Just like Myrtle Beach, it was going to be a long day in the car to get to Savannah. On Friday I got up at 4 again, did 30 minutes at race pace, finished packing/loading the car and got on the road right around 6 again. I wanted to visit the Tybee Island lighthouse, so I knew I needed to get there by 4:30. I made it around 4:15, which meant I got to climb the 178 steps to the top. Next I headed to the local Dick's for the packet pick up--there was no expo. The line was long and when I looked on Facebook I saw that the Race Director had posted that two volunteers were no-shows so he was on his way down to help out. I took the time to chat with some of the other runners and get some info on the race/area. The wait ended up not being too bad and things went smoothly when I got my turn. (I also picked up for one of the other pacers.) After that I got a bit to eat and settled in for the evening. Pacer meeting was going to be at 6:00, and I would need to allow a little time to find the race venue/parking.
On race morning I woke up around 3 to use the bathroom and couldn't fall asleep again. I got an early start to head out to the venue, which was good because my phone kept loosing GPS signal and I had a little struggle finding it. We were starting from the University of Georgia Oceanographic Institute, but most of the race was in a gated housing development called The Landings. I ended up still being early enough that I had a short wait for the pacer meeting/picture. It was fun to meet pacers from a completely different region that are still part of the "Beast family".
As the time for the race got closer we lined up for the start. Even though it's a smaller race, the course is pretty narrow in some sections so we had a two wave start. 4:30 full/2:15 half was the cut off for the first wave, so I was lining up at the back. One of the other pacers claimed there was no timing mat at the start, so I was a little frustrated with having to line up all the way at the back when I would have to essentially go by the gun time rather than when I crossed the start line.
Once we got out of the parking area for the Institute we had to head down the road almost 3 miles before we got to The Landings. At the start I was a bit apprehensive about my left knee that had bothered me for an entire 10 mile race I had paced the weekend before. As we went around a very long curve that had a bit of a bank to it I searched for a flat spot in the road to try to "baby" the knee a bit. When we eventually turned off into The Landings we started out on sidewalk, which was also a bit disconcerting to me as concrete sidewalk has less give to it than asphalt and would mean more impact to my knee. The sidewalk didn't last too long (although there would be more stretches of sidewalk later on). We would encounter varying surfaces for the entire race: asphalt, concrete, a thin layer of sand on one path, and a few short wooden bridges. All in all, my knee did fine for the entire race and didn't give me any problems.
At the 3 mile mark I decided I needed to abandon my conservative strategy because I was about 20 seconds behind pace. It seemed like even from the first mile marker they were consistently .2 of a mile too long, but of course some of this was also with my watch tracking from where I had lined up at the start rather than the actual start line. Fairly early on we some got nice views of the marshes, but we also ended up just going down neighborhood streets quite a bit. There were also sections where we were crossing through a golf course. Conversation ranged from the usual running/training/races to hearing a bit about climbing Kilimanjaro. Very interesting!
Things were going fairly smoothly through the first half, but the heat/humidity were beginning to take a toll. The biggest climb of the race was in mile 18, where we had to cross a bridge. Most of my group had already fallen behind at this point. My lone companion from mile 20 on was a graduate student named Molly. (green shirt/black shorts in the picture above) This was her third marathon and her goal was to beat Oprah's marathon time: 4:29:15. There was an out and back section (miles 20-22.5) that seemed like it would never end. We were both getting pretty tired and my hamstrings were really starting to tighten up. When we hit the aid stop Molly wanted to walk (we were somewhere between 60 and 90 seconds ahead of pace) I agreed, but warned that the longer we walked the harder it would be to get going again. The last aid stop was around mile 24. I walked a little, but Molly walked longer and fell behind. At this point I just had to keep myself going to come in on time.
The last two miles were hard and lonely. I was passing people who were running with traffic (on the opposite side of the road) rather than against it. I knew that I was coming in a little faster than I needed to, but I just couldn't find any other pace in my legs that felt good. I would be either a 10 min/mile or walking. (goal pace is 10:17/mile) I finished in 4:28:45. I got my medal and a bottle of water. There wasn't much of a food spread, but my stomach wasn't really ready to eat much anyway. One of the best things was an ice bucket with wash cloths in it that you could put on your head to help cool down. (they had these out on the course at Mill Race, and they felt sooo good!) I found Molly who hadn't beaten Oprah, but still came in under 4:30 for a 20 minute PR!
Eventually I went to the car to get out of my shoes (swollen feet) and sweaty shirt. I still didn't feel that great and waited around for nearly an hour before getting in the car to start my trip back home. I did get to see some more people from my group come in and I got to see another 50-stater finish her 50 state journey.
Overall this was a nice race with a beautiful and mostly flat course. The race director was very engaged and truly wanted everyone to have a great experience. I don't really know if this is true and didn't try to confirm with anyone closer to the start line, but it actually sounded like he was the one who sang the national anthem. He also led out in an opening prayer that sounded very Psalm-like with some fun word changes that related more directly to running. Also, you can fearlessly sign up for this race because even if you need to drop out at a later date you can get a "no questions asked" full refund until very close to race day. The volunteers and support on the course were quite good with many more gels offered than had been promised. I would have liked more options in the finish line food spread (they had Oreos, Cliff bars, bananas, oranges and grapes) but there was plenty of it there. The weather was a bit warm for my preference, but it was actually the coolest and least humid year that they have had so far. I think the reason that I struggled as much as I did with the weather was just because I hadn't gotten acclimated yet this season. No regrets for choosing this as my race for Georgia!
