Running, Cycling, Fitness Tips – The Inadvertent Athlete

Cooper River Bridge Run Review

On a nippy Saturday morning, 50,000 of my closest friends and I shivered together, awaiting the start of the annual Cooper River Bridge Run. Started in 1978, the Cooper River Bridge Run has grown from a few hundred runners to one of the 10 biggest races in America. I have run this race several times, both while in college in Charleston over a decade ago as well as the past few years. The following is a review of this race and perhaps a few tips for those thinking about running it in the future.

The temperature is usually in the 40′s at start time, give or take 10 degrees. It will be chilly while standing around but, actually, perfect weather for running. The starting corrals are on Coleman Blvd. in Mt Pleasant. They extend for at least half a mile from the start line. It has taken me as many as 20 minutes to get to the starting line once the gun goes off. Today, I was 2 minutes from the start.

First tip: If you want to run this race for time, get as close to the starting line as possible. Somehow, without fail, walkers get into the first few corrals which should only be sub-hour runners. This inevitably causes lots of traffic to weave through and will cost you time. Sub 49 minute runners can submit proof of time and get preferred corral placement. If you’re not worried about your time, then just relax and enjoy the party. Also, get to the starting area in plenty of time to get in your corral or else you may have trouble getting into it in time to start.

As the clock counts down, the corrals heave forward in anticipation. Once the gun sounds,  everyone starts walking toward the start. As you pass over the timing mat, you are free to run, however, you probably won’t be able to for a hundred yards or so, because of traffic. Your first mile will be slow unless you are at the front.

Second tip: If you like a 6 mile long party, this is the place for you. If you have a fear of crowds, not so much. The first time you run this race, you might think that the crowd will thin out as you go along. It doesn’t thin as much as speed up. There will be runners within arms-length of you in all directions at all times for the entire race. It’s not so bad as long as you don’t fall down. If your shoes come untied, as mine did this year, I advise you to get to the side quickly and deal with it. If you stop in the center of the road, you will probably get trampled. Again, not trying to scare you, just letting you know. This is a BIG race.

Making your way out of Mt Pleasant, the Ravenel Bridge comes into view. It is a strikingly beautiful bridge and much smoother and easier to run than its’ predecessors. There is only one hill in this bridge, the others had two. Once you hit the approach to the bridge, you’ll need to use some caution as a lot of folks start to walk when they hit the hill. Making your way up the bridge ramp, you will start to feel the breeze from the ocean and the Cooper River. It will be welcome as you will be warmed up by now. Moving through the first bridge support, take a moment to look up and around you. This bridge really is a beautiful feat of engineering. The view out over Charleston Harbor isn’t too bad either.

About this time, you’ll crest the hill and the after-burners can kick in for the next 2 miles, which are all downhill. If you need to make up time, this is the place to do it. Enjoy the breeze and view while you can, this is worth the price of admission. Soon, you will make your way down the ramp to Meeting Street where a water station awaits. You will immediately notice that the breeze is gone, blocked by the buildings. The last couple of miles takes you down Meeting Street toward the Visitor’s Center, then hangs a right over to King Street. You will pass Marion Square, the post-race gathering spot, but there is more running to do before you get there. Keep going, down King Street toward Charleston Place before taking a left back over to Meeting Street. As you come back on to Meeting, you will see the finish line about 500 yards up the road. Sprint. Congratulations, you got over it!

The post-race area is an experience unto itself. It’s crammed full of spectators, runners, vendors and just about everyone in Charleston. It’s even more crowded than the race itself, if that’s possible. Water and fruit stations are everywhere. This is a very well-run and well-supported race. It’s amazing that so many people can be involved in the race and things still maintain a appearance of organization.

In years past, packet pickup has been a nightmare. The Gaillard Auditorium is a decent-sized venue, but when so many people rush it at once, it quickly becomes unmanageable. This year, they had a tent set up outside to get your number and then you proceeded to get your other items. This seemed to work much better than in years past. You also have the option of having your packet mailed to you in advance for a nominal fee. Personally, I like getting in the crowds at the Expo.

It’s a great race and the perfect excuse to spend a weekend in Charleston. For those that are considering registering for next year, here is my advice: Register early, book your rooms early, have your packets mailed or get to pickup early on Friday, be prepared for a 6 mile long party with CLOSE friends, and most importantly, relax and have fun.

Tags: 10K, Bridge Run, Bridge Run Review, Charleston Bridge Run, Cooper River Bridge Run

Walt Disney World Marathon Review

This is Part 2 of the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Review. Part 1 can be found here.

After the Half Marathon, I was frozen solid. I went back to the hotel, shivering, and took a hot bath, took my recovery supplements, and went to eat a good lunch. After that, my kids wanted to go to one of the parks, after all, we were at Disney World. So, we took them over to Hollywood Studios for a few hours and had dinner with friends. I didn’t do anything too strenuous so, it shouldn’t have been any big deal. I mean, I run longer training runs than 13 miles with no ill effects at all the next day.

On Sunday morning, when the room once again erupted in sound at 3 am, I jumped up and slapped at the phones and alarms until they stopped beeping. Lumbering across the room to start getting ready, I noticed that my legs were tight, and by tight, I mean stiff, and by stiff, I mean sore. Huh? Why am I sore? I shouldn’t be sore from that. It was just 13 miles. I finished my pre-race routine and my lovely wife and I made our way over to the park with the same clockwork precision as the previous day. This morning, we drove over and lingered in the car for a few more minutes because it was 10 degrees colder than the day before but no precipitation, thankfully. Walking down to the gathering area, I was still really tight in the hips and my feet were killing me for some reason. Trying to figure out what was going on, I looked down and saw my answer: concrete. This place was nothing but concrete. The roads, the parks, everything was made of concrete. At home, I run on asphalt, which is a good bit softer than concrete. The roads have to be harder in Florida because it’s hotter down there and asphalt wouldn’t hold up as well. I actually avoided running on concrete in training because it was so hard. At that moment, I got nervous about the event for the first time. Another 26.2 miles of pounding was gonna hurt.

We made our way down to the corrals with similar results as the previous day. We barely got in the corral and turned on our music before the gun went off. For the record, both of these races went off early. The advertised start time was 5:50 for wheelchair competitors and others would follow in waves a few minutes apart. On both days, I was running at 5:45. I suspect it was because of the 40,000 people shivering in 20 degree weather. In Florida…

The starting route of the marathon was very similar to the half marathon. There were some extra miles added to the start of the route but it didn’t matter much because it was pitch black outside for the first 2 hours. The occasional band, pep squad and sign helped break up the monotony of running elbow to elbow with 40,000 people. I took a drink from a drink station and when I raised it to my lips, nothing came out of the cup. The Powerade was frozen in the cup. Not only was the road a block of ice, so were the cups. You had to crush the cup a little to get the drink out. Mmmm, that icy water is just what you need when you are freezing to death and in pain. I was moving slowly because I was so cold and just couldn’t get warmed up. I exaggerated my movements, hoping to loosen up my legs. It was no use.

As we came into the Magic Kingdom somewhere around mile 9, my spirits lifted again because the sun had peaked above the horizon and it felt warmer, even if it wasn’t. Once again, we ran down Main Street USA to the cheers of spectators. We stopped and took a few pictures in front of the castle and with a few characters. It was here where we decided to just relax and enjoy the day. I stopped caring about the time on the clock. We would run a slow marathon but, I didn’t care. There would be other days for that. After posing with princesses, pirates, and anthropomorphic animals, we shot out the back gate once again on the lonesome country road. On the day before, it had been pitch dark on this road. Today, you could see that it was swamp land with a narrow strip of road running through it. This road was for use only by Disney cast members. There was still no indication that Magic Kingdom was just beyond the tree line. I still don’t know how they do it.

The next part of the course was a long stretch that ran down by a golf course or two and the wedding chapel complex and a few other resort areas. It was well supported but I could have used more distraction. Somewhere around mile 13 or 14 I felt a terrible stabbing pain in my left hip. I limped into a medical station and the little lady there said something about it being a “Stinger”. That sounded about right. She dug her knuckle into it a few times, slapped a handful of BioFreeze on it, handed me 2 Tylenol, a cup of frozen water, and sent me on my way. It was still bitterly cold and every time we stopped, even for a few seconds, it was really hard to get warm again.

Making our way around to the Animal Kingdom, we smelled it before we saw it. I can only imagine what I was smelling, but it was really foul and not what you wanted to be breathing. Soon though, the stench subsided and we entered the Animal Kingdom park and another string of cheering spectators and characters. We stopped to take pictures with Minnie, Rafiki, and Donald Duck. This time, I jogged in place in line to help stay warm. I don’t remember where we went out of Animal Kingdom because I was getting tired and hungry. I popped a couple of gels and S caps and kept trudging. My wife was an angel, hanging out with me all day when she could have run much faster without me. She would run up the road and look around to find that I had dropped off of the pace and then she’d wait up for me. She’s an angel, that one.

More desolate access roads, frozen tundra in disguise as drink stations marked the way to Hollywood Studios. One particularly irritating place was at mile 20. There was a long, maybe half a mile stretch that went way down one lane of the road and hair-pinned somewhere in the distance and ran right back down beside us so that we were meeting people coming back on our left. The temptation was strong to just jump over to that lane and go on. The only problem with that is that there was a timing mat at the end of that long stretch specifically to prevent that from happening. If you didn’t cross that mat, no medal. Buzzkill. Coming back from that hairpin was the mile 21 sign. The last few miles seemed to be getting longer and longer. We ran up and over a bridge that led up the side of the main thoroughfare into Hollywood Studios. We came in the back, where the back lot tour takes you by Walt’s plane, through the costume department tunnel, up by the Osbourne Spectacle of Lights and out the front gate. At mile 23, it finally warmed up above freezing. The drink stations were no longer frozen, and neither were my legs. I got a second wind, now that it was just a 5K to the finish. We wandered down by the waterway that runs from Hollywood Studios, by the Swan and Dolphin, The Boardwalk Resort, and up into the World Showcase at Epcot. Our last mile was around World Showcase, back up around Spaceship Earth (the big ball) and out a side entrance to the finish line. A gospel choir was singing to the side as we had 100 yards left to the finish line. I felt like singing with them but, I was so ready to get to the mat. Tons of cheering spectators lined the street and once again, we ran through all 3 timing mats. I was really glad to stop. REALLY glad. My legs were numb but surprisingly felt OK. I grabbed another Mylar blanket, got my Mickey medal and started the walk to the Goofy’s Challenge tent. Finally, the reason I put myself through all of this. The training, the education, the pain, the money, it was all about to pay off. A little Asian man placed the medal around my neck and congratulated me. I stumbled out into the sunlight and found my wife and we walked to the picture area, posed for a few shots and bundled up in Mylar and started the long, breezy walk back to the car. Once in the car, with the heat wide open, we started to relax and kind of tiredly celebrate what we had just accomplished. My wife had just ran her first marathon, albeit far slower than she could have done it, and I had just pushed myself across 39.3 frozen, painful miles. I knew I would have trouble walking the next day but, that kind of thing comes with the territory.

The next few days were filled with theme parks and great memories with my family so I haven’t had much time to reflect yet. I suppose, in retrospect, it doesn’t feel like such a big deal even though I suppose it is to some. 39.3 miles is a long way to run. I should be proud of it but, somehow, I’m not yet. Maybe in time.. I wasn’t as good as I wanted to be or expected to be, but I did have a lot of fun and in the end, I did what I went there to do.

If you are looking for a great event that is incredibly organized and supported, where all you have to do is show up and run, these are the ones to do. It’s easy to justify since you will probably spend a few magical days at Disney as well. How can you lose? Registration for next year will probably be open in the next few weeks. Maybe next year, it won’t be record low temps and snowing on you.

Tags: Running race reviews, Walt Disney World Half Marathon, Walt Disney World Marathon

Walt Disney World Half Marathon Review

Last weekend, I completed the Disney Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge. This consists of doing the Walt Disney World Half Marathon on Saturday and the Walt Disney World Marathon on Sunday. If you complete them both, you get 3 medals, one for each race and another one for doing both. It was an awesome experience, even if it didn’t exactly work out the way I had expected.

The Walt Disney World Marathon weekend events are, as all Disney events, top-notch productions. They think of everything, and then some. You can tell that they get input from athletes and then, in true Disney fashion, they “Plus it”. “Plus it”, is Disney speak for exceeding expectations. It’s how they create magic on a daily basis. For the 2010 edition, the only thing they couldn’t control was Mother Nature.

At 3:00 am on Saturday morning, my room erupted in sound. I had an alarm clock, wake up call and phone alarm go haywire, surprisingly, in sync. The following storm of slapping electronic devices brought me into full consciousness and from there, it was my usual pre-race routine: Supplements, shower, dress, gear, double / dummy check, liquid breakfast, out-the-door. As I opened the door of the hotel, the cold literally took my breath away. Here I was, dressed in multiple layers of fabric designed to remove heat from an exercising body, and they immediately started working. I would be frozen solid for the next few days.

Getting into Epcot for the pre-race festivities ran like clockwork. 40,000 people is child’s-play for Disney. They move far more people around everyday. Traffic was managed perfectly, signs and workers clearly pointed out where to go. It was a bit disappointing how quickly we got in because I was really enjoying the warmth inside the bus. Walking from the bus to the starting area, it started to snow. You read that right: SNOW. IN FLORIDA. ON RACE DAY. It was about 25 degrees and everyone was freezing. The snow soon changed to sleet and it would remain as sleet, for a while anyway…

Now, you would have to be severely retarded to be confused about where you were supposed to go. Workers and signs all pointed the way to the start, not to mention the steady stream of participants marching like lemmings toward the inevitable. Be that as it may, I very nearly missed the start of the race. I waited in a long line for the sea of port-johns and when I finally made my way down the half mile walk from the pre-race area to the starting corrals, I had no sooner stepped into the corral than the gun / fireworks went off. We were all thinking that it was for the wheelchairs and that we would have a few minutes to get settled, ipod on, etc… Not so much. Gun went off, our whole corral took a few steps up, stopped, and then started running.  Everything is timed from the chip on your foot so, it wouldn’t be a big deal to go with a later corral but, still. I was off to a bad start. Mile one was a blur as I fiddled with my ipod, and settled in. At mile 2, I shed my heavy jacket that I had brought just to keep me warm. I immediately regretted that decision as it was still sleeting and freezing out there.

I have never participated in a better organized, better supported event, and I doubt I ever will. It seemed like there were drink stations about every 100 yards, although it was probably closer to every mile. Aid stations were almost as frequent, all staffed with trained professionals who were taping / rubbing whatever was ailing you, handing out Tylenol, and pumping out BioFreeze like it was going out of style. I would love these guys the next day. That being said, the drink stations were down right dangerous, because when it is freezing, well… liquid stuff freezes. Every cup of water or Powerade dropped on the road immediately froze. The drink stations were sheets of ice. Disney police were on it and were putting down sand but it was still really dangerous running through there.

For the Half Marathon, you basically run from Epcot, about 6 miles North to The Magic Kingdom, and back. The route up to the Magic Kingdom is fairly boring. It’s access roads for the Disney World complex and they are flat and dark at 6 am. Disney puts a big sign and clock every mile so that you know exactly where you are. There are marching bands and cheerleaders and other distractions placed along the route. It’s not constant though, which was nice. I think it would be annoying if it was constant, again it was just the right amount.

Running through the deserted Magic Kingdom at 7 am, in the dark, in the snow, was a surreal experience. We came in through a side entrance and back lot, right onto Main Street USA. The Christmas decorations were still up and the place was all lit up, spectators were cheering their runners on. We hung a quick right and ran straight to the castle, hung another right to Tomorrow Land and on around through Fantasy Land to the back of the castle. We shot out the front of the castle into a hail of camera flashes and driving sleet. On through Liberty Square, then a left and out the back gate by Splash Mountain into another back lot area. This is where they keep the parade floats, I would learn, because they were all parked to the left under a big hangar-like building. Another quick left and we were out on a lonesome, very dark, desolate looking road. If you were driving down this road, lost i the middle of central Florida, you would never know that you were just yards from the Magic Kingdom. It was amazing how quickly we went from “The Happiest Place on Earth” to the middle of nowhere. We were at about mile 7 by this point and the sleet would soon turn to rain. The next few miles back to Epcot were very much like the first few. It appeared that we were running much of the same route but in reverse. The signs, bands, and cheerleaders had moved across the street from where they were an hour prior.

Around mile 10, it started raining in earnest, not too hard but you knew it wasn’t frozen anymore. Good thing our core temperatures were up. Before we knew it, we were back in Epcot and all that was left was a lap up and around the Christmas tree at the start of the World Showcase, and back out the front of the park into the parking lot and finishing area. The finish line was packed with people cheering, music blaring, and the race clock counting up. There were 3 mats spaced pretty far apart. I’m not sure which one actually records the time but I ran through all 3 of them. Someone handed me a Mylar blanket and a medal and all was good. Making my way to the Goofy’s Challenge tent to get my next wristband, I started to realize that I was cold. As I exited that tent, I pulled the Mylar blanket around me and wished I had a few more. As my core temp went down post-race, the clothing did its’ job and wicked out the heat, but I was still wet and it was in the 30′s outside. I was never so glad to see a bus in my life. By the time I got back to my hotel room, my teeth were chattering and my lips were blue. I don’t ever remember being any colder than that, even on ski trips. I was in Florida for crying out loud, and freezing to death. I soaked in the hot water for at least an hour and tried to recover some but my children begged to go to a park. Being the good dad that I am, I obliged. The next morning at 3 am, I would be rethinking that decision…

Continued Here…

Tags: Goofy's Challenge, Walt Disney World Half Marathon, Walt Disney World Marathon