Running... Cooper River Bridge.

We finished! Yay... what a RELIEF to cross that finish line. And then go an extra .2 to find water. My official time was 1:03:14, and although I'm usually one that hates excuses, let me explain why...

We woke up at 5 A.M. Pumped! I was running the race that 44k other people also wanted to run. I was running with one of my very best friends. And my boyfriend, who loathed running when we started dating, was going to run his very first 10k with me. I was stoked to get out there, get it over with and have a Blue Moon in my hand by 9:30 A.M. (It's legit if you've run a race and are drinking at that time, otherwise, you may want to review your priorities).

The bridge is closed down to allow the buses to transport runners to the start line. We get there at 6 AM to stand in a 2 mile long line. We figure this is the norm with 44k people running the race and waiting their turn to be taken over. So we wait... and wait... and wait some more.

It really wasn't bad waiting, we were with good company. However, we started questioning how they were going to stop running the buses at 7 A.M. if all of these people were still waiting? Surely they couldn't NOT take us over to the start line... could they? So we continued waiting... finally finding a bathroom (which of course also had a line!) I went, and came out only to find that our position in the never-ending line hadn't progressed much. Disappointing. And it was 7:08 at that time. One of the race coordinators made an announcement that the buses got lost?! We're not sure if that's really what happened but if so, all of those drivers should be fired! How do you get lost doing the same thing 20 times? Don't you do this EVERY year? Hasn't the race been a success in the past?

Finally, shortly after 8 A.M. we were loaded onto a school bus and taken (most of the way) to the start line. It was at least a 15 minute bus ride, if not more, and then they dropped us off more than a mile from the start line. So before I even started the race, I had walked 2 miles to stand in line and walk back to the front and then another mile to get the the corral I was  starting in. I was supposed to be in "D" but as we were passing "K" they mentioned the race was starting in 2 minutes, so we hurried up and ran to "G" and hopped in. Here we GO!

Nope. That was corral A that was getting to go.... at 8:56 A.M. Almost an hour delayed. For those of us corralled in "G" ... we started at 9:21 A.M. At this point, I had been up for almost 4.5 hours, had a banana and 1/3 of a Cliff bar and my GU gel. My water had been finished while standing in the longest line ever. My mouth was dry and all that excitement I had at 5 A.M.... also gone. I literally did not want to run the race. And it showed... my friend Liz caught up with me at mile 2 and asked if I was okay? Nope. Struggling. Need water. And not the hot water that was offered at water station 1 before mile 2... then I found out, the next water station was beyond mile 4. I was kicking myself for not enjoying the bathwater they offered at the first station.

We finished. And my sweet, amazing boyfriend finished in 1:10 which is INCREDIBLE for someone who had never run more than 4.3 miles before, someone who is not a "runner" by definition and someone who would have rather been sitting on the porch of the condo having his morning coffee than weaving through 44k people on a bridge with an average incline of 4, which covered mile markers 2, 3 & 4. I am SO proud. We felt fine after the race, although there was not a Blue Moon waiting on me. Disappointing. There must have been lots of complaints about the race, they have issued an official apology.

It's definitely not something I will do again. Once was enough and now it can be taken off the bucket list. I just signed up for my 4th race of the year, the Elizabeth 8k in Charlotte, NC. First official 8k I will be running, just hopeful for a better experience than the Cooper River Bridge Run.