Cooper River Bridge Run

Oh my gosh what has happened to my blogging abilities? Sorry, guys. We are still getting settled to newlywed life and I haven't been at a computer in days!

This past Saturday I ran my second 10k ever. It was an absolute blast. I was a little nervous about it because I took 10 days off from running during the wedding and honeymoon. Last week I got a little bit of running in, but I was still nervous about running 6.2 miles OVER the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston. I'm not used to running on an incline which usually hurts my calves, but I think my adrenaline kicked in and I kicked booty!

I stayed with my sweet friend from Wofford, Elizabeth Friday night and ate lots of carbs before the race. I then got up at 5 am and got dressed and ready to hop on the bus to take us to the other side of the bridge at 6 am. I'm not one to run with others which is fine because I am very independent, so I just planned all of this alone and did it!

Pre-race selfie

We got to the starting area at about 6:15. It was freezing. So stinking cold. I stretched and just people watched and even ran into two friends from when we lived in Illinois! I met my cousin Adam (who has become a crazy good runner- props!) and we caught up while we waited until start time. He went up to his fast corral and I stayed back in corral F and was ready when the gun went off.

Except I didn't have any music..... Lately I've been running with Pandora and with 40,000 people running this race, any extra internet wasn't working. I also got a new phone and hadn't added itunes yet. I wanted to freak out but remembered there were bands at every 3/4 mile so I wasn't too nervous.

I just kept running and running, staying impressed with my Nike+ app telling me my time and pace.

It was really fun running over the bridge. By the time I got over it, the weather was perfect! There was a great breeze!

At this point (about 2 miles in) I was getting a little shaky so I grabbed some chocolate GU (never had this stuff before but it was legit) and just kept running!

We finished the race downtown and it was so weird finishing the last mile or so down King Street by the bars. I would have love to run into Midtown for a beer!

The finish was weird, though. There was no excitement at the end, they just kept yelling to keep walking up towards Marion Square where the festival was.

I was so pumped after the race! I read my time and went CRAZY. I finished at 54:49. This time last year I ran a 10k in 104 minutes. Link to that blog post HERE.

That is TEN entire minutes off of my time!! And Monday I ran 6.2 miles in 58. So can you see why I was so excited!?!

After the race, I met up with my cousins and Elizabeth and we walked around... Even checked out the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.

Ahhhhh what an awesome day!

Now I'm running a 5k on Saturday and a 12k on May 4!