“The best things in life are unexpected – because there were no expectations.”

This quote from English writer Eli Khamarov so eloquently describes my experience at the inaugural Publix Savannah Women’s Half Marathon this past weekend.

I signed up for the race at the beginning of the year to support my friend and coaching client Amy. My goals were simple: to be there and celebrate Amy, to feel good, to run for fun and to run faster than 1:50 given my limited mileage and lack of specific training. I did almost no research on the race, the weather or anything I would have typically done to prepare for a goal race.

You could safely say I had no expectations.

I was blown away by the experience.

The Publix Savannah Women’s Half Marathon is everything I could hope for in a race.

• The expo was intimate yet extremely relevant. It was created with women in mind and highlighted local Savannah companies in addition to a few national sponsors. (There were 45 men who ran the race.) The clothing and gear offered at the expo was cute, too. I bought a graphic tee.
• The race schwag was top-notch, including a beautiful gym duffel bag instead of your standard shirt that never fits and giveaways like a re-useable ice pack and goodies from Publix such as a collapsible strainer, fruit-infused water bottle, ear buds and sunglasses.
• The expo and race day logistics were seamless. The race started and finished in the same location. There were also less than 1,300 half marathon runners, so there were enough runners to have people near you the entire race but never be crowded.
• There was never a line for a porta-potty. That’s reason enough to run this race (because you know what happens to me when the lines get too long)!
• The weather was fantastic – about 48 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny throughout the race with limited wind.
• The course was scenic and completely flat. Yay flatness!
• The post-race party was enjoyable and was in a setting where you wanted to stay and celebrate. There was a local farmer’s market right near the finish as well that was so fun to explore.
• The medals were beautiful.
• Savannah is such a fun city for a post-race celebration. It was a fantastic race for a girls’ weekend, and with a 5K option as well, there were distances to meet different people’s needs.

Amy and I made the 4-hour road trip from Atlanta to Savannah the afternoon before the race.

She surprised me with these incredible and thoughtful tank tops for us to wear!

Since I was running for fun and breaking all the rules of my normal race weekend regimen, why not wear a top I’d never run in before as the icing on the cake? (Runners: NEVER wear something you’ve never run in before on race day. Do not follow my lead here.)

We made our way through the expo, taking pictures with every character we could find and sampling sweet treats, like a tiny piece of crème brulee white chocolate fired there on the spot from Chocolat By Adam Turoni and the world famous Byrd’s cookies.

We then hit up my go-to pre-race dinner: take-out from Outback Steakhouse. I can typically always find an Outback in most cities where I travel to a race. I always order the Chicken on the Barbie platter with a plain chicken breast, rice (instead of vegetables) a baked potato and their bread. I salt it all up and take it all down. I also drank about 16 ounces of lemon-lime Gatorade that evening after my dinner.

We woke up at 5 a.m. to eat breakfast about 2.5 hours before the race. I consumed my standard pre-race fuel: An everything bagel, a half of a banana, a hard-boiled egg that is heavily salted, a salt pill and 12 ounces of water.

I share my meals with you because I know many of you are interested in hearing the race-fuel strategy that works for other runners. The above pre-race dinner and breakfast are solid gold for me (I also eat 3 Clif Shot Bloks 30 minutes before the race start and I consumed 2 salted watermelon GUs during this race at mile 5 and 9ish).

We walked the mile to the race start from our hotel and warmed-up.

There were no corrals – just the honor’s system to self-seed by your anticipated finish time. I placed myself near the front with the 1:45 pace group (the fastest pace group offered). And then we were off!

I tucked in comfortably with the 1:45 pace group trying to run easy by how I felt. After 2 miles I was holding back too much, so I left the group and went off on my own. There were several people who I was near the entire race, so I pretended they were part of my running group and used them as motivation to keep up with.

At mile 8, I saw Amy during an out-and-back portion of the course. She was still with the 2:10 pace group, which was amazing considering her PR was currently 2:15. We high-fived and kept going.

The race route ran in some of Savannah’s most scenic areas, including the city’s two largest recreational parks (Forsyth Park and Daffin Park), tree-lined streets and 12 historic squares.

As the miles ticked off, I realized I was running much faster that I thought was possible given my lack of speed work or high mileage. The pace felt relatively comfortable (until the last 2 miles when I was feeling VERY ready to be done).

The mile splits looked like this:

Mile 1: 7:53

Mile 2: 7:58

Mile 3: 7:41

Mile 4: 7:40

Mile 5: 7:51

Mile 6: 7:40 (crossed the 10K mark around 47 minutes)

Mile 7: 7:53

Mile 8: 7:44

Miles 7 and 8 looked like a penis. Just saying. Insert your own funny jokes here about where the water station was located and how “hard” these miles were or weren’t.

Mile 9: 7:49

Mile 10: 7:39

Mile 11: 7:44

Mile 12: 7:40

Mile 13: 7:30

Last 0.1: 6:02

I sprinted into the finish by the iconic Forsyth Park Fountain at 1:40:48 (7:42/mile pace).

I exceeded my expectations, perhaps because I didn’t have any.

This wasn’t my fastest half marathon, but it was way faster than I was expecting on this day. It showed me that my steady base and cross training/strength training has translated into allowing me to maintain more of my fitness level and speed than I thought was possible.

I finished 21^st out of 1,205 women and ninth in the 30-39 age group.

After I crossed the finish line, I headed back out on the course (which was easy to do because the logistics were so simple) and found Amy at the 12-mile mark.

I finished the race with her, pushing her to run her last mile as her fastest mile and cross the finish line in 2:10:03, crushing her previous PR by 5 minutes.

Again, expectations were exceeded.

We stayed at the post-race party for about an hour. We sat in the park and listened to music and strolled through the farmer’s market that was set up nearby before grabbing some coffee and post-race fuel at a local coffee shop.

We ate our celebration lunch at the amazing Olde Pink House, which is a must experience anytime you’re in Savannah (make sure to make a reservation, even for lunch during busy weekends).

We spent the rest of the day exploring local shops, tasting the local delicacies and enjoying our race-day afterglow.

In terms of areas where the Publix Savannah Women’s Half Marathon could improve:

• There was no spectator support or entertainment of any kind along the course. Self motivation was the name of the game.
• The aid stations were limited along the course and only two of them included sports drink. This was probably my biggest problem with the race, as I believe every aid station should have water and sports drink.
• There were a lot of turns on the course, which makes running the tangents extremely important. With that being said, both Amy and I did not run over 13.1, which is somewhat rare.
• No runner tracking was offered for spectators.
• The fastest pace group offered was 1:45. Although I would have liked to see some faster pacers offered, I understand that the race was too small to make that worthwhile. All the pacers I saw cross the finish line were right on the money.

For those of you looking to run a race in Savannah, I enjoyed this half marathon experience better than the Rock ‘n’ Roll Savannah race (I ran the marathon there in 2011) given the unique expo experience, easier race/expo logistics, the course and intimacy of all the activities. It would make an outstanding girls weekend.

Have you ever run in Savannah? What did you think? What’s your favorite small half marathon race?