Rock N Roll Savannah Half Marathon 11/9/13

About 2 months after I started trying to become a runner, the inaugural Rock N Roll Savannah Marathon was held in November 2011.  One of the local TV stations covered the race on-air and live streamed on-line.  That day I sat and watched hours of on-line coverage thinking I’ll never be able to do that.  Fast forward to November 9, 2013…I DID IT, I ran my first half marathon – the 2013 Rock N Roll Savannah Half Marathon! 

I arrived at the Savannah International Trade Center for parking at 4:25am (I hate to be late).  They offered free parking and water shuttle service across the river right at the starting area.  I quickly found my starting corral area and then just walked around trying to stay warm.  As early as I was I was among a crowd at 5:15am waiting for the gear check to open.  I was hydrated to near saturation from the past few days and started a series of trips to the porta-johns.  Time flew by to start time. 

The race started promptly at 7am with the elite runners in corral 1.  As you may have guessed, that group didn’t include yours truly.  My start corral was 15 based on my estimated finish of 2:30.  When we took off all I could think of was the progress I have made in 2 years and the fact that I had self-committed to do this for TJ (my son that has Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair). 

Mile 1 felt amazing and was done in 11:20 so I’m right on schedule.  I hit the 5K point at 35 minutes and was feeling really good about my run, other than the fact that my Garmin froze at 3.08 miles.  My watch will do this occasionally, usually at the worst times.  I knew I hit the first mile clock time at about 30 minutes so I knew I could subtract about 18 from the clocks and know how I was doing.

At the 10K point I was feeling very good about my race.  I had the 2:30 pacer about 200 yards behind me and I felt like I was cruising.  I learned something really interesting at this point of the race too.  There was a water/Gatorade station at this point.  I’ve never run a race where Gatorade was offered during the race and was amazed at how long it takes to run all of that sticky off the bottoms of your shoes after passing through these areas!

Somewhere between miles 9 and 10 is where the wheels started falling off my bus.  I started getting a muscle cramp in the middle of my back.  My split at 10 miles was 2:04 so I was still somewhat near my goal finish time.  At about the 10.5 mile mark the cramp was getting BAD so I started walking.  I walked for about a mile and it seemed to go away.  I started back running within sight of the 12 mile sign but could tell immediately it wasn’t going to be comfortable.  The last probably 1.3 miles seemed to take forever with the bright spot being when we made the last turn and could see the finish line.  I sprinted the best I could to the finish.  Crossing that finish line was a huge accomplishment for me physically and emotionally, thinking of my little buddy.  My finish time was 2:50:54.  While I was somewhat disappointed with the time, I’m happy beyond belief by the fact that I can say I ran a half marathon!

Just for this race, I had a “Team TJ” shirt made.  On the front it has “Team TJ” in large print and on the back it has “Running for TJ…because he can’t” with his picture on it in the center.  All through the race I would hear “Go Team TJ” from the spectators and I can’t even guess how many runners would comment during the race that they loved my shirt.  All of the positive comments made me realize how just meaningful this accomplishment is. 

Things I learned from this experience include: I didn’t train well enough in my opinion, I need to do some core strengthening exercises to alleviate the back cramps, Gatorade makes the street super sticky, and it’s amazing how hard you are willing to work to do something to honor someone that can’t do it for themselves.

A sad note from the race, a 35 year old male runner collapsed at the finish line after completing the full marathon.  Unfortunately they were unable to revive him.  My heart goes out to his family.

As for the people of Savannah…the City of Savannah encouraged the different neighborhood associations along the route to decorate and cheer the runners as a part of a contest.  I think there were 5 different areas that we passed through and the citizens were amazing.  One of the areas was obviously not as well off as most of the others but these folks were awesome!  I’d like to say thank you to all of the citizens that were supportive to the runners and inconvenienced by road closures for this event. 

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to run this race in 2014 due to a far more important race commitment in Northwest Alabama.  I will be doing the RnR Savannah in 2015 and beyond!

Will I train harder and continue to run in half marathon distance races?  YES!

The race swag shirt is a Brooks shirt!  This is by far the nicest tech shirt I now own!

...and the finisher medal that I'm far more proud of than the two 5K AG medals I have!

Thanks for taking the time to read my report!!

Way to go, Robert!  Congratulations on completing your first HM!  Sorry about the back problems though.  That had to be frustrating.  Terrible news about the 35 year old runner too.

I like your spirit though...already looking ahead to your next one!

Great job!  Congratulations!

Very sad about that runner.

Congratulations Robert!  Awesome feat.  Coincidentally, I was in Savannah early Saturday morning for a college visit for my youngest son  and  while I was watching the local news which showed reporters near the start, I wondered whether you or Kara were running in the race.  I had explained to my DW about you running for TJ.

Loved your photo and the shirt which you made honoring TJ.

Congrats on the first of many more halves. You and your family are an inspiration. I can't wait to meet you all.

Congratulations on all the accomplishments this race has been for you.

Congrats on your first HM Robert! Love the Team TJ shirt, he's so lucky to have such a great dad

Definitely start incorporating some core work, after you do that consistently for a while I'll bet the back pain will be a thing of the past. I don't do anything core-specific, but my non-running workouts (lifting weights) engage a lot of core muscles and I feel like a much stronger runner for it - last fall my back would start to get sore on anything longer than 4 miles or so, but I haven't experienced that at all this year.