I got over it for the last time!

What can I say...victory is mine! The morning of the race..yesterday I call my mother around 4:15 am and she tells me again that she has 2nd thoughts. I too am worried that she will not be able to make it. Plus it is pouring down rain. I tell her that we will discuss it when I get there. Iget to her house around 4:45 am. Our timeline is to be on the road by 5am. Buses are already transporting people at 5am. to make a long story short, we both decide it would be better if she passes. I am sad in a way because I will have to go it alone. I am glad because if mom could not have made it over, the race would be over for me too. I may not finish if if we have to leave and get her home. So I go it alone.

I leave her house for the 10 minute drive to downtown Charleston. All the shuttles leave from the visitor center. I turn left at the corner of king and calhoun. There are a stream of cars all heading the same way. A good many of them turn into the parking garage to the left. I thought it was a public garage. As it turned out , it was the parking garage for the Francis Marion Hotel.

I park and get out. I thought the Visitor Center was about 3 blocks away so I did not pull out my rain poncho. It was sprinkling. As it turned out, it was about 8 blocks away. So, that sprinkle turned out to be a lot of water all told. I got on a shuttle at 5:30 and was in Mt. Pleasant by 5:45. The walkers were dropped about a mile from our start line. We had a long way to go. The walk did not start until 8:30am and it was no just 5:45am.

The rain had begun to pour. There is a Hess station right were the shuttle stopped for walkers and when I crossed the street, I entered the mass of walkers there seeking shelter from the rain. There must have been 500 people there already. Around 6:15am I went inside and got coffee and a slice of lemon cake. It would be a long wait. I went back out side. More and more people came. Soon the entire gas station was filled up with walkers. There was no way a car could get in their for gas. I pulled out my poncho and put it on for warmth. The wind began to blow and I could tell the temp beganto drop and still it rained. Hard.

After a while I joined the long line of women waiting to use the one stall in the Hess Station. The owner was there making a killing that morning. He could have really made a killing if he had poncho's to sell. He did make a small killing on baseball hats and visors. I had to buy a visor as I needed a bill to keep the rain out of my face. I went back outside to wait.

Finally around 7am, walkers began to migrate to the start for walkers. I decide to go to. It was still pouring rain. We all waited in the cold pouring tain until 8:30 am for the walk to begin.

The run began at 8am. They started 2 miles back from the walk start. It was exciting to see them run past us. The Kenyans were in the lead and won. This year the Keyan women were beat by the women from Russia. It was a first. The runners ran and there were all sorts of people in halloween costumes. I guess they wanted to do anything to stand out in the crowd. funny hats to full costumes. There must have been 20k runners alone. At 8:30 the runners were still coming like a sea of fish. It became a little chaotic then because the walkers began to walk. So the runners who were not in the front of the pack had to wade thru all the walkers to find a way to get through.

I was in the front of the pack of walkers. I made good time. I finished the race in 2 hours 1 minutes and 3 seconds. The first span was the steepest and the hardest to get over. My shins were really feeling it about 1/2 way up. That bride was also swaying in the wind. People were literally reeling from side to side as the bridge swayed. That was amazing. I did manage to take a few pictures which I will post as soon as I can get them downloaded from my camera.

All in all it was a great experience. When it was time to go home I had a dilema. I had packed lightly just wearing a fanny pack. Camera, keys, drivers liscense and nothing else. I had pulled into a pay lot with no money to get out. I called my father and had him bring me some money to get out of the lot.

By the time I got home, I was crippled. My shins were aching , I was limping and my toes were hurting. Next time, I will have to train better than I did. All yesterday, my shins were very sore. They are better today, but still sore. At least I did it! I walked the Silas Pearman bridge for the first and last time!