calendar icon Nov 16, 2024

Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon Runner Comments

Back to Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon Information & Reviews

Course Rating Course 3.0 
 
Oranization Rating Organization 3.1 
 
Spectator Rating Spectators 3.7 
 
 
Number of comments: 66 [displaying comments 1 to 11]
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N. D. from Baltimore County, Maryland (11/3/2018)
"happiness" (about: 2018)

11-50 previous marathons | 1 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon
COURSE: 2  ORGANIZATION: 4  FANS: 5


I didn't want to run RNR marathons because of the cost and the hype. I stand corrected. Savannah RNR Marathon was perfect. Perfect. From the local residents out in force, to the bands that stayed for us back-of-the-pack runners, to the first aid stations and volunteers at the water stops, RNR delivered. Highly recommended.

 

Jim Gullo from Williamsburg , VA (11/8/2017)
"Beautiful City for half, no so for Full" (about: 2017)

11-50 previous marathons | 1 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon
COURSE: 2  ORGANIZATION: 5  FANS: 3


This was my 16th marathon and third this year with temperatures reaching the 80 degree mark.

The first section on the marathon goes through beautiful downtown Savannah. It should be noted there are several turns to get you through the squares and some of the road surface is briefly on bricks. There is plenty of shade on an exceptionally flat course. However, once you make the split at mile 12 to the full marathon course, you are pretty much on a boring highway with no shade and a few overpass hills. There is a 2 1/2 mile section that you do twice that is really bad with no shade. There is also another section were you are separated from car traffic by a few feet just by traffic cones.

Overall, the race support was very good. Plenty of port a pots, lots of water/Gatorade and two energy food areas. The medal was nice, but the t-shirt design and color were exactly the same as past RnR marathon events since September.

I would run Savannah again, but only the half.

 

S. M. from South Carolina (11/6/2017)
"I love Savannah...but it's time for a new course" (about: 2017)

4-5 previous marathons | 1 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon
COURSE: 3  ORGANIZATION: 5  FANS: 3


Savannah, GA is one of the prettiest places around for a November (late-Fall) marathon. And it's easy to see why the half draws more than 18,000+...it's beautiful. However, the 2nd half of the race where the full splits off, is just really disappointing. The Truman Parkway is long, boring and in the open sun. If it had been as hot as 2015, this would have been Heatstroke City. Going out to the University and the furthest part of the course, was OK, but not special. I did like the music out there which was sorely needed. Either re-work the course entirely or just do another loop of the half for the full...the crowd support and music downtown were awesome! Be wary of the cobblestone streets...ankles can turn very easily on the uneven road! Organization, expo, packet pickup, medal, food, volunteers and finisher jacket were all excellent and made for a memorable and special first time RockNRoll experience. I'd give the Vegas night race a go if I can afford it. But unless the course is revised, I won't feel the need to do Savannah again. Those overpass hills made it tough to BQ.

 

H. M. from USA (11/14/2016)
"Beautiful city, OK course" (about: 2016)

11-50 previous marathons | 1 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon
COURSE: 3  ORGANIZATION: 5  FANS: 4


Savannah is a fantastic city to visit and explore. As for the race, though, like others, I was not really impressed by the course. The half parallels the marathon for the first 11+ miles, and the course is very scenic. When the courses split, the quality of the course drops significantly. The marathon takes a long dogleg along a highway to a college campus before turning toward the finish. But it's not a simple out-and-back - you have another dogleg between 20 and 22 that branches off the highway into a neighborhood where you simply turn around and come back to the highway. Couldn't they at least allow a full loop around the park where we turned around? Because it's along the highway, there are several rolling hills up and down overpasses. The bands were pretty good & having a little music did help. I was too tired to hang around for the 'Big Show' at the end. Crowd support was OK but inconsistent - in some places, there would be one or two spectators who would yell like crazy and then in another, you'd have a big crowd that would say nothing. (It's pretty bad when the runners start cheering for the crowd to embarrass them into making noise.) The Finisher's Jacket was a nice perk, though!

 

J. J. from Warrenton, VA (11/8/2016)
"Great City, Bad Race Course" (about: 2016)

1 previous marathon | 1 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon
COURSE: 1  ORGANIZATION: 2  FANS: 3


The city is great to visit and experience, but the course was not a good layout. First half of the race is scenic and pretty, but the 2nd half for the marathon is a long boring out and back course with most of it along a highway. Not many bands and not a huge crowd of support along the way.

 

D. A. from UQ (11/22/2015)
"Poor planning" (about: 2015)

11-50 previous marathons | 4-5 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathons
COURSE: 3  ORGANIZATION: 1  FANS: 5


RNR announced a heat advisory on Friday asking people to hydrate and plan ahead. Then they ran out of water and cups before mile 8 of the course.
Homeowners along the route brought out water hoses for us to drink from and cool off.
There were too many runners for the race course.
There weren't as many bands as in the past- and the first band was bagpipes.
The portalets ran out of toilet paper before the race began.
The volunteers, runners, and spectators were great. I liked the route and I enjoyed the Rascal Flatts concert.
This was my last RNR. They are for profit and they do not contribute any part of any entry fee to any charity. They have high entry fees but did not provide enough cups or water for the middle to back of the pack.

 

J. L. from Columbus, Ohio (11/21/2015)
"Unlucky weather day" (about: 2015)

11-50 previous marathons | 1 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon
COURSE: 3  ORGANIZATION: 4  FANS: 3


First of all, you have to realize that the Competitor Group caters to the half-marathon party crowd. They had that part planned out well with 20+ corrals and a wave start; there was very little compression at the beginning. They had water and other aid at the start as well.

It did seem as though they could have mapped out a more scenic route that didn't require several miles of no-shade divided highway. I thought other parts of the course were pretty and scenic. The community college section had the best crowd support.

The Expo was indeed tough to find (a few signs out on the road would have helped a lot) but maybe for a Saturday race, you cant fly in Friday evening - duh!

They probably should have canceled the full the day before. I was in Madison in 2012 when they made that decision and while I was disappointed, I remember thinking, as they were carting in people who signed up for the full and couldn't finish a half, that theyd made the right call. The conditions were worse in Savannah.

I'd never heard of a race cutting the course short but that just added to the frustration of the day.

To be fair though, the race officials, local police, EMS and volunteers deserve a lot of credit for all the on-the-fly adjustments. It was definitely an adventure dodging EMS vehicle and rescue buses on the course as they worked to attend to the many, many distressed runners. The impromptu aid and medical stations that were set up helped a lot.

I hope to be able to utilize the free race sign-up they provided.

 

O. D. from Atlanta, GA (11/15/2015)
"Poor planning by race officials" (about: 2015)

1 previous marathon | 1 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon
COURSE: 3  ORGANIZATION: 1  FANS: 3


Poorly put on race.

The expo closes at 7PM the night before and the race is on Saturday. There is no packet pick up the day of the race. The expo traffic was horrendous!

In 2015, it was an incredibly hot and humid day. The course had a water stop about every FOUR miles. This is definitely not enough. They cancelled the marathon mid way through so basically no one finished unless you were running sub 3:20 pace. I do not remember seeing any port-a-pottys along the race course. Also there were DEFINITELY not a band every mile or few miles. I remember seeing a total of 5 bands and I made it through most of the course (only missed 2 mile out in back around mile 21 because of race diversion).

Would not recommend. Seems they just want to make a profit and do not care about the safety of the runners. Two people died in 2015. Such a disgrace.

 

K. N. from Michigan (11/11/2015)
"A fast, flat course on a horribly hot, humid day" (about: 2015)

11-50 previous marathons | 2 Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathons
COURSE: 4  ORGANIZATION: 5  FANS: 3


Savannah is a great city and the course here has the potential for a BQ - which is why I chose to come here a second time. My first race here in 2013 was awesome - I loved the downtown portion and the portion on campus with all of the students out cheering. Unfortunately, this time the weather did not cooperate - the heat index was 87 by 10am. Even some of the pace group leaders wilted and were unable to keep pace. Despite all the bad I've heard about RNR, I thought they did a superb job of planning for and reacting to the conditions. They encouraged people the day before to consider switching races - even on the course if they wanted to do so. They announced they would have salt tablets/packets available at the start and all the aid stations - which they did. They had misting stations, icy sponges and cooling buses on the course. I made it beyond the cutoff at mile 14 and the portion of the course that ran through campus was in full sun and humidity - it was brutal. They made the right decision to reroute people to the finish - ambulances started running about an hour or so into the race. My race was short by almost 2 miles, and while I wish I could have finished the distance, at the time, I was really happy not to have that extra out and back to Daffin Park. To add insult to injury the weather the very next day would have been great running weather. Marathon running has the unknown/uncontrolled elements of race day conditions - that's just what it is. The concert after in the park was great - and I like the Brooks finisher's jacket.

 

M. M. from Cincinnati (11/11/2015)
"Rock n Roll marathons are only out to make Money" (about: 2015)

11-50 previous marathons
COURSE: 2  ORGANIZATION: 2  FANS: 4


The Expo was in such a bad location and poorly organized. If you have that many registrations, then you need to stay open so out of towners can get there in time. Geez! that's not rocket science. I rushed from the airport to get there at 6:45... large groups of people were still pouring in when I left at 7pm.
Why in such a pretty city do I have to run through such unattractive parts of town and a highway? I am guessing that RnR organizers are too busy thinking about the $$, they don't have time to worry about the course or the city scenes. It's just another 26.2 in their opinion. Why would a water stop be out of cups on an exceptionally hot day? Again, I am guessing it's an afterthought. People were passing out all over the place. Way too many Half Marathoners. There needs to be a cap.
One good thing was Savannah workers/volunteers. My heart went out to medical support staff and the police officers, they had their work cut out for them on such a hot/humid day.

 

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