I arrived on Friday in order to hit up the Health & Fitness Expo held in the Savannah Convention Center. Since our hotel was on Bay St. we only had to make a short walk down to the river and then take the free ferry across. FREE! Super convenient! The Expo is super well organized. You receive a link to your Bib number a few days before the event so you can walk right over to the correct area to get your bib. Or, there is also an app that you can get your information from. After getting your bib, you head over to get your shirt/shirts. You can switch out sizing if necessary, but mine were true to size. After you get your gear, you then enter the shopping/display section of the Expo. Lots of cool booths and displays to check out and the race merchandise is amazing. You also can get your wrist bands for beer so you don't have to mess around with them on race day and also check in for your VIP experience if you opted for it, or Run Club if you signed up as one like we did. Run the Rock ended up being the 3rd largest club in attendance which scored us some cool perks, extra beer tickets, 2 VIP passes and a free entry into a 2020 race for a member the group - we'll be doing a drawing for it, fingers crossed I score it!!

Saturday morning was race day for the Marathon and the Half Marathon. Since we were able to walk to the start this year, I got to sleep in a bit. Once we made it down the .25 miles to the start, everything was really well organized. The Waves were clearly marked and there was music playing to pump us up. Lots of port-a-potties on site, or several of the hotels had their lobbies open. The national anthem was sung a few minutes before the race start and then we headed into the corrals to take position.

The course is really awesome. You run through some really nice areas of Savannah including the beautiful historic district. The course is super flat with really only 2 hills that I can remember, near the start and finish, but they were super tame compared to what I am used to running. Spectators line the course and every 2 miles or so there is a band to keep you going. There are lots of aid stations with water and Gatorade Endurance and a few have SiS gels even, so if you don't want to carry at all during the race you don't have to. Especially near the end of race, there are spectators that give out beer, water and other beverages to help motivate. For example, my Russian friend had a Tequila shot at mile 11. And one of my friends thought he was grabbing a water and nope, it was Vodka! It was a surprise, but he did hit a new Half PR so...

So, how did I do? I am crazy excited to say that I shaved almost 9 whole minutes off my last year’s time for a 1:56:50 finish!!! I was pretty stunned actually when I crossed the finish! Months of hard work had paid off in a big way. It was so amazing. The whole walk down the finisher chute, I just kinda zoned out as people gave me a medal, took my picture and handed me drinks (water, Gatorade, chocolate milk and pineapple juice) and snacks (pretzels, trail mix and fruit cups). By the time I got out of the chute, I snapped back to reality and started looking for my friends to celebrate! We grabbed our free beers and rocked out to the band on the stage. Really awesome after party, one of the best I’ve been to in fact. It was an AMAZING race day.