Cooper Bridge Run

Two weeks ago I flew up to Charleston, SC to work the Cooper Bridge Run expo & decided to also sign up for the 10K race that Saturday.  I hadn't run too many times since the Austin 1/2 a month before & was a little nervous that I would be out of shape.  I flew up Wednesday night & had 2 very long days Thurs. & Fri. (23 or so hours total) at the expo booth.  I was exhausted Friday night & quickly looked up the route I would need to walk to the race the next morning, got my running clothes all lined up & promptly passed out.


Saturday morning my alarm went off around 7 (the race started at 8), I threw my outfit, running shoes & bib number on & got ready to walk the mile & a half to the start line.  I assumed I was going be alone in this walk, I mean, who walks a mile & a half just to run 6.2 miles & then walk the mile & a half back? I was so wrong.  It blew me away how many people I was surrounded by on the walk over. There were probably close to a thousand people coming from hotels all over making the journey to the starting line.  It was a sight that make me almost teary eyed. I always love race mornings, the feeling of being surrounded by so many people, strangers really, that for one moment, you are connected to for this short time, for this one race that you all spent hours preparing for.  I can't explain the feeling, but it's amazing.  The quiet long walk over made that feeling ever stronger, felt even more amazing.


It was a huge race! Over 30,000 people gathered behind the start line. I couldn't even get on to the street it was so crowded.  After the race started, all of us huddled on the grass were finally able to move onto the street & make our way towards the start.  Here's a picture I took of the start.

The race started & as I had heard would happen, I spent the first few miles (actually most the of the race) dodging people & weaving in & out of those in front of me.  We ran 2 or so miles on Coleman Street (good name!) & then up the bridge. The bridge was about 2 miles long, the 1st mile being pretty much uphill.  Luckily, I run races in Austin & this was no problem for me at all!

I started to realize that I was running each mile faster than I had planned.  When I signed up I thought this race would be more for practice than anything else, but I was soon noticing that I had a chance to PR (set a personal record), if I kept up the pace that I was at.  I left the bridge & continued the last 2 miles weaving in & out on the streets of downtown Charleston.  There definitely were not many spectators at all.  I hardly saw any people on the sides of the streets, but I came to the conclusion that no one was watching the race, because pretty much everyone who lived there was running it! I'm pretty sure 90% of the people who lived in Charleston were running that day.  I turned the last corner, saw the finish line & sped up to cross in what I was hoping was a PR (I later looked up my official time & did in face beat my best time)!  My PR is now 1:05:11, up from my 2007 Cap 10K time of 1:06:45.  After crossing the finish, the number of people in the race became even more astounding. 

I went to try & get some food from the tables & saw people tossing apples, bananas, muffins & bagels at people behind them.  I'm surprised I didn't come away with bruises trying to score some water. It was mayhem!  After somehow also getting my hands on a bagel & banana, I hoped on the bus to get back to the start line & then started the track back to my hotel.  Overall, it was a very memorable race & I'm so glad I signed up! I love getting to run in new places & this was one I will never forget!