Cooper River Bridge Run will sell out before March, says race director

Registrations for the 35th annual Cooper River Bridge Run - to be held March 31 - are edging close to 33,000 and will likely reach its cap of 43,000 by March 1, according to Bridge Run Race Director Julian Smith.

Part of those numbers include 1,200 registrants from Boeing, which became a major sponsor of the event last year, said Smith.

Besides the likely sell-out, the Bridge Run is continuing efforts to make the event more festive. Headlining the musical entertainment for this year's Bridge Run will be Taylor Hicks, the winner of the fifth season of American Idol. Hicks will sing the National Anthem at the start of the race on Coleman Boulevard and then be whisked downtown to join his band to play for runners and walkers as they arrive at Marion Square in Charleston.

Also of note, the Cooper River Bridge Run Executive Committee - faced with having to find a new location for the Bridge Run Expo in 2013 because of Gaillard Auditorium's renovation - voted this week to hold the expo at the Charleston Area Convention Center in 2013, as well as in 2014 and 2015. This year's expo will still be held at Gaillard.

The subject of moving the expo sparked a controversy in the summer of 2009. Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley convinced the Bridge Run committee to keep it at Gaillard instead of moving it to North

Charleston. Bridge Run staff said the race had outgrown Gaillard and was partially responsible for traffic snarls on the peninsula on the day before the race.

Smith says the move will allow the Bridge Run to expand the expo from 110 booths to 300 and that he's already in talks with Reebok "to do something really big" for 2013. Smith added that he has had to turn away about 50 exhibitors from this year's expo because Gaillard is at capacity.