We're finding a routine of sorts in our spring-time Wild Dunes visit and annual trek for the Cooper River Bridge Run. Paul and Kate roll out at 7 am, leaving the girls in the good care of Ga and Pappaw. This year Clara was awake to wish us a good run.
We drive across Sullivans Island and over the bridge to Mt. Pleasant, park in the Publix lot, and hike the 1/2 mile or so to our starting spot. We registered for the race early this year, so - though all 38,000 spaces were sold - we found a place in the "B" Corral, putting us a mere 10 minutes behind the the start for the Ethiopian and Kenyan elite runners. As we've found in so many years of running this race, that saves you miles of lateral running, weaving through dense clusters of joggers and walkers. Last year we were in the very back, Corral K. It took us 40 minutes after the race gun went off before we crossed the starting line, and we probably ran just as far going side-to-side as we did going forward.
Here was our Facebook post at the beginning (complete with selfie):
"T-minus 5 minutes til the Bridge Run. Can Paul keep up this year?"
We love this race! You get two miles of flat running through Mt. Pleasant with crowds cheering you on and bands giving you tunes to run to. Then you hit the Ravenel Bridge with its 2 1/2 mile span across the Cooper River. The first mile-and-a-half is straight uphill. There are plenty of bands playing and some good scenery to take in, but it's all about putting your head-down and grinding it out.
By Paul's standard, he did pretty well on the hill. He paced a steep climb at 7:50 pace. He did this, however, in growing separation from Kate who zoomed up the hill. We don't have her splits, but it had to be low-7's if not high-6's. That girl was on fire, ran off on her own, and Paul settled into his own race (secretly planning on catching up with a kick on the downhill and flats).
That was not to be. The strategy for this race is to grind it up the hill, glide the next 1-mile downhill, then hang-on desperately the last two-mile flats going through downtown Charleston into Marion Square. Paul improved his pace into town, finishing a little over 47 minutes for an average pace around 7:40.
And he found Kate waiting at the end of the finishers' chute.
Since she didn't wear a watch, we didn't yet know her finishing time. It was clear she had been there more than a minute, meaning she beat Paul by even more than last year. By her calm, rested demeanor (easy breathing, slowed heart rate), one might assume she had been there much longer than a minute. Here was our Facebook post at the end:
"And....no. Despite running much better than anticipated, Kate Dryden beat me by wider margin than last year. Aaaargh! — at Cooper River Bridge Run."
We wouldn't know how much wider that margin was until got home. First, we stretched and then took in the festivities in Marion Square. Then we boarded the shuttle back to Mt. Pleasant, got back in the car, and drove to Sullivan's Island for an early-lunch at Poe's.
Later that afternoon we looked up the race results. What was Kate's margin of victory this year?
3 MINUTES! She clocked a 44:28 10K for a 7:10 pace. Given that she did the first two miles with Paul at 7:50, she obviously went sub-7 for the rest. There was no way Paul was catching her on the downhill or flats! She placed 8th in her age group and secured an "A" corral spot for next year. It's a personal record at 35, and not a slight improvement but a 30-second faster pace over her previous best.
Wow!
So, besides the obvious, what makes this such an accomplishment? Kate is a mother of two with little time for running. Her training consisted of 10 minutes of hill running in our neighborhood three times a week. On some Wednesdays, when Clara and Hattie were both in morning school, she might get 3-5 miles in with a friend. And that's it.
What does she attribute it to? "I felt pretty good on the hill, so I just went for it."
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