Rock n Roll Savannah Marathon 2011

Travel, expo, and other pre-race stuff
I took a red-eye flight out of LAX on Thursday night right after work. Before heading to the airport, I stopped by Shinsengumi for some ramen before I headed to the deep south where the ramen is scarce. This was my first time flying with Delta airlines. After my trip, I would have to rethink having American Airlines as my default airline of choice. Sure, AA usually has the cheapest flights, but you get what you've paid for... bad service and old planes. For the first leg of the trip, I sat in an emergency exit row seat with plenty of leg space. I slept through most of this flight. When I got to ATL, I had to switch planes and then it was just a short flight to Savannah.

Shinsengumi - Hakata ramen for the road

Delta - Emergency exit row seat with extra legroom!

Welcome to Savannah

We got to Savannah a bit early, so I had to wait a bit before getting my rental car. They gave me a Hyundai Sonata. Their cars have vastly improved, but they still feel a bit cheap when you drive them.

I drove over to the Convention Center. Along the way, I crossed over the Talmadge bridge. I like driving in places where the freeways aren't so crowded. It was a good thing I went shortly after they had opened. I've heard from plenty of my friends that the traffic getting to the expo was horrible.

Talmadge bridge

I cruised through the expo since it was your standard Rock n' Roll expo. I tried on the 110% compression calf sleeve. It's pretty nice to be able to just shove an ice pack into the sleeve after you're done running. What's not so nice is the price tag. I'll stick to ice, zip lock bags, and towels if I have anything that needs icing. I bumped into a bunch of my marathon maniac friends. I soon left the expo, because I was getting hungry.

Expo that way

Expo entrance

Expo - it's Sef!

Maniac friends at the expo

I drove to the Walmart near my hotel to buy some snacks. I bought water, Odwalla juice, a 4 pack of Guinness, and a bag of jalapeño chips. I then stopped by Miwa Japanese Restaurant for a late lunch. I ordered the two roll lunch which came with a salad. The rolls that I got were the spicy tuna avocado roll and the G5 roll (tuna, salmon, white fish, crab, avocado, and masago). I guess I'm feelin' fly like a G5. har har! :) They charged me for hot green tea... I don't think real Japanese restaurants ever charge for tea. Unfortunately, I was the only Asian patron in the restaurant. I found it funny that they even sent out the Asian waitress just to wait on me. You know, I do speak pretty good Engrish. :)

Snacks and drinks

Miwa Japanese Restaurant - spicy tuna avocado roll & G5 roll

I drove to my hotel and checked in. The room had a fridge and a microwave, which was nice. I could've bought some hot pockets at Walmart. :) I emptied out my goodie bag to throw away useless stuff and sort out the goodies. I thought the race shirt was a bit too plain and somewhat ugly. But oh well, I'm sure eventually they'll be put to good use when I do my next round of donations to the Goodwill.

Hampton Inn

The bed

Goodies

Back of the race shirt

After relaxing for a while, I drove over to Romano's Macaroni Grill at the Oglethorpe Mall for some dinner with the Marathon Maniacs. I had the Shrimp Portofino. It was okay, nothing spectacular. I'm guessing the chefs had their work cut out with tons of runners eating here.

Romano's Macaroni Grill - dinner with the Marathon Maniacs

Romano's Macaroni Grill - Shrimp Portofino

I went back to my room and polished off the bag of chips. Lately, I've been loading up on the sodium the day before a race to try and stave off the leg cramps.

Race day
I drove over to the Convention Center to park my car. Only those who had registered early for Convention Center parking was given a parking sign to park here. Coincidentally, I parked 2 spaces away from my friend, Mitch. I saw his super bright maniac jacket while he was sitting in his car. After we got ready, we both headed over to the dock to take the ferry across the river. It was then a short walk over to the starting line. We were early, so eventually we headed to the lobby of the Holiday Inn to get out of the wind.

Once it got closer to 6:45am, we headed back out for the Marathon Maniacs photo op. The group was huge since we included half fanatics and the 50 States runners. After about a thousand pictures, I headed over to the Hampton Inn to get out of the cold and use their restroom. I then got into the back of corral 13.

Marathon Maniacs, Half Fanatics, and 50 States runners

Goal for the race was to average around 15 min/mile and finish around 6:30.
I would only finish the full if I can get to the halfway mark under 3 hours.

The "race"
From the very first step, things felt much better than last weekend at the LA RnR Half Marathon. I still had a hitch in my stride, but at least the gait was starting to resemble a jog. For about 5k, I jogged with a couple. The lady had injured her knee, so she was "only" jogging the half marathon. The guy said he was going to finish last. I told him, not if I'm in the race. :)

The course was a bit crowded. It only thinned out at around mile 11 when the halfers and full marathoners split off. I went with the full marathoners since I knew I would get to the half under 3 hrs. I got to the halfway mark at around 2:48.

The portions on the freeway was not very pleasant. We spent about 5 total miles on it. It was windy and cambered. Maybe it would've been better if I could actually run through this portion.

Even though I was walking and jogging, I somehow managed to bonked really hard at mile 25 and 26. One runner gave me her Powerbar Gel. Thanks to her, that helped me out for the final .2 down the finishing chute.
1: 11:53
2: 12:19
3: 12:57
4: 11:54
5: 12:12
6: 12:33
7: 11:49
8: 12:06
9: 13:07
10: 13:29
11: 13:44
12: 14:34
13: 14:28
14: 16:15
15: 17:08
16: 16:15
17: 15:59
18: 16:18
19: 17:02
20: 16:45
21: 16:37
22: 16:17
23: 16:59
24: 17:39
25: 19:22
26: 19:41
26.2: 2:42
Finished: 6:32:03

Post-race
I like running Rock n' Roll races. You always know what to expect at their races. If there is a problem, they'll eventually address it. If you run their races year after year, you know that they're always trying to improve their races. I thought this inaugural race went well.

The medal matched my race shirt

Finisher's medal

After getting my medal, I started my long hike up to the ferry. Before exiting the finisher chute, I saw a guy from outside the barricades taking about 6 bottles of Cytomax. He might as well have taken the entire case. No shame.

When I got back to my car, Mitch was there relaxing in his car. We chatted for a while, I then headed back to my hotel and Mitch headed to Raleigh, NC for another marathon the next day. Some maniacs are just crazier than others. :)

I cleaned up and drove out to Longhorn Steakhouse to eat dinner. I like eating at Longhorn because they're very similar to the Claim Jumper here on the west coast. It was crowded. I had to wait about 30 minutes before being seated. They don't have a very good beer selection, but a Killian's Irish Red was good enough. I love their wild west shrimp and of course their ribeye steak cooked medium rare. After returning to my hotel, I stopped by the business center and printed out my boarding passes for my flights the next day.

Longhorn Steakhouse - Killian's Irish Red

Longhorn Steakhouse - Caesar salad

Longhorn Steakhouse - wild west shrimp

Longhorn Steakhouse - ribeye

I had to return the car by 10am, so I checked out of my hotel at around 9:30. Then I drove across the street to gas up the car and headed to the airport to drop off the car. My flight was later in the afternoon, so I waited in the airport courtyard doing my sudoku puzzles. I then proceeded through the TSA checkpoint. As I got through the metal detector, I was "randomly" selected for extra screening. The extra screening involved a TSA agent swabbing the insides of my bag probably to see if I had been in contact with explosive materials. This was something new. I've had my hands and shoes swabbed before at other airports. As I was packing up, there was a lady that was extremely irate because she was having her ice packs confiscated. I guess they were larger than 3 ounces. Oh, the joys of flying the not-so-friendly skies.

Savannah Airport courtyard

I had lunch at the Dewar's Clubhouse Bar and Grille. The place looked pretty nice and there was a lot of TVs to watch sports. But apparently the food sucks here. I had a corned beef reuben and it was one of the worst I've had. The bread was soggy. But still I guess it was edible.

Dewar's Clubhouse Bar and Grille - Corned Beef Reuben