Rocking it in Savannah

I ran my second half marathon of the year this past weekend in Savannah, Ga.
It was another in the Rock N Roll race series, and unlike the Country Music Half Marathon back in April, the weather was near perfect for this race.
My running buddy Jessica and I drove down to Savannah the Friday before the race. We got there in the early afternoon and hit the runner's expo to pick up our race numbers and T-shirts.

Having fun at the expo

Rockin' it, old school. LOL

We had a little fun at the expo, too, taking some crazy photos.
We got there at just the right time. We walked right in with no line or anything. When we left about an hour and a half later, the line was snaking out of the convention center and the cars were lining up to get into the parking area.
We parked downtown next and walked around doing a little shopping before finding Tubby's restaurant to stop for supper.

 

The view of the sun setting near the Talmadge Bridge from our restaurant on River Street

 Savannah is such a great city. When I lived in Southeast Georgia after college, I would drive up to Savannah every now and again. Back then, you could still drive a car down River Street and park in little dirt parking lots right near River Street. All of that is gone!

River Street is still a big tourist area. We were lucky to be eating dinner early so we could sit right on the rail of the restaurant and have a great view of the street below. While we were eating, one of the big container ships from the nearby port went by. It was too dark to get a photo, though.

On our way back to the car that evening, we climbed back up the steep steps to Bay Street. These historic steps would not be fun to negotiate in the rain or after one too many cocktails!

We risked it

 We stayed at an EconoLodge about 7 miles from downtown Savannah. It was much cheaper than staying right downtown and we decided we'd rather spend the money on a nice meal rather than a hotel where we'd only stay for a little while.
Of course, the saying "You get what you pay for" was true for this hotel.
We put in for a 4:45 am wake up call and were flummoxed when we got a 3:45 am call. Turns out, this hotel never changed its clocks back on Nov. 2 in its wake up call system! I can't believe we were the first to tell them about it!
We met up with friends Angela and Jeff, who ran the Country Music Half as well, and walked over to the start.

Heading over to the start

At the Start

Running into co-worker Dixie

 There were about 15,000 runners for the marathon and half marathon. Never ceases to amaze me that out of all of those folks, I manage to run into a co-worker who was there to run it as well!

Beautiful morning for a run

The morning was absolutely glorious, not too hot or too cold. Once the sun came up, it was beautiful blue skies.

Moss draped oaks along the race course

The race course ran through Savannah's historic district three times. We started out on Bay Street, then doubled back along Gwinnett Street to Montgomery then onto Broad. We  then came back on Anderson Street and finished up in Forsyth Park. I even managed to pick up two quarters along the course. I saw another quarter and penny, but it was too crowded for me to stop and collect it.

the fountain at Forsyth Park

Finishers! Angela, Me and Jessica

Me and Jessica

Here we are with our finisher's medals. I didn't finish in my goal time, but I did finish in under 3 hours. I really had hoped to finish in 2 hours 45 minutes, which would have been a full 10 minutes better than my time in Nashville. I realize now that was a bit ambitious, and I was only 1.5 minutes slower than Nashville. All in all, I'm happy.

When Jessica and I finished the race, we were on the hunt for lunch. We ended up at a chain Italian restaurant near our hotel.

How every half marathon should end



The best part was the celebratory glasses of wine and pasta!
We realized at the finish area that because we ran both the Nashville race and the Savannah race, we were going to get a bonus medal.

Run two, get the Rock Encore medal

The Rock N Roll series provides bonus medals for more races you complete in a calendar year. One guy was picking up his 10 medal and it was HUGE. The others were on display and we totally fell in love with the extra bling. In particular, I now must have this:

Grand Slam medal for completing four races in a single year

For me to run four half marathons in a single year is going to be extraordinarily ambitious, but a girl's gotta dream, right?
If I can do it, I would completely rock.