MisFitNation: Savannah: Rocking in the South

The drive was about 9 hours with four of us in the car. We dropped our four legged friends off at their hotel for the weekend and took off down the highway. The first four hours of the drive were in the rain in TN and north west Georgia. This Half-Marathon would be different. I was running with my wife Gwen and we had my Brother Tom, and our friends Nat and Jason running the race with us as well. As we got closer to Savannah the excitement started to rise a bit. I had not been to the city in over a year, and the last time was very busy with moving back to the states after a couple years abroad. We got in unpacked the car and ordered a pizza for dinner. We sat and talked about life, politics and of course football. Then it was planning time for the next day at the Expo.

We had to make logistical moves with two sets of people linking up at the event. After some debate were on our way to the Expo.

As we walk up to the outside we see the dodge test drive for charity. Although this means we will be waiting for a while it turns out perfect as the wait gives our friends who we had not seen in over 13 years a chance to get there. Then it was time to enter the oasis of the Expo. We got our numbers and our swag bags and of course played around inside while meeting new runners and checking out up coming races.

I made two stops by the Team Marathon booth. Both times I got to meet my team mates. On the first trip I met Jill who was about to do her first full on Saturday. We talked for a while about everything from fueling to upcoming races. On my second trip I met Gigi, we talked about what distances we were doing and took a couple photos. Then it was off to the house for dinner and relaxing for the early morning. Since transportation was going to be tricky with all the road closures we decided to leave at 530 am. Wow it was a cold morning. Lexie had the job of having our clothes and recovery drinks at the finish line so she could get some more sleep.

Then it was go time. 730AM the first runners in Coral 1 took off and about every minute and a half after that the next ones went. By 800AM we were off and heading down Bay St. The crowds were pretty deep as we took off and all the way to the overpass by the bridge. The Rock and Roll series ensures you have a good time while running as there were bands at every mile or so. This is very motivating and helps to keep you moving along.

At about mile 7 I ran into another of my teammates and running friend Tia Pettygrue. She was the Pace team leader for the 2:30 group and was leading her group along. She still had the time to take a photo of me while running, thanks Tia.

The crowds continued to be amazing right up until the finish. Cheerleaders from the local High Schools and bands were there to get us to the final turn. Once we were there we knew we had Gwen at her PR and we just rolled in at 2:12:50. This was almost three minutes off of Gwen's last race. Great work.

Over all we had a great weekend. I met a lot of team mates and have some good memories of it all.