The Cooper River Bridge Run

For the 2nd year, my dad, my daughter, her husband and I are participating in the 31st Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, SC. It starts in Mt Pleasant and you run (or walk) across the Arthur Ravenel, Jr bridge to historic Charleston. It is 10K (6.2 miles) and the bridge is fairly new; I think this is the 3rd or 4th year across the new bridge. The new Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is 2.5 miles long and 200 feet high (about 30 feet higher than the old bridges). The slope is 4% and the towers are 550 feet tall! last year, I had my camera with me and probably wasted valuable minutes taking pictures at the top of the bridge, but it was well worth it.



My daughter started running about 18 months ago and challenged me to do it too. I hadn't run in years, but she told me about some podcasts that were available called "Couch Potato to 5k in 12 weeks" so I started downloading them to my ipod. I could barely run 30 seconds without dying and had set a goal to be able to run a full mile without stopping by my 50th birthday which was last May. Well i did it!

Now back to the CRBR. My dad is 83 now but he joined us last year and of course again this year. He runs and walks everyday and was able to stay right with me. Actually I am hoping I can keep up with him this year! Last year we finished it in 82 minutes from start line to finish line. However, with a crowd of almost 40,000, it took us almost 20 minutes to even get to the START line! This year we have seeded ourselves as runners over 1 hour instead of walkers so hopefully we will be much closer! These are last years pictures, but I'll post new one next week!