Race Review: Rock n' Roll Savannah 1-Miler 2021

This post will cover Day 2 of the 2021 Rock n' Roll Savannah weekend! 

To see my experience during Day 1, check out my previous post here!

The day after the Rock n' Roll Savannah Half Marathon was extra fun because not only was I running, but so were my parents! My parents were signed up for the 5K on this day, so I was very excited that we got to cheer them on! I know they hadn't run an in-person race in quite some time and after a hard year I was glad they got to have some running fun of their own while on this runcation 😊 Luckily, the weather cleared up for Sunday so we were smooth sailing for our midday races!

One thing that we were super pumped about was that we were going to be running at the Savannah Bananas ball park! We were so amused all weekend by the fact that the local baseball team was called the Savannah Bananas, so when we discovered that we would be running at their park we were so excited! We checked out the park and their merch store before the first race got started, and each took a little souvenir home with us! 🍌

First up was the 5K! Lindsey and I made sure that Mom & Dad were all set in their corral before staking out a spot to see them off on their run. It was so fun taking in the atmosphere of the start line together!

Once they were off, Lindsey and I staked out a spot in the park to cheer them on as they came through the finish. The coolest part of the course is that every runner got to run through the outfield to get to the finish line. I absolutely love when races incorporate unique features into their courses, so I definitely appreciate that Rock n' Roll was able to coordinate the use of the ballpark during both the 5K and 1-Miler! While we waiting for our parents, Lindsey and I made it a point to be the most obnoxious spectators for the folks coming into the finishers shoot so we could encourage folks to finish strong. We had a blast doing this! Before we knew it, Mom and Dad were coming through the park and we cheered extra loud for them! So happy that they were able to run and finish their first in-person race in a little while!

Photo of my mom that my dad took while they were running their 5K!

I didn't have too long to celebrate with them before I had to be off to warm up for the 1-Miler. I did a quick quarter-mile warm up, and got my mind right for the race. I had originally planned on just taking this race easy because I thought I would be running a full marathon the day before. However, because my race on Saturday was downgraded to a half, I thought I'd try to run the mile as fast as I could! I went into the race figuring I'd run somewhere around 9:00, as I thought that was a pretty attainable goal for me and wasn't really sure what my 1-Miler ability truly was. I lined up at the front of the pack and was off and running soon after!

I really tried to push the pace for this run just to see what I could do. When I got to the half way mark, I took a look around me and noticed that I was still fairly in the front of the pack. I thought to myself that I could probably have some kind of age group placement if I kept my pace up, so I decided to go for it and see what happened! This, of course, was not easy to accomplish. I am not used to pushing it as hard as I can when I run, since that's really not the approach to long distance running 😂 You can really see how I felt in these photos my parents snapped as I cam through the finish:

I really look like I'm having a wonderful time here 😂

My pain and suffering paid off because not only did I PR my mile time with 7:40 time, but I also PLACED FIRST IN MY AGE GROUP 😱 This is something that I have literally never done and I was so shocked! I am so crazy proud of myself for this accomplishment, and I will definitely look back on it as a highlight of my 2021 racing season!

 

I'm on a leaderboard! 😎

I also received a Remix Challenge medal for running the Half Marathon on Saturday and the 1-Miler on Sunday which was so cool! I hadn't done a Remix Challenge with Rock n' Roll before, but it's honestly so much fun and would definitely do another one in the future. Of course, we needed to do a lil post-race family photoshoot with our medals before heading out to celebrate!

With the weather finally cooperating, we capped off the weekend by doing a bit of walking around and grabbing dinner and a drink at the Six Pence Pub. Savannah seems like such a cool city and it's a shame that the weather kept us inside for most of the weekend. Good think I will be returning in November 2022 for (fingers crossed 🤞) the full marathon, so hopefully we'll be able to do some more exploring then!

Overall I had such a fantastic time during the Rock n' Roll Savannah weekend! Despite the curveballs that were thrown our way, we still made the best of the circumstances and ultimately had a really great time. I'm excited to be returning next November so I can see more of the city, and to hopefully officially check Georgia off my 50 Marathons in 50 States list!

If you'd like to see our weekend in action, check out my vlog below!