Cooper River Bridge 10K Run - Run10k

They coralled us pretty nicely by bib color that corresponded to your expected finish time....but about 10 min before the race start, it was open season and I think all of the walkers must have jumped way ahead. There were signs encouraging the walker to stay towards the right, but they were so many stubborn folks who wouldn't budge.

Hubbie did a great job keeping together with me...and for the first 2 miles, were were weaving through the walkers like James Bond running away from gunfire. I can't even guess how many folks I nudged, stepped on, squeezed through and then just plain shoved out of their packs to get through. Sort of reminded a little of being in a mosh pit. All around me, I could hear other runners telling people to move over.

Very pleased with my pace for the first 2.5 miles until about halfway up the bridge, I was about 12:30 or so. I did walk for a bit (after moving way right). My goal was to keep the pace under 15:00 up the bridge and I managed to keep the average to 13:55.

After the crest, it was a long slow downhill (ah...nice!) and we all got over to avoid the poor guy who was laying on the ground receiving oxygen. The highlight of the bridge was a Coast Guard chopper that kept doing laps around the perimeter...that was awesome!

After the bridge, it was all about hanging on to the great pace. I had hoped to keep a 13:00 average for the post bridge section and the last mile was 13:35...but overall, I'm thrilled with the time. FIFTEEN minutes faster than my last stand-alone 10K a year ago!!

Once we got within a half-mile of the finish, the crowds were HUGE..and someone had given away a million cowbells. That was cool, but we didn't stop hearing them until we got back to the car.

Some of the costumes of the day include: the pirate girls, the go-go girls, spiderman, superman, the banana, the guys carrying HUGE cardboard race cars (Viagra #69 was the funniest!), a mexican guy wearing a sombrero with a pretend border patrol agent following close behind!

The post-race stuff was a huge cluster. Very disorganized.


Sad that there were no finisher medals..and that food and WATER took 20 minutes to get to after the finish.