Organizers expect about 43,000 people for the 2012 race, which will raise thousands of dollars for area chari- ties and contribute immensely to the local economy. Tis Lowcountry-altering event grew from one man’s simple vision of promoting personal health.
had been in the Lowcountry since 1971, and during his residency training had, he admitted, packed on some extra weight, so he began running to get in shape. While visiting family in Cleveland, Ohio, he discovered that the local Bonne Bell plant had a running track for its employees, complete with rolling hills.
D
r. Marcus Newberry was the dean of the Col- lege of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston in 1977. He
Newberry’s next move was a conversation with Terry
Hamlin, a colleague at MUSC, a chemist and the president of the Charleston Running Club. He was encouraged by Hamlin’s response. “He said, ‘What do you think about trying to form a
race over the Cooper River Bridge from Mount Pleasant to Charleston?’” Hamlin recalled. “I said, ‘I think that’s a great idea. Let’s run with it.’” Run with it they did. Tey formed a 12-person committee which, within a few months, had secured a route, parade permits and police and developed proto- cols for timing. Tey advertised the event and signed up runners. And, just a few days before the race, they ran into what appeared to be a brick wall. Te head of the South Carolina Department of Transportation called to
“He said, ‘What do you think about trying to form a race over the Cooper River Bridge from Mount Pleasant to Charleston?’” Hamlin recalled. “I said, ‘I think that’s a great idea.
LET’S RUN WITH IT’”
“I thought to myself, ‘Gosh, if a cosmetic company could do that, a medical university should do it in spades,’” Newberry recalled. He liked the idea of a race through the streets of Charleston, and everyone he talked with about such a race reached the same conclusion. “If you’re going to have a race, you should go over the only mountain in town,” he remembered. “And of course, we all looked at the bridge.”
let them know that the bridge was off limits. “He said, ‘You can have a race anywhere you like, but
I’m not going to let you use the Cooper River Bridge,’” Hamlin noted. “Te Highway Department really didn’t want us to use the bridge,” said Newberry. “[Its] position was if [it] closed the bridge for us to have a run, not only would it cause a traffic inconvenience but everybody would want to do it.” Undaunted, they turned to State Sen. Dewey Wise,
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