Monday, November 7, 2011

Getting ready for Rock-N-Roll Savannah

We decided to leave for Savannah around 9 am on Friday to avoid new Atl traffic from the Peach Pass garbage.  Crissy and Jay came to pick us up (so Jon could haul his bike on their bike rack)

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and we headed to 985 to meet Laura & her mom. 

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Off to Savannah we went!!

After a couple (okay, more like 5) pee breaks (hey, we were running a marathon the next day and HAD to properly hydrate!)….

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{Check out the Garmin….I snapped a shot when we were 26.2 miles from the convention center to see how far it felt in a car!}Marathon 018

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{Don’t be jealous of my hot hubby!!}

…we finally arrived in Sav and headed straight to the convention center to pick up our race packets.

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Traffic was NUTS at the expo.  There were around 23,000 people running this race (definitely the biggest race I’ve ever been a part of!) which meant a MEGA packed out expo. We all picked up our numbers and t-shirts, and I changed my corral from 13 to 10 so I could start earlier.  We got our goodies, checked out the expo, bought shirts, and headed back toward town to get our carb-loaded dinner early. (Runner tip: you want to begin carb-loading several days before the race, and eat dinner early enough the night before to allow your body to digest before the race the next morning!) 

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A friend of ours who is from Savannah told us her church was hosting a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for the runners, but we missed a turn and ended up at a non-crowded Mellow Mushroom. Jackpot!!

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After dinner we headed to our room to check in, have our final pre-race meeting to discuss details, and lay out all our "stuff” for the next morning.  I totally should have taken a picture of all my junk.  Honestly, I had NO idea how much goes into planning for something like this.  I don’t have a picture, but for anyone who cares, here is what I had laid out:

breakfast (PB & banana sandwich on wheat) & bottle of water, fuel belt with 2 water bottles, 2 packs of Clif Shot blocks, a Clif Bar & granola bar (all of which I stored in my fuel belt and sports bra- gotta do what ya gotta do when you’re running for over 4 hours!), inhaler, sweat rag, cash for shuttle ticket, deodorant, sunblock, Body Glide (to prevent chaffing), headband, hairband, i=pod, running tights, long sleeve tee, short sleeve tee with race number pinned on, 2 sports bras, socks, tennis shoes w tracking device, sunglasses, ibuprofen, & throwaway clothes (pair of pants & sweater to wear over running clothes because it was FREEZING. they donate the clothes to the homeless when you throw them off)

Yes, it was stressful making sure I packed all that, along with normal clothes, bathroom stuff, snacks, camera, phone charger, confirmation sheets, directions, race information, stuff for Jonathan, his bike, etc.  I really thought people just went out there and ran…..and boy was I wrong. There is a whole science behind all of this….it’s a CRAZY amount of preparation physically and mentally.  I even studied the course and planned out my fueling for along the race (I’ll include that in my race recap!).

I was hoping to be in bed BY 10 pm with plans to wake up at 5:00 am.  The race officially started at 7:30, so we had to catch our shuttle to the start line at 5:45.  Jonathan and Jay brought their bikes to ride along various points of the course and check on us.  They were riding bikes in the parking lot around 9 pm (while we had our pre-race strategy meeting) to make sure Jon’s new tire was working. When Big Jon decided to do a wheelie, he BUSTED his brand new tire. He and Jay went to Wal-Mart and AutoZone to get it fixed, so Jon got back in the room around 10.  After having to nicely let him know it was not okay to watch t.v. or eat pistachios (they were shelled…..I wouldn’t have cared if he didn’t have to CRACK them! haha!) at 10 pm while I was trying to get some good rest for the big race, I think I finally sacked out about 10:15.

Ahhhhhh, get excited!!! RACE RECAP coming up next!! (Seriously, haven’t you been on the edge of your seat for 18 weeks waiting to hear the turnout?!?! No? Just me and my mom, huh? Okay…well check back later anyway for some sweet pics!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How exciting. I would love to do a race but am not much of a runner. Can't wait to hear about the re-cap. Thanks for sharing.

Maggie said...

sounds so exciting! you go girl!!