Visit to Savannah to Run The Savannah River Bridge Run

(December 6, 2008) The family traveled to Savannah last Friday to visit with old friends Bill Cobb and Mark Dempsey from the college soccer team at Armstrong State College to run The Savannah Bridge Run. We ran what is called "The Double Pump", which is essentially a 15K, running both the 5K and 10K races back to back. Our team name would be One/Not One (an inside joke on one of the members of our team).
The 5K was supposed to start at 8 AM and the 10K at 8:45. The 5K starts on Hutchinson Island, which is on the other side of the bridge just before you get into South Carolina, and you have to take a trolley to get there. Due to the fact that the there was major transportation issues, the 5K didn't start until 8:45 and the 10K started at 9:25. It was a cloudy and cool 45 degrees at the start with very little wind. I had been up all night coughing with a bad cold, and had taken lots of cough medicine and nasal spray in hopes that I could finish both runs. I felt great running the 5K, and the bridge, which is a 5.5% grade, didn't seem too bad. I would finish the 5K in 27:53, and believe it or not, I ran the whole way with my shirt on! The good thing was that I hardly coughed after finishing.
Getting to the 10K start proved to be a little tricky, since it started on the other side of the 5K course, which meant you had to cross through the finishing runners. The only other way to avoid with was to go against the flow of 5K finishers and go around the finish of the 5K, which wasn't feasible. While standing on a corner waiting to cross (Bill and Mark had already crossed), a cop was telling us to go around, since we were obstructing the finishers. While he was saying this a runner made a hard tangent to the corner and purposefully gave me an elbow! Unfortunately I couldn't see who did it as the cop was moving us back. Fortunately I was able to catch up with the others and get to the 10K start on time. I would get rid of the shirt about a half mile in, and Mark would tell Bill to mark the time I went shirtless. I felt great the first half of the 10K, and started getting gastric pains at exactly the 5K mark right before crossing back over the bridge. I contemplated walking, but the pain shortly went away and I was able to run the rest of the way with no issues. The nice thing for me running the bridge was that you knew exactly how far it was to the top and could see it the whole way. I would finish strong in 57:47, and not have any issues coughing at the finish. All the double pumpers would get nice beer mugs at the finish, and we all had lots of free beer after. Later that evening I would join Bill at Marks house and watch the SEC Championship game between Florida and Alabama.