Thursday, November 16, 2017

Savannah Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon

Disclosure: As a member of the 2017 #RockNBlog team, I was provided with a complimentary 2017 Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series Global Tour Pass.  This provides me with entry to their race series, however no other compensation was provided and all travel and other expenditures are paid for by me.  As always, all thoughts are strictly my own.



I ran the Savannah RNR Half Marathon on November 4, 2017 for the first time.  I had never been to Savannah however I know from previous RNR races that they have the best expos along with being the best races to attend.  The top five reasons why Savannah RNR rocks are:

  1. Expo:  Savannah International Trade and Convention Center is located on Hutchinson’s Island across from Historic Downtown Savannah.  It is a beautiful location on the river and easily accessible by car and ferry.  The RNR expos are one of the best race expos-easy to navigate layout for packet pick-up along with vendors add up to tons of fun!  
I love all the picture opportunities available and the opportunity to visit the official RocknRoll partners.

2.  Food:  Savannah is known for its restaurants and food vendors.  A foodie heaven! One of the best things about the Savannah is the expo location allowing you to catch a ferry across the river to historic downtown Savannah. There are tons of restaurants along the riverfront and downtown.   I had dinner at Treylor Park Savannah trying their famous Peach Pit drink and Grilled Apple Pie Sandwich.  Can you say delish?  
And, no trip would be complete without visiting the famous Leopold's ice cream shoppe.  Their motto is “Good things to eat, good things to drink”.  There is always a line but don’t let that stop you from going there!  It is decorated as an old fashioned ice cream shop and with flavors like coconut, chocolate chewies and cream, tutti frutti and honey almond and cream (just to name a few)-you can’t go wrong!  I had the coconut ice cream with a sugar cone.  Amazing!

3.  Crowd Support/Bands/Pirates:  The Savannah RNR race starts downtown, crossing a bridge into an older neighborhood.  The crowd support was wonderful; seeing people out in the early morning cheering for runners.  While most races have good crowd support, I felt that Savannah neighborhoods were one of the best for runners.  The bands were amazing through the race-playing upbeat music with the neighborhood people dancing along to the beat.  This was wonderful to see while holding signs, cheering us and congratulating us for being there!
   

The Savannah RNR even hosts pirates!

But the best was Mile 11-BEER!  There was a beer tent for runners and after grabbing beer around the corner was an inflatable dragon.  
   

I have to admit that I loved Mile 12-it was the one mile house!  The people who lived there figure out that it was one mile to the finish line playing the theme song to Rocky and signs in their yard!

4.  Savannah beauty:  Savannah is a beautiful city with the architecture, gardens and parks, river and neighborhoods.  The race course takes you through Savannah to enjoy the city’s beauty.  Running past the parks, houses and sites such as the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and the birthplace and childhood home of the Girl Scouts Founder, Juliette Gordon Home.  



5.   Forysyth Park:  The race ends in beautiful Forysyth Park.  It is the largest park in historic Savannah and boasts some 30 acres of park land.  Arranged with a beautiful fountain and monuments, the runners village added a welcome addition to the scenery.


The RNR runner’s village didn’t disappoint with beer, merchandise tents, the VIP area and of course, the headliner band,  Fitz and the Tantrums.  A beautiful setting with amazing RNR with a cold beer and medal-what could be better!  Life is tremendous in Forysyth Park!
RNR Savannah was a weekend of memories with amazing new friends, beautiful location and
fabulous food!  RNR Savannah is rockin’ life at its best!
   
This was such a fun race and I will definitely be racing next year in Savannah's RNR along with hoping to spend more time in the city.  Thank you to all the volunteers, first responders, others and the people of Savannah  who helped make this race so memorable for me!  

Till next time and remember, my journey continues...If you can dream it, you can do it as Walt Disney said!

1 comment:

  1. Looks like an awesome place to run — and eat! And I love Fitz and the Tantrums!

    ReplyDelete

If you would like a response to your comment, please provide an email address and I would be happy to respond. Thank you.

#RIOTS Week Six and Seven

It's weeks six and seven for the #RIOTS.  I got a week behind as I had a lot of personal things going on these last two weeks. I ha...