I've done a few Rock N Roll races, but always outside of the south as a destination race. This was my first time doing a race more than 10 miles in Georgia and my first half marathon in a few years. I trained a long time for this, but never got more than 8 or 9 miles in my training but figured i had my pace set so it wouldn't be too difficult to reach a half marathon distance with that pace.
The Expo: The bib and tshirt pickup was super smooth and well organized, all you needed to know was your pickup number. After that was the RocknRoll/Brooks area, which was full of shirts, shorts, and Brooks foot testing area were they would test out your running and email you the results. Lots of great Brooks gear as well as Boco hats and visors.
The next section were all the various vendors, since this rocknroll race is smaller than the Las Vegas race, which I've done before, there were less vendors and less major vendors. There were a surplus of local or small brand vendors. They did have a huge area for future RocknRoll race signups with tons of medals and locations to checkout. This included huge discount for the Savannah race next year. These are really good deals if you can plan a year out and want to try the same, different, or multiple races next year, the sales are pretty amazing.
The race: Hills? Not so much, there is a rather long incline in the beginning and a few small ones later but over all there are not a lot of hills in this mostly flatish course. The course is 90% paved...and 10% cobble stone so be ready for that and slow down some so you dont get your foot caught and trip. Pacing is everything and the other thing is temperatures. The weather was almost perfect, overcast for most of the race and it stayed a little too cool to stand around but perfect for running for hours. The sun came out towards the last 3 miles and really heated things up.
The Finish area: Unlike past RockNRoll races i've done, they concert was after the race instead of preRace. Lots of food and water was handed out at the end, the only thing i wish was given was a plastic bag. i had so many drinks i had to sit down an give some away. The shuttles to and from the race were easy to find, but no one was checking for tickets so i feel like i lost money for something that i could have just jumped on for free.
Overall: This is a great race for runners of all experience levels. The difficulty isnt that bad, and you can slow down easily to enjoy the sites or take photos. Make sure to stick around sunday for the 5k or 1mile for an easy way to earn 2 or even 3 more medals!