Cooper River '07

After practicing for almost two months, the day finally came. 31 March 2007. The Cooper River Bridge Run. It was simply incredible.

This story begins twenty fours and a half hours before the start of the race. 7:30am, Friday, 30 March 2007. After awakening and finishing my morning routine, I biked off to class. After sitting in class for four hours, I rode back home, made lunch, and drove off to work.

Nine hours later, I arrived home at 11:30PM. For a variety of reasons, I didn't sleep. Michael and I left my house at 1:30am, and after a stop for breakfast a Waffle House, we arrived in Charleston around 3:45am. After seeing the buses, and not wanting to sit around for another ride in another vehicle, we opted to walk the race course in reverse, all 6.2 miles to the start line in Mount Pleasant.

Sitting around for an hour an half before the race was about the worst part. Sitting around in the 50 degree weather in shorts and a thin shirt was not fun. Neither was the woman who was doing the announcements. Annoying to no end.

At 8am sharp, the race began. The excitement, nervousness, and whatever else had building for the past twenty four hours was suddenly released and my legs sprung into action.

I hit the top of the bridge, 250 feet above the Cooper river below, and I suddenly realized for the first time that day just how many people were running. Stretched out in front of me, I could see the course snaking around the corner into downtown Charleston, and 1500 people in front of me. It was incredible.

Forty-six and half minutes later, I crossed the finish line. I was thinking that I did fairly well, until I found out that the winner had just run the entire 6.2 miles in just over 28 minutes. Talk about intense.

And, as we were getting ready to drive away, Michael uttered the best line of the entire trip: "We. Are. Doing. That. Again. Next. Year," he struggled to get out as our stiff, pain-racked, bodies got into the car.