On Thursday evening, directly after work, Brittney, Brad and I headed south to Hilton Head Island. Britt’s parents live there and had graciously offered to let Brad and I stay there for the Savannah Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. HHI is a good 45 minutes away from the race, but totally worth it. It’s always more comfortable staying a house for a race than a hotel room. Plus, staying at HHI means that Brittney would spectate my race and that sounded like a good time to me.
We lounged around Saturday morning, nibbling on apple chunk bread and coffee, then eventually headed over to Skull Creek Boathouse. There was discussion about eating outside, but it was a bit too cool and windy so we stuck to the inside.
Since, Charlotte is completely out of pumpkin beer (no kidding!) I couldn’t resist trying the seasonal Shock Top. Not very pumpkin-y…but still pretty good.
We started our meal with this amazing shrimp tempura sushi. It was incredible and didn’t even need soy sauce.
I had three of these and then something funny happened. The back of the roof of my mouth and my throat started to feel a bit strange…kind of like a numbing sensation and fuzzy.
I was a little taken back and started thinking what might be causing this feeling. Both my mom and my paternal grandmother are allergic to shrimp. My mom developed the allergy when she was 24 and pregnant with my brother. Shrimp induces vomiting for her and this was definitely not that. But I took it easy and didn’t touch any more shrimp that day.
Britt and I often share entrees when we eat out together and had ordered this Thai shrimp salad to share before my throat starting feeling funny. I still ate the salad, but left all the shrimp to Brittney.
I want to try shrimp again (which I’ve been consuming in mass quantities all my life) to see how I react to it, but in a more controlled environment; not while out of town the day before I run a marathon.
We also split the grilled Mahi Mahi tacos. The fish was so fresh and delicious. These were definitely in the top five fish tacos I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot!).
Brad got the fried oyster po-boy and seemed to enjoy it as well. I had a bite and found it to be delicious. But all fried food is pretty tasty if done well, right?
After lunch, Brittney and I dropped Brad off at a Starbucks to do some work and we headed to the race expo. I’m never very adept at taking photos during those things. I’m usually a little overstimulated and distracted by all the shiny products. I did end up purchasing a sparkly silver Sweaty Band, but didn’t plan to use it for the marathon.
After misplacing my visor in the move, I was on a quest to find another one for the marathon. They had some visors at the expo, but none that I wanted to purchase. 
We took advantage of the beautiful photo opt outside the convention center on the river before heading back to Hilton Head Island.
HHI has two Tanger outlets and we couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit them. I did a bit of damage at the J. Crew outlet and settled on a white water-wicking hat at the Nike outlet.
For my pre-race dinner, we ate at Paulie’s Coal Fired Pizza, which came highly recommended by Brittney and now comes highly recommended by me as well.
We started off with their house salad, which comes with chickpeas, onions, olives, and mushrooms in a vinaigrette. I picked around the olives and the raw mushrooms which just aren’t my thing, but overall I really liked the salad.
Then came the main event: the pizza. We ordered the traditional pizza with marinara, then added roasted red peppers, sauteed spinach, caramelized onions, and mushrooms.
Boy, was this good! The sauteed spinach was just perfect and the crust was outstanding. This was definitely one of the best pre-race dinners I have had.
We turned in almost immediately after returning for dinner, but I set out my clothes first to make an easy transition in the morning.
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I’ll give a complete marathon day recap tomorrow, but won’t keep you in suspense.
My finishing time was 4:38 and some change. It was 13 minutes faster than my Disney time of 4:51:42. Overall, I’m just happy that I finished because at some point I was doubtful of that. But more on that later…