Ran the inaugural Savannah R & R and it was the worst experience of my 21 marathons. I like Savannah however this marathon is organized and ran from San Diego making it a nightmare for runners to work with the organization. Savannah is NOT a city like the larger ones with a R & R marathon and cannot handle the numbers of people. Facts, packet pick up ended at 7PM on Friday night (had to be extended to 8PM because the directions to the packet pickup were horrible, put the runners on a 2 hour parking lot of traffic-unnecessary. No buddy pickup of packets with photostat ID. Race parking/shuttle from mall parking 35 min. Bus ride from start was so crowded that est. Over 2000 runners never made it to start line within 30 mins. Of race start. Course was run with 3-4 miles in slums, less than 2 miles in the nice part of downtown, then two legs on an interstate out and back totaling about 6 miles including 3.5 miles into the wind slightly uphill miles 21-24 until the last 2 miles turned off into the city park are to finish. 4 hairpin switchbacks on the course. Again, I've run 21 including 3 Marine Corps, this is by far the biggest rip off. Standing in the mall parking lot in 40 degree temps with 15 MPH winds for an hour? 2-3000 runners can stay downtown near start (number of close hotel rooms) if you make reservations 9 months ahead of time-i tried reservations 5 months out and was laughed at. What do the other 20,000 do? Stay miles away and sweat getting into a 'river blocked city' on one side, arrive an hour late at the start etc.

First of all, hats off to all of the volunteers. They made for a great race. Aid stations were well manned and well stocked. Plenty of water and Cytomax.

The course as good and well planned out. Flat course, except for that miles 20-24 were on a freeway and seemed to be all uphill (and that stiff head wind didn't help matters).

Nice hefty medal (like what you'd expect from a RnR marathon). The post race food and support was also adequate/sufficient. Personally I prefer smaller races for theirs post race support because they seem a little more personal. But it's hard to be personal with 23,000 runners.

My only complaint was that it was a bit of a pain getting to the expo. We sat in traffic for over an hour the final mile trying to get to the expo. I talked to others who used the ferry and they had similar comments.

I would have also like to have seen a different shirt for the marathon versus the half.

All in all, a well put together race. Good course, good fans, great volunteers.

It you are thinking of coming to run this race to see the beauty of the city, then think again! Most of the race runs through all the roads that cross a railway and if you do the full, you run about 5 miles on the freeway! And fit the expo!! We sat on the bridge for an hour, stood in line inside and then the same getting out!!!