Wave start a smash hit

It's been a long time coming, but the new wave start for the Cooper River Bridge Run and Walk on Saturday was a hit with most runners and walkers.

For at least a decade, as the Bridge Run approached and surpassed the 30,000 mark, many runners who weren't within 25 yards of the starting line complained of crowding and being held up by slower people in front of them. Corralling participants according to their speed was the first step toward a better race, but that and a wave start was the combination that needed to happen.

It was a long, slow process that started nearly five years ago with race organizers observing how the Peachtree Road Race and Bolder Boulder 10K handled their starts.

The Bridge Run's new starting system, which basically involved sending corrals of 3,000 to 5,000 people off in waves every three minutes, parceled out the runners at the starting line over more than a half hour time span.

It didn't solve all the problems. Some in bigger waves complained of bottlenecks at the base of the bridge and on the narrower downtown Charleston streets after turning on Woolfe Street. But for the first year, the wave start was about as perfect as it could be.

"The wave start is working like we planned it," said race director Julian Smith. "We've been gradually building to this over the years and it took a lot of planning, but I knew it was going to work ... I couldn't be happier."

It was a testament not only to the Bridge Run's organizing, but also to the overwhelming cooperation of the record 34,690 participants.

Cedric Jaggers, the author of the new "Charleston's Cooper River Bridge Run" book, said he talked to dozens of runners after the race and only one didn't like the wave start.

"The wave worked out pretty well," said Jaggers, who ran his 33rd consecutive Bridge Run on Saturday. "It was more like a race than being stuck in a can of sardines."

In the dozen or so I interviewed, I heard the same reaction.

Charles Patrick, an avid supporter of and participant in the Bridge Run, was in Corral E -- starting 17 minutes after the initial gun went off.

"In past years, you were either running over someone or someone was running over you," said Patrick. "That wasn't the case this year."

Katherine Owens, 50, of Summerville, has participated in nine Bridge Runs and is among those competitive, but not elite, runners who have been barely able to run in the past.

"In previous years, I got stuck in the pack and it was extremely frustrating," says Owens, who was in Wave B and waited six minutes after the initial gun fired to start.

Ed Gregory, 53, of Summerville, admits he even skipped a few Bridge Runs because of the crowds, but was "thrilled" with the wave start.

"It was the best ever because of the wave start," he said.

Their friend, though, had a different reaction.

Donna Cartwright, 54, of Summerville, was in Corral F -- a bigger, later wave -- and said it still was overcrowded.

"There were so many walkers in my wave," said Cartwright. "I think they need to break up the corrals even more."