bit first before I continue...back in February while running a marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I had met a fellow runner named Henry.  In my eyes,  Henry should be called "The Marathon Man" because he is a true Running Guru.  He runs a marathon or two almost every weekend. He was soon to finish running a marathon in all 50 states for the 10th time —yes the 10th time!!!!  During the Tulsa marathon, I ran with him for a bit and picked his brain about the best way to complete the 50 states.

So, now when I was trying to decide if I should run the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Savannah, I decided to contact Henry for his input. Well, it turns out that Henry was planning to run the Savannah marathon too!  He was flying into Raleigh, NC, which was much cheaper, driving to Savannah, and staying at a hotel on the outskirts of Savannah that was reasonably priced.   Henry offered to let me tag along.  Mark happened to be lecturing in Raleigh, NC the same weekend as the marathon, so I decided to fly to Raleigh with Mark (no need to tell you about missing our flight out of LaGuardia on Thursday)  and meet up with Henry.

Henry and I met at the airport on Friday about noon and drove 5 hours to Savannah.  We were planning on being at the expo by 5 PM to pick up our race numbers. The expo was at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center, which is on Hutchinson Island.  Once we reached the Talmadge Bridge to get to Hutchinson Island, however, we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic.

It took us over an hour to go about one mile. Once we were near the convention center, there was limited parking — overall, getting to the expo was not a pleasant experience.  We finally got out of there about 7 PM.

Henry and I decided that we needed to be at the start early since this was an inaugural marathon and we anticipated lots of kinks, like we had experienced the night before getting to the expo.  We were NOT taking one of the shuttles that you had to pay for.  We left our hotel at 5 AM and drove to the Ogelthorpe Mall to take the FREE shuttle to the start line.  As the crow flies, the Ogelthorpe Mall is only about 3 miles from the start but it took us over an hour to get there.  Good planning on Henry's part!

We had lots of time before the 7:30 AM start.  To be honest, I was a bit exhausted from the complicated logistics and lack of sleep.  Fortunately I found a restaurant, B. Matthew's Eatery that was open and serving coffee; I waited there and kept warm.  AND it was directly across from my starting "corral."  No, I was not racing on a horse.  Let me explain....because there were 23,000 people registered, all the runners couldn't start the race at the same time (it they did, it would result in utter chaos).  Instead, this marathon had what's referred to as a wave start.  For this, we were separated into 23 groups (corrals) with about 1000 people in each corral.  The first group of runners started at 7:30 AM with each successive corral starting about 1 minute later.  I was in corral 16, so I finally got started at about 7:46.

Running the marathon was a blast; it made up for the logistical nightmare.  Along the course, there were bands and cheering sections about every mile —no need for an iPod.  The course took us through historic sections, residential areas, business and factory sectors; what stood out the most to me was the Spanish moss hanging off the Oak Trees throughout the city.  It was mystifying...

Spanish Moss

Another "stand out" point along the course was Optimist Field at Daffin Park.  Running past that definitely put a smile on my face...

There was no time to enjoy the post-race festivities; we had to get out of Savannah as soon as we could.  Henry was running the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon the next day back in Raleigh to complete his 760th Marathon —YES, I really did mean number 760!!!

For me, I needed to get back to Raleigh because Mark and I had dinner plans with a friend, Katsumasa and his family in Raleigh.  Katsumasa was one of my students when I was teaching in Japan after college.  He is now working in Statesville, NC, for a Japanese company called ASMO, North America.  We met at a local Japanese restaurant in Raleigh called Waraji that is popular with the Japanese community in NC. It definitely was a true taste of Japan in North Carolina.

Savannah is a place that I want to revisit and spend more time.  It seemed to have a down south romantic charm that I didn't get to experience during the marathon.  I will be back!

Next state marathon is in Indiana, the Tecumseh Trail Marathon on December 3, 2011.