This race came into fruition sometime in mid July. I had e-mailed Ben since we talked about a fall marathon. I sent over a list of races that made sense for me and we narrowed it down to Savannah. I wanted to tick off a state that I had not done and I wanted it to be in the south were the weather was likely warmer. I didn't have any expectations as I had IMMD on Oct 3rd (later pushed to Oct 17th) and Manchester City marathon the week prior. I was just hoping to carry my fitness over and tick off another state.
Fast forward to mid Oct. It was the Saturday before Savannah marathon and the night prior to Manchester City marathon. I realized I had missed the bib pickup and ultimately decided to not race Manchester City marathon. Instead I drove to Stow and "helped" my friend Kendra with her morning workout. Quotes because she was in her final build for IMCoz and pretty much paced me for 10 miles. It was my 3rd run after IMMD the first two were 30 min (3 miles or under) treadmill runs and I had thought my legs were back, until mile 5. Things tightened up and by mile 10 I realized my legs were not back yet. That Tuesday night I opted to run 30 mins on the treadmill prior to climbing and for the first time I was able to put down some speed without feeling any big aches. Thursday came and I opted to have a few beers at home instead of workout. I had planned to get a short morning run on Friday morning prior to my flight, but I overslept my alarm and hurried to get things packed and head to the airport.
My flight was ok, I ended up sitting next to this lady who had her 2 kids across the isle. She was a cardiologist who worked in Boston and was flying to Savannah. She had originally planned to run, but sprained her ankle and decided to go down anyways to visit her father. She was a nice lady, but had a lot to talk about. I mostly hated the kind of parent she was, you know the type that asks the kids what they want nonstop. There is only so many times that you call out your boys name before you need to realize that 1) he has headphones on and 2) he has totally tuned you out. Anyways, she was a nice lady, I was just hoping for a little rest on the plane. I hope she gets that foot taken care of and comes back strong next year to run Boston and Savannah as well.
I landed in Hilton Head airport pretty early. I got in touch with Ben and after about an hour of phone tag and figuring things out I decided to take a cab to the hotel to check us in and just get ready. This will be the last cab that I ride voluntarily. I was going to order an uber, but decided to support the cabbies in the area, never again. The cabby looked unhappy to take my to my location, no hello, no how was your flight. I got a "where you going" and that was that. When we arrived at the hotel the meter showed 15.74. While he was struggling to unlock his phone and attach the square cc reader the meter jumped to 16.08. I gave him my card and I watched him punch 18 dollars onto his phone and swipe my card. He then handed the phone to me to sign and had this look on his face when I chose the no tip option. Cabbies wonder why people don't use them anymore. Lets see, uber offers better rides, nicer drivers and they don't tip themselves. Needless to say, we took about 10 rides over the next 2 days, all uber rides, oftentimes there were cabs in front of us and we pulled out our phones right in front of them to wait for an uber. Ok ok, you're here for a race report, not a rant about cabbies.
After checking in and settling a bit, I called an Uber which promptly took me downtown where I met up with Ben and we took the ferry across the river and picked up our bibs. The ferry ride was nice, it was free and it gave us a different vantage point of the city. Downtown Savannah is very similar to Charleston, SC. Maybe a little dirtier.
We decided to sit outside and wait for Brian outside. We laid on the grass by the river and took in the last hour of the day. The sun literally set on our ferry ride back, it was pretty cool.
After dinner we did a little more walking and found a cool little bee shop. I picked up a few products while Brian picked up some royal jelly. I had never had it before, neither had Ben. We're both adventurous eaters so we said yes when Brian offered. I thought the flavor was interesting, there is not much that grosses me out in terms of edible foods. I can't say it was a flavor I enjoyed, but it didn't bother me. I knew it was good for me so I didn't mind it. Ben on the other hand, didn't fair as well. I can't remember exactly how he described it, but it was something along the lines of "the most foul thing I've ever had". I laughed, a lot, for a long time.
We got back to the hotel and began prepping for the morning. I set the alarm at 4:40 so we could eat and take the free shuttle down to the race start. I woke up first and then woke the boys up. Breakfast at the hotel was pretty weak. The coffee, which came out of an automated machine, was the worst coffee I have ever had in my life. It helped me get my 2nd poop of the morning, which I was proud of and made me feel ready for the race. That morning the 3 of us piled into a minivan with 3 others. The lady in the front was complaining about the RnR marathon in New Orleans last year. She was complaining about how there was not enough water, this and that. Lady, do a race in Mexico, you'll never complain about races again. At IMCoz in 2013, volunteers peaced out when it rained, lol.
After a little road blockage snafu, we found our way to about 5 blocks from the race start. As we walked, Ben retold the story of how he shat himself at the BAA Half. I laughed so hard I likely would have shat myself if I hadn't gone twice already. You plan for these races and always imagine something along the race will be the most memorable. I can say without a doubt, the 3 of us laughing our asses off (pun intended?) walking to the race start was the most memorable moment of this trip. Typical right? Poop story....
We hung at the Hyatt hotel whilst waiting for the race to start, I got my 3rd pre race poop in, hooray. By 6:40 we decided it was a good time to head out. Brian jumped in at corral 1 while Ben and I scurried to the bag check. We hadn't realized how far back it was so it was a bit of a scramble. We worked our way back to the start line and entered corral 3. After about 10 minutes I realized we were in corral 3 of the half marathon start and corral 3 of the marathon start was another 20 yards up. We decided it wasn't worth pushing past people and stayed where we were. It was a cloudy, foggy morning. You could feel the humidity, it was high, but not too bad. The temperature didn't feel bad either, felt like mid 60's. Ironically the race director sent out an e-mail the night prior regarding the heat. I thought it was cute, seriously? 80 degrees with 80% humidity warrants a warning? I've raced ironmans in warmer weather.
The race was late to start, I believe 10 minutes. The first few miles were slow. I was trying to be conscious of my pace as I knew my legs were not fully recovered from IMMD. I decided to hold an 8:30-8:40 pace. It was hard, a few times I got caught up with folks and my pace quickened to the low 7's. It's always hard when you see people who you know are slowing blow by you as if you're standing still. Not meaning that I don't want them running faster than me, but you think you're running too slow when you see folks crush by you, so you speed up, only to check your watch and realize you need to slow down. I can't say I like races that mix the marathon and the half marathon start together. 40k people is too intense. I couldn't believe the people crushing by me the first mile. By the time mile 2 came around there was a slight uphill and by uphill, I mean a bridge. I noticed my HR was a bit high so I scaled back the pace but was still passing folks that burned too many matches the first 2 miles. I kept steady and saw Ben out of the corner of my eye a few times. By mile 4 I lost him and just focused on myself. I had to pee but was hoping to just hold it off, by mile 6 I knew I had to hit a port a potty. I made a quick stop that took about 34 seconds. By this time I was running next to a girl who had a really good pace. She was holding 8:35's very consistently. I pushed the pace a bit in order to catch up with her, which I did. I hung with her for a little until I realized the soreness I felt at mile 5 wasn't going away, nor was it getting worse. She fell off her pace and I never saw her again. When I hit mile 10 I pretty much felt exactly how I felt after running with Kendra. I was pretty worried, 16 miles to go, I'm running 15 seconds slower than I was 6 days ago and it's only getting warmer out. Crap!
At mile 9.5(ish) the race split (THANK GOD!) the half marathoners went right, the full went left. There was an immediate water stop and like all stops I dumped 2-3 cups of water on myself, had some gatorade then rinsed with water. The girl next to me was running an 8:30 pace (ish) so I pulled up next to her and we ran side by side for a good half mile before I decided to talk to her. We spoke about the "lonely" part of the race, but both agreed how much nicer it was having the half folks out of the way. I found it was her 2nd marathon and she was trying to BQ. She needed a 3:35. I told her she was slightly off pace. She told me she intended to pick things up at mile 13. I offered her the advice that she should wait until mile 16, I felt with the heat, 13 might be too soon. She opted to take my advice. I told her I would do my best to pace her to a BQ and that I would tell her when I could no longer hang on. Next thing I know we were running low 7's. The stretch of the highway was nice, long stretch, really allowed you to get in the zone. I kept staring at my watch and kept us under 8:40, trying to hold 8:35's best we could. At around mile 14 I decided to pick up the pace a little bit to 8:25's. I knew in order for her to BQ she had to stop bleeding time. When I looked back I saw that she was about 30 yards back. I thought about slowing down to link up with her, but decided that it was better for me to hold the pace and make her work back up to me. It never happened, a mile later I saw she was further back. There were 2 guys that were playing yoyo with me. Both guys very energetic, slapping hands of supporters, making jokes, goofing, just having a grand time. I was so jealous. I was running on fumes, my calves were sore. GAH, some people are just so fast! At around mile 16 I saw Brian run by. He was maybe 10 yards behind the first place female and he was in 6th overall. He looked ok, his shirt was off and he didn't offer me any words, we fist bumped. I felt inspired. I decided that mile 16 was where I was going to put down my best work. 10 miles. Anyone can suffer for 10 miles. About 4 minutes went by and my shirt came off. I tucked it into my tri shorts. I caught one of the guys that I was playing yoyo with. We ran side by side and had some good conversations for about 2 miles. His buddy John then ran past us and stayed about 25 yards ahead. Mile 18 came and about 2 minutes later I decided I wanted to lift the pace and just put some energy out. I caught John within 45 seconds and decided to just keep pushing. I worked up to mile 21ish and all of a sudden I saw a TON of runners ahead of me. I knew I was in good position, likely top 160ish. But all of a sudden there were hundreds of people in front of me, with bib numbers in the 5 digits. Something was off, people were complaining, people were on their cell phones off the side of the roads. I caught wind that they were calling the race because it was too hot. I was glad that I made the cutoff (or so I thought). By the time mile 22 came around there were thousands of runners in front of me. They were turning folks back at 3 points of the race, then the half marathoners merged in with us again. I was looking for mile markers and didn't see 23, something felt off. The race marker said 24, but my watch said 22.XX. I caught up to a guy with a lower bib number than myself. I asked him if the race was accurate, he looked at his garmin and said yes. I just assumed that my garmin was messed up. I kept pushing the pace, feeling good, but frustrated that I had to cut in and out of all the folks that simply gave up and were walking on the course. I crossed the line at 3:25:26, my garmin showed 24.7. I was pretty stoked, I thought I had set a huge PR, but in the back of my mind I was slightly nervous. I knew my first half was too slow, I ran a conservative 1:49(ish) so I knew I had a monster negative split. Regardless, I worked my way over to the meetup point and stretched etc until Brian showed up. We chatted a bit and about an hour later, found Ben, took some photos and headed back to the hotel.
At mile 9.5(ish) the race split (THANK GOD!) the half marathoners went right, the full went left. There was an immediate water stop and like all stops I dumped 2-3 cups of water on myself, had some gatorade then rinsed with water. The girl next to me was running an 8:30 pace (ish) so I pulled up next to her and we ran side by side for a good half mile before I decided to talk to her. We spoke about the "lonely" part of the race, but both agreed how much nicer it was having the half folks out of the way. I found it was her 2nd marathon and she was trying to BQ. She needed a 3:35. I told her she was slightly off pace. She told me she intended to pick things up at mile 13. I offered her the advice that she should wait until mile 16, I felt with the heat, 13 might be too soon. She opted to take my advice. I told her I would do my best to pace her to a BQ and that I would tell her when I could no longer hang on. Next thing I know we were running low 7's. The stretch of the highway was nice, long stretch, really allowed you to get in the zone. I kept staring at my watch and kept us under 8:40, trying to hold 8:35's best we could. At around mile 14 I decided to pick up the pace a little bit to 8:25's. I knew in order for her to BQ she had to stop bleeding time. When I looked back I saw that she was about 30 yards back. I thought about slowing down to link up with her, but decided that it was better for me to hold the pace and make her work back up to me. It never happened, a mile later I saw she was further back. There were 2 guys that were playing yoyo with me. Both guys very energetic, slapping hands of supporters, making jokes, goofing, just having a grand time. I was so jealous. I was running on fumes, my calves were sore. GAH, some people are just so fast! At around mile 16 I saw Brian run by. He was maybe 10 yards behind the first place female and he was in 6th overall. He looked ok, his shirt was off and he didn't offer me any words, we fist bumped. I felt inspired. I decided that mile 16 was where I was going to put down my best work. 10 miles. Anyone can suffer for 10 miles. About 4 minutes went by and my shirt came off. I tucked it into my tri shorts. I caught one of the guys that I was playing yoyo with. We ran side by side and had some good conversations for about 2 miles. His buddy John then ran past us and stayed about 25 yards ahead. Mile 18 came and about 2 minutes later I decided I wanted to lift the pace and just put some energy out. I caught John within 45 seconds and decided to just keep pushing. I worked up to mile 21ish and all of a sudden I saw a TON of runners ahead of me. I knew I was in good position, likely top 160ish. But all of a sudden there were hundreds of people in front of me, with bib numbers in the 5 digits. Something was off, people were complaining, people were on their cell phones off the side of the roads. I caught wind that they were calling the race because it was too hot. I was glad that I made the cutoff (or so I thought). By the time mile 22 came around there were thousands of runners in front of me. They were turning folks back at 3 points of the race, then the half marathoners merged in with us again. I was looking for mile markers and didn't see 23, something felt off. The race marker said 24, but my watch said 22.XX. I caught up to a guy with a lower bib number than myself. I asked him if the race was accurate, he looked at his garmin and said yes. I just assumed that my garmin was messed up. I kept pushing the pace, feeling good, but frustrated that I had to cut in and out of all the folks that simply gave up and were walking on the course. I crossed the line at 3:25:26, my garmin showed 24.7. I was pretty stoked, I thought I had set a huge PR, but in the back of my mind I was slightly nervous. I knew my first half was too slow, I ran a conservative 1:49(ish) so I knew I had a monster negative split. Regardless, I worked my way over to the meetup point and stretched etc until Brian showed up. We chatted a bit and about an hour later, found Ben, took some photos and headed back to the hotel.
We all felt pretty trashed, so we opted to take a photo with the trash can, or what was left of it. Brian and I hit the pool to swim a bit and loosen up. Afterwards we checked up on Ben, who was alive and well. After showering I caught up a bit with my friend Jess who ran the half and we headed out into town. We ended up at Vinny Van Go Go's for pizza and beers, then spent the rest of the night around town exploring and wrapping up the night at a dueling piano bar.
On the plane I sat next to a guy who was slightly ahead of me at the race until mile 22ish. He told me he was the first guy to miss the cutoff, resulting in a 24.7 mile race. That's when I realized that I had not completed the whole course. Pretty bummed. I'm more annoyed than anything. I really don't understand what cutting 1 mile off does. In the end, with 40k people racing the race director has to do what makes sense for them. Just because I know how to properly pace and keep properly hydrated doesn't mean that the race should go on just for me.
I'm very happy to say that my racing season is finally over. Looking at my pace, how I felt and how many miles were left, I still would have set a PR if they didn't cut off 1.5 miles of the course. 3 weeks after my ironman PR too!
What's next? Rest and relaxation... HAHA, JUST KIDDING! I think it's time to focus other aspects of life for a bit. I want to not lose too much fitness this offseason, get stronger at the rock gym and really hit some ice climbing goals, catching up on a bunch of books I want to read and really improving my skills in the kitchen!
I'm very happy to say that my racing season is finally over. Looking at my pace, how I felt and how many miles were left, I still would have set a PR if they didn't cut off 1.5 miles of the course. 3 weeks after my ironman PR too!
What's next? Rest and relaxation... HAHA, JUST KIDDING! I think it's time to focus other aspects of life for a bit. I want to not lose too much fitness this offseason, get stronger at the rock gym and really hit some ice climbing goals, catching up on a bunch of books I want to read and really improving my skills in the kitchen!
