The inaugural RnR Savannah was a very good race. Spectator support rivaled the Country Music Marathon.
This was my first visit to Savannah, and I loved it. Strong community interest in this race. For the most part, the course was scenic. Truman Parkway was a mentally tough section. A bit chilly at the start but good running weather.
This race has the potential to best of the Rock n Roll series. Definitely recommended.

I've heard it said that you should never enter an inaugural race and Rock-n-Roll Savannah proved that adage true.

If you want to get off to a bad start, begin by holding the expo for a Saturday race on an island with one road leading to the facility. Then require all 25,000 runners to personally appear to pick up their numbers. Most runners travel on Friday and cannot get to the expo until the late afternoon. It appear as though all the runners converged on the expo at the same time, creating gridlock on the one road into the site. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to travel the two miles from downtown Savannah to the expo. By the time we got there, the expo was closing down but the staff was kind enough to give us our race numbers before booting us out the door. (In all fairness to the race staff, they did keep packet pick-up open an hour longer than scheduled) In the future, the expo needs to be moved off the island or they need to plan to stay open much later on Friday night. Another option is that they could let runners pick up race packet for their friends rather than forcing all the runners to appear in person.

The Friday night activities were just the beginning of the nightmare. We stayed on Tybee Island and we paid $25 for a shuttle from the island to the race start. We were fortunate enough to get on the first bus, but there were not enough buses for all the people who paid for the shuttle and some had to drive themselves into Savannah even though they had paid for the shuttle.

Once we got to the start area, we got in line to use the rest room. There were plenty of port-a-potties set up, but close to 2/3s of them were still zip-tied shut and unusable.

The bag check, corrals, start, course, finish and post race activities were first rate. Rock-n-Roll always does a fantastic job with the race itself.

The fun continued after the race as we tried to get catch the shuttle back to Tybee Island. We picked up our gear and headed to the shuttle pick-up point, arriving about 15 minutes before the first shuttle was scheduled to depart for Tybee. Once we arrived we learned that the first shuttle would not be there until 10:30am, a half hour later than advertised. 10:30 came and went, but there was no shuttle. There were, however, plenty of shuttles to the mall where many of the runners had parked. The story we got from the shuttle staff was that they could only clear a certain number of shuttles into the race area at one time and the mall shuttles had gotten into line first and we had to wait for all of them to clear before any of the Tybee shuttles would be allowed in. Eventually, the staff did divert a mall shuttle to take people to Tybee, but we had waited in line for more than an hour for our ride back to the island.

The staff definitely needs to work on the logistics if they want people to participate in this race.

Let me leave one note about fan support. The people of Savannah are fantastic spectators! There were people spread out all along the course and they seemed to enjoy watch the race and much as we enjoyed running. What a great city for a race!

I have to say I was surprisingly disappointed in this event. It wasn't on par with other R&R events runners have come to know and love. Our shuttle got lost both to/from the race. The course did nothing to show off the best of Savannah, quite the opposite. The stretch on Truman Freeway was a disaster, desolate, hilly and extremely windy with no crowd support when needed most. The EXPO was also a logistics nightmare and wasn't able to handle the volume of traffic to get to the convention center. I'll certainly do other R&R events in the future, this however won't be one of them.

Ran the Savannah RnR on Saturday and true to Competitor events, it was fairly seamless...
Hit the expo early Friday morning, drove over the only bridge (and only vehicle way) to the convention center&.we hit it when it opened, so no issues with crowds&HOWEVER, by mid-afternoon, the wait on the bridge was bad, and got worse with runners sitting in traffic for hours just to pick up their numbers&the Competitor group did extend the hours of the expo to accommodate, but would have been stressful regardless&.the easiest, best way to get to the expo was taking the free ferry from downtown&sure, there were lines, but it moved much quicker.

Race morning we lined up for the free shuttles from the Savannah Mall&again, seamless, very well organized, though where the buses were picking folks up was never communicated&just had to drive around the mall and look for crowds¬ a big deal if one had enough time&the early birds definitely had an easier time of it. The return back to the mall was also fairly quick and well organized.

Support along the route was good, plenty of water/cytomax, GU at 2 spots, salt as well & crowd support was decent, it's no NYC, but the Savannahians really did show up and were very excited to have this race in their city.

The course itself however was sadly lacking&Savannah is a BEAUTIFUL city, but VERY little of this was highlighted as they ran us through industrial parks (what was that smell?), the projects, and a long lonely stretch on the highway!!! There were pockets of nice little neighborhoods but they were few and far between&the route was boring, depressing for the most part and every local I spoke with was surprised we were running in those areas at all&hopefully this will change for next year&maybe take a page from the Mardi Gras RnR (best RnR route ever) and improve the areas they have the runners visit.

This was my first RnR marathon and was surprised how well organized it was for a first year race. First of all, Savannah is a great city to hold such event and they did their best to make the runners feel welcome... it's been 20 years since I lived there and was treated wonderfully. Although the course was quite flat, there were some rolling hills on highway overpasses to negotiate and a stiff NW wind which slowed times considerably over the last several miles. I really enjoyed the crowd support within the city and the bands were a welcome distraction along the way. The expo was packed and had many vendors giving out free samples... on the other hand, the post-race food was quite sparse and a bit disappointing. I would suggest staying downtown because the course makes it nearly impossible to bring a vehicle anywhere close to the starting/finish line and it's a 30-50 minute shuttle ride from anywhere else. The Savannah mall shuttle is free but required a wait of over half an hour to return. All things considered, it's not surprising Savannah sold out and will probably do so again in the future.

Oversold event. Not able to get hotel near start or expo even 3 months in advance. Spent too much $$ on taxis back & forth from my airport hotel room. If i'd been able to stay downtown would've gone out for a nicer dinner after the race. Course was not too hilly. Lots of pretty parts w Spanish moss but large section on highway & run- down parts. Expo was awful. Poor access, no ingress & egress - could have been a big disaster in emergency.Rock roll co handed out their generic bags w no swag.

This was my 4th RnR race (128th marathon overall) and they still don't get how to put together a race course. Once again, as with LV last year, they insert a number of 180 turn arounds for the marathon. Unfortunately, I registered for another RnR race next year, but it will likely be my last, unless they start designing marathon courses, and add in a 1/2 marathon; not designing a 1/2 marathon course and adding on another 1/2 for a marathon. This course had a lot of industrial sections to run through and then about 5 miles on highways, including 4 of the last 6 miles into a wind tunnel.

Some positives include Great Volunteers!! You guys & gals were great! The water stations had plenty of fluids and the volunteers knew how to hold the cups.

The other positive was the local crowd support. They were also great!!

One other positive I would be remiss at not mentioning that the organizers got right is that when the 1/2 marathon and marathons merge back together at mile 24/11, they keep the two races separated until the finish. Hats off for that logistical success!! It was one of few.

The race shirt was o.k. although I was given a medium despite registering for a large. They don't allow shirt size changes at the expo, despite their error. That was stupid.

Speaking of the expo, the only way to get to the Savannah convention center is to cross the only bridge to the island it's on. That caused MAJOR traffic issues. Not a good place to host the Expo.

Didn't stick around for the post race entertainment as honestly I just wanted to get back to my hotel and sleep since I had to get to the race start 2 1/2 hours early just to get a parking spot.

Speaking of the finish, it was about a mile & a half from the start. And there were no shuttles from the finish back to downtown. At least I didn't see any. They need to move the start and finish closer together to avoid that.

The finisher's medal was o.k. It depicts a famous fountain in Savannah, yet not once during the race do you actually see the fountain.

Overall, if you want to run an RnR marathon, I would skip this one. Savannah isn't much to see other than a quaint 6 x 6 block area in downtown and you only see that at the start when it's pitch black. The local infrastructure can't support a race this size and if they try to grow it, people will just get more frustrated. They would be better off just doing a marathon and eliminate the 1/2.

Lots of problems at this 'inaugural' Rock n Roll race. It began with the fiasco of trying to get into the Expo. The police and outside staff were completely overwhelmed with the traffic which stretched in gridlock over the island bridge. They eventually parked us in a grass field well away from the Convention Center. Inside went like clockwork however. The course was, well, not scenic at all. They ran the full and half marathon folks through the 'hood' and next to a garbage truck depot. Then the full marathon folks got routed on a long deserted section of highway- Yuk! I expected to see at least some of 'historic' Savannah along the way- Not! Guess the 'historic Savannah' coalition squashed that idea huh? A couple of the bands I passed belted out some good music. Most were just local mediocre musicians trying to appease the runners. I will say the neighborhood crowds were supportive and cheery. Plus there was an over abundance of medical support and plenty of port-a-pottys the entire course. But I heard so many runners say they would never come back and I agree. I never ran a Rock n Roll marathon before and expected better. Savannah needs to get their act together next year or maybe even consider making this a 1/2 marathon only city. It definitely can't support a full marathon. BTW, did I mention they ran us along a desolate section of highway?

This was my first Rock 'n Roll race and it was decent overall but clearly some first time mistakes. Transportation was a problem as we had to park at a mall and catch a bus to the start. The bus drivers were not from the area and the directions they had did not get us to the start. We had to tell the driver to just let us off so we could get to the start on our own. The shirts were nice and the expo was well organized. I liked the corral start and one-minute intervals between releasing each group. The course was flat but some of the neighborhoods were not the most scenic and several miles of the full marathon were run on a closed parkway, with more concrete being the only thing to focus on. Food at the finish could be better as there were only bananas, fruit cups (with no spoons) and mini-bagels in addition to water and Cytomax. Music and fan support on the course were good as many local residents watched and cheered runners from their homes.

Visiting Savannah for the first time, I was excited to see the picturesque and historic blocks it is famed for. And I did  afterwards. Most of the 26 miles (21-ish) took runners through a range of sad environs  industrial, foreclosed, and in a major no-no for so late in the race, along a windswept highway from Miles 20-24. What possible reason could there be for failing to showcase such gorgeous tree-lined architecture? I can only figure the city refused to give permission to the inaugural marathon to run too heavily through the best, historically landmarked part of the city.

And while the volunteers and staff were great, logistical and traffic issues made the expo and day-of shuttles 90 minute-plus nightmares. Hopefully Year 2 will improve enough to honor such a wonderful, friendly, delicious-tasting city.