Cooper River Review....

What an eye opening experience! I have read about massive lines for port-o-johns and a mosh-pit like starting corral before, but never had I actually been a part of it until yesterday.

We were fortunate enough to have friends with a condo in Mt. Pleasant, so we stayed there the night before the race. Unfortunately, after we had dropped off the kids with my parents in Georgetown, it was about 10:30 when we got to the condo. It took us 45 minutes to find the water meter out front. Our friends don't use the condo much and turn the water off when they leave. With all the rain and such, it was completely buried and almost un-findable, but Lee came through right as we were about to give up.

After a short, but good rest we were up and getting ready for the race. I knew something was up when we couldn't turn out onto the highway because of the mass of school busses carrying runners to the start. The good part of the school bus traffic was that we could follow them, and we did. We pulled in the first lot where they were charging for parking and walked about a half mile up to where the starting corral was. Lee and I were running together and took our place in the under one hour group. This is definitely not a place for those that hate crowds or are afraid of being pinned in. The portable fencing along the road really caused the crowd to 'squeeze together'. I was glad it was before the race and not after.

As we got close to the start, I noticed several people that I though were probably in the wrong time group and that proved to be true later on. The only hitch was they asked the entire crowd to back up 9 paces so the elites could get to the starting line. Fortunately, everyone complied without incident. Once the gun sounded the crowd charged across the starting line.... Well, I guess that is what happened up front. Nine minutes after the gun sounded, we crossed the starting line. The only complaint I have is the same complaint I have about every race. Those that are walking seem to not understand the danger the present when they don't start in the back. I was shocked to be running into walkers (literally) throughout the course. I know some were runners that had given out, but they still need to move to the side. Anyway, other than that it was a fun run. We actually got to get into full stride some during the last mile. It is definitely not a race to run if you want to set a PR as I was 10 minutes off mine, but it was fun and I would do it again.