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Cooper River Bridge 10K Run - Run10k


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Charleston, South Carolina
United States
85F / 29C
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 21m 17s
Overall Rank = 18946/29246
Age Group = F 35-39
Age Group Rank = 858/1998
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 4 AM...Good thing I set a backup alarm as we never got our wake-up call. Drove down to the Aquarium and walked over to the Ferry. I was worried about this little boat ride because we were having 35mph winds...but since this is small channel-like route, the river was pretty calm. YAY!

I had read about the 2 mile walk from the ferry to the race start, so I was ready, but there were buses there to drive us to the start. YAY again...and the best of all a DIET COKE machine at the terminal! Breakfast of champions!!
Run
  • 1h 21m 17s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 13m 05s  min/mile
Comments:

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!
Post race
Warm down:

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

Event comments:

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




Last updated: 2008-02-20 12:00 AM
Running
01:21:17 | 06.21 miles | 13m 05s  min/mile
Age Group: 858/1998
Overall: 1998/29246
Performance: Good
Course:
Keeping cool Good Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? No
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? No
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3

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2008-04-05 1:52 PM

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Subject: Cooper River Bridge 10K Run


2008-04-05 7:40 PM
in reply to: #1317765

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Champion
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Williamston, Michigan
Subject: RE: Cooper River Bridge 10K Run
WHOOP WHOOP great job Irene!! you are improving FAST!!!
2008-04-06 10:28 AM
in reply to: #1317765

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New user
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Charleston on St. Thomas Island, SC
Subject: RE: Cooper River Bridge 10K Run
Kudos on your Bridge Run. 15 minute shave is awesome. That is some serious improvement. And then the Yorktown, that will seriously work the quads if running across the bridge wasnt enough.

I was a little miffed by the walkers not getting right, too. I didnt know if it would be better to say something or just to push through. I chose the latter, but did hear plenty of people barking about it.

Keep up the good work.
2008-04-06 5:42 PM
in reply to: #1317765

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SC
Subject: RE: Cooper River Bridge 10K Run
Great Job!! This was my first bridge run and I thought it was a ton of fun. Especially the weaving around all the walkers and slow folks. I almost forgot I was running a 10k b/c me and my wife were so busy weaving in and out of people.

Something to note for next year. Me and Wife parked on the finishing side right beside the event center for $5. We got there around 5:00am and were glad to see that not many people had gotten up that early and parked there. Had to walk about a 200 ft to the buses that carried us into Mt. Pleasant and to the start line. From where we were let off I think it was probably about 1/2 mile to actual start line. We started somewhere between the BP station and the clock tower. Either way the 2.5 hrs we spent at the start line flew by and it gave us a chance to check out all the people, take in some pre-race nutrition and make that final bathroom call.

After we ran through the line and walked to the corner we were back in our car in less than 10 mins and back on the interstate in 20 mins. We didn't stay for the post race stuff b/c my wife and I were meeting her friends at the flower festival in Summerville. Anyway, just thought you might wanna know about the parking. Much easier on the finish side and no ferry.

To add to the costumes I saw: Tortoise and Hare, Fred & Wilma, some rabbitt looking thing and a couple others that I don't really remember.

For the things I didn't see: I NEVER saw the Coast Guard helo, and I'm IN THE CG. LOL Was it out during the race? Weird, I guess those things just become background noise for me after 6 years.


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