Cooper River Bridge Run/Walk attracts 45,497

The first Cooper River Bridge Run on the new Arthur Ravenel Bridge was held today and it drew an estimated crowd of 45,497 runners and walkers. It was the 29th running of the event but there was no new record set. It was widely expected that a new record could be set since the run was made easier by the leveling of the bridge, as opposed to the up and down, up and down of the old cooper river bridge. But as expected a Kenyan won the 6.2 mile race in 28:16. The Bushido's Jim Trabert finished in 1 hour 7 minutes.

As for me, well I'm in no shape to run that distance since one; I couldn't' do it, and two, I've still got a torn up knee that's in healing. I walked the bridge with Ashley and my parents. We got up at 5am and I can't remember the last time I got up that early on a Saturday. I'm just not wired to be up that early on a weekend. Anyways, we walked to the starting line and was able to watch the Kenyan's warming up for the inevitable win. Once the runners started and got out the way, the walkers began our decent to the bridge. It was a nice day, not cold but not hot. I was able to get some good pictures of the demo work being done on the old bridges, Charleston just won't look the same once they are gone for good.

I bought a new pair of shoes on Thursday to replace my worn out New Balance. But I made the mistake in wearing them this early. Note to self: Never wear nonbroken-in shoes when you're going to be walking all morning. Well I was okay at the beginning but with each step, my feet ached more and more. Once we got off the bridge we still had another 2 miles to the finish. With each passing step I couldn't wait to get home and relax on my couch. Well we got to the finish, ate our fruit and boarded the bus to take as back to Mt. Pleasant and to our cars. Well unbeknownst to us, we weren't going to be dropped of anyway close to our car. In fact the drop zone was about another 3 miles away. So once we got off the bus we had to walk back another 3 miles to where we parked this morning. You want to talk about hell, if the real thing is anything like today, then I'm going to join any and all get right groups, go to church every day and pray everyday because it was pure torture for me to walk any further. Well an 2 hours later and about 10 miles completed we finally arrived at our car.

I swear this will be the last time I walk this thing. Since there is already a walking/running path on the bridge there's no need to pay $30 just get up at 5am to walk a bridge I can walk everyday.

Next year I'll see you at the Carolina Cup where I'll get up at 8am and start drinking, not walking.