Thousands to participate in 47th Cooper River Bridge Run
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – A chilly Saturday morning won’t stop the thousands of runners and walkers lining up in anticipation of the 47th annual Cooper River Bridge Run.
Temperatures will be in the mid to upper 40s around sunrise before quickly bouncing into the 50s. Expect a sunny sky with a north wind around 10 to 15 mph.
The race will begin at 8:00 a.m., with participants expected to be in their assigned section by 7:00 a.m.
Participants in the wheelchair category will make their way over the bridge, followed by the elite runners, and each heat will be released until all runners and walkers cross the start line.
Jose Pulido was the first to cross the finish line in the wheelchair division during last year’s race with a time of 30:56. Herman Garic holds the division’s record at 22:34 set during 2022’s event.
For the male elite runners, Athanas Kioko, of Kenya, earned a $10,000 prize after crossing the finish line with a time of 27:23, and Cynthia Limo, also from Kenya, won the prize for elite female runners.
There are 13 elite males and 13 elite females competing in the 2024 race.
The starting line for the Cooper River Bridge Run is located close to Simmons Street in Mount Pleasant, and heat markers begin near the Moultrie Shopping Center.
Runners will head down Coleman Boulevard, cross the Ravenel Bridge, and head down Meeting Street onto Woolfe Street before making their way down King Street, up Wentworth Street, and back up Meeting Street to Marion Square.
DID YOU KNOW? Oprah Winfrey ran in the Cooper River Bridge Run in 1994, and actor Bill Murray fired a cannon signaling the start of the bridge run in 1997.
Today’s bridge run is drastically different from the first held in 1978, where 766 participants crossed over the Silas Pearman Bridge. Now, tens of thousands of runners will cross the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge as they make their way to the finish line near Marion Square.
The race was rerouted from the Silas Pearman Bridge to the Grace Memorial Bridge in 1980 and later moved back to the Silas Pearman in 1995. It moved to the newly constructed Ravenel Bridge in 2006.
