Bridge Run

Cooper River bridge run March 28, 2015 Charleston, SC So I got up about 5 am with help from many alarm clocks. I ate a English muffin and had a juice packet. I got dressed and ran almost a mile down Meeting Street to the porta potties at Marion square. Had a great prerace system flush. It was a chilly morning and I wanted to dress as little as possible but just could not leave my thick stocking cap behind.   Wait in line for bus in Calhoun street. Lot of police directing buses and people. It was like 6:40 am. Sat next to lady from Baltimore. With a group of 4 others.   It was her first race ever and the culmination of training that was of course difficult during winter. We rode over the bridge in the dark into Mount Pleasant. Could here official radio transmission and heard an official say "the bridge is now closed". Kind of a big deal. About 7:15 now and we finally get out of the bus. Walked a half mile or so and waited a long time for toilet. Walked past many corrals to get to mine. The seas of people was a visual experience. I've been to the Indianapolis 500 so I have seen and been in big crowds but not at a race I was in.  I read about huge events ( Boston, Chicago and NYC marathons) so I was not too shocked by all the weirdness and humanity I saw.   My corral C was one of the more forward corrals for the 45 to 60 minute groupings I think. I walked up as far to the front as I could within that corral. So crowded it was hard to work through. I ran in place to try and warm up my body. I remember the popular song Uptown Funk playing. I danced to it too. Just trying to warm up. Ate one of three gels with me about 7:50 am. At 8 am the elite group was counted down and released. A few minutes later the next level was released and so on. At about 8:09 am our group was started on the race. I felt like a football player trying not to be tackled as I ran around slower runners. My heart rate went too high too soon (upper 150's). I tried to get it down a little by backing off a little. Went past a band playing. As you stopped hearing them another band came into earshot. Up the ramp to the bridge and it was crowded and slowing down. I let my heart go up to 160 for the climb. After 10 minutes or so the wide open summit was reached. A good feeling. Headed down I kept passing people. We hit Meeting street and turned left or south. I took a cup of water and took a gulp. Paper cups were all over the street. I let my heart get back to about 160 as there was maybe 3 miles to go. Ran past the Churches Chicken restaurant on Line street where my daughter Jessica lived (with kristen there too). I wondered if they were still in bed or on the street as a spectator. Soon we turned and heard west to King Street and back south on it. The street was narrow so it was harder to pass but I managed. Lots of spectators now and a band playing along the way. My heart was up to 165 as I pushed harder with 1-1/2  or so miles to go. I was zoned in - very focused on pushing my pace upward to the end. As we turned onto a street headed east I felt there were only 3 minutes to go and the HR was at 168 to 175 now. Turning onto Meeting street and northbound I saw a very young person (12 years old?) go past me and I went all out to catch them. Heart climbed to 183 or so as I crossed the finish line. The highest I have seen it in a long time. We were told to keep moving down the street, no stopping, to allow runners to finish. So basically I continued to jog or walk fast. Spectators and runners clogged the entire area.  Made my way up to Marion Square where I walked around and got a muffin, a banana, a swag bag and continued to get more food  a few things. The sun was shining but I was getting cold. I called J and K and met them half way where upon I put on a jacket. The finishing time of 47:37 far exceeded my goal of 53 minutes. I guess that everything (my nutrition, training and the cool weather ) was ideal for the day.  Out of the over 27,000 doing the run I was 1227th. If I were to do the event again I might like to try for the 40 to 45 minutes group. So I would need to run a different 10k in under 45 minutes and prior to registering for next year. Not sure if is a goal I want to commit to yet.