Hello SSOD Runners
The Savannah Stone Stairs of Death Race (SSOD race) is a unique challenge. This six year old race is quickly becoming an iconic Savannah favorite. The race has you running up the 33 gnarly, old as dirt steep steps on the western end of River Street in Savannah, Ga. known as the Stone Stairs of Death. The course is just 1/3 of a mile long. So you will climb the stairs many times!
Upon reaching the top of the steps you will continue running a one third mile loop for an hour or two hours. Whoever racks up the most mileage in their registered for time slot wins!
Each mile you run is approximately 100 feet of elevation gain.
This is a 100% charity race. All of the proceeds from this race are donated to a family in need due to medical hardship.
Before you sign up you may want to ask yourself “why would I pay to run up these horrific stairs for an hour or two?” Good question!
Here’s answer 1: You get a great shirt!
Answer 2: It’s an incredible challenge unlike any other you’re likely to come across anywhere else! You will impress yourself with your results after 1 or 2 hours of running up these steps on this short loop! Running these steps are about the best mountain training you’ll get at low-elevation Savannah.
Answer 3: Each year, we pick a person and/or family that has been attacked and hit hard by cancer. The money generated from this race is given to the family to help them deal with the financial hardship experienced from their fight with cancer.
The race registration fees are used to cover the race expenses (permits, shirts, awards). The rest of the registration fees goes to the person the race is held in honor of that year. All donations made go entirely to the person the race is in honor of.
The Gross family is the 2024 SSOD race beneficiary
Adam and Laura Gross have been a part of the run community for years, They moved to Savannah in 2018 with a big heart and a love for running. Adam’s son, Jayden was diagnosed with cancer in October and has been continuously fighting since.
Until October 2023, Jayden Southard was a 22 years old healthy college kid. After he graduated from Islands HS in 2019 he took some time to enjoy running, playing the guitar and recording his own music. In 2022 he decided to move back to Portland, Oregon (where we had moved from) and attended college.Then in October 2023 he went to the hospital because he was short of breath.
They found blood clots in his lungs and immediately diagnosed him as having late stage cancer. They found it had already spread to his liver and bones, and he was expected to die soon after discovery. The cancer was genetically identified as being what is called ALK Positive. It’s a genetic mutation that results in a very rare and very aggressive form of cancer. They estimate that 60,000 cases or so happen worldwide every year. (So 60,000 cases out of 8+ billion people).
What was fortunate is that there is a treatment called an ALK inhibitor. These medications are taken orally – so no need for chemotherapy. It’s generally well tolerated so long as your liver and kidneys are still in good shape. When they work, they interrupt the reproduction of the ALK mutation, which stops the cancer from replicating. Like everything with cancer, they don’t always work, but we desperately hope they do. In the meantime, he was put on a ventilator to prevent his lungs from giving out before the medicine had a chance to work.
He was very close to dying in November when he started treatment but the particular medication he started taking, Alectinib, seemed to work very well initially. He was removed from the ventilator three weeks after starting the medicine and his lung disease was visibly improving in his scans.
Unfortunately, the Alectinib seemed to help with his lung cancer, but not the cancer on his liver and in his spine. Those tumors stopped growing, but they did not recede like the ones in his lungs. Eventually the one on his liver blocked a bile duct.
This put him back in the hospital last month with liver failure. It also forced them to stop giving him his Alectinib while his liver recovered. Within two weeks his lungs were becoming diseased again. His liver has since recovered and they have changed his medication to Lorlatinib. These medications have a very high positive response rate in stopping the progression of the cancer. They have about a 50% chance of actually allowing the body to clear out existing tumors.
At this point, Jayden needs mechanical assistance to breathe. Stopping progression isn’t enough, the tumors have to recede.The reason he needs assistance is that his lungs are not doing a good job of dispelling Co2. The gas exchange isn’t happening.
But, he recovered quickly before and if this medication is the right genetic match for the cancer then he still has a shot at getting better. He will never be cured. That mutation is sitting in his body for the rest of his life waiting to pounce. However, new gene therapies are being created all the time and they are working on one for ALK.
Our hope is that soon he will recover from this setback, and be able to see an ALK specialist in California. Once he is well enough to travel, our goal is to bring him back to Savannah. Jayden’s “dying wish” back when we were all bracing for the worst, was to see Savannah and Tybee one last time.
Hopefully he can see it repeatedly in the future.
We encourage the registered runners to approach their family and friends in help raising funds for the person the race is held in honor of. One easy way of doing this is to have folks sponsor runners. Ask family and friends to donate to you for every mile you run.
Here is a sponsor sheet download link to use for seeking donations
Here’s a link to download a sponsor sheet: sponsorsheetSSOD-co
Race Course Information
The stairs in question for this race are the narrow, high stairs on the western end of River Street in between MLK Jr Blvd and Montgomery st and Williamson St. The SSOD race will require runners to run a third of a mile loop that starts at the top of the stairs on Williamson St. The runners will then run west to MLK Jr and turn right and then quickly head east on River St where they will then dart back in between the buildings where the stairs are. They will repeat this ⅓ of a mile course for the duration of one hour.
The top male and female of each timed distance will be awarded. Every runner that finishes their registered time slot will get a finisher’s award..
Runners will always run up the stairs and never down. Also, slower runners are expected to use the right hand set of stairs leaving the left hand set of stairs to the faster runners. For safety reasons this will be strictly enforced.
All Rough Runners events are cup free. You must bring your own water bottle.
The Rough Runners SSOD race is not affiliated with the infamous Facebook page, Stone Stairs of Death Savannah, but we are fans of it! Go like their page! It’s great!
Sponsorship Opportunities for SSOD race
