In 2021, Savannah resident Joice Barnard crossed the finish line of a marathon in Lisbon, Portugal, in pain. She has not run a marathon since.
Barnard recalls thinking she may have just pulled a muscle, but a post-race doctor’s visit revealed a starker prognosis: her hip was shot. The remedy? A full replacement.
“I immediately started thinking, am I going to be able to run after that?” Barnard said.
Barnard has her answer and is making her marathon comeback as one of the 7,200 runners registered for the Every Woman’s Marathon Saturday in Savannah. The race is the first marathon in Savannah since 2022, when the city of Savannah ended its relationship with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon.
Sponsored by Milk and Visit Savannah , organizers tout the race as the first of its kind in the U.S. by being “for women, by women.” Of the 7,200 registrants, around 7,000 identify as female, according to stats from Visit Savannah President and CEO Joseph Marinelli.