Palmetto 200 Event Report - Part 3

So I was done - Charles was off on his run (they routed him on the road closest to the ocean - lucky!) and we went to the next spot where Chris would take over. It was at a baseball field and one of the volunteers was the wife of one of the Race Directors. (She's the one that told us the runner that collapsed was ok). We thanked her the for the help and allowing her husband to do this. The other wife was at the next exchange and we found out they originally wanted it held 2 weeks before this, but Folly Beach had another event going on. Oh well. So Charles did his 4.8 miles and Chris took over for his 3.1 miler,

ending just short of the Cooper River Bridge.


It was all familiar territory from doing the Bridge run before - Shem Creek, Mount Pleasant, etc. While waiting for Chris - I went and checked out the very nice kid's park/pier below the bridge and the views across the water.


Dave's run carried him up

and up over the Cooper River Bridge. As we passed him on the downhill, he was checking out the sites of Charleston from the bridge and looked to be doing just fine on his 6.3 miler. There was quite a bit of traffic (both cars and pedestrians) on Bay Street, so we thought that may slow him down some. We stopped along the Battery to take a photo
and check out the water. At the next exchange - a girl from that school was having each runner leaving from that spot sign a Palmetto 200 t-shirt. That was nice to see and I do not recall any other school representative out from the ones we stopped at. Dave did well and handed off to Alex

for his 6.1 miles out of Charleston and over the Ashley River, ending at James Island County Park.
We got stopped at a drawbridge on the way over (Alex did not get stopped). Lots of traffic to deal with and major roads too. The park was nice as it had a large open water dog park that we could see from our field near the entrance to the park.
We waited and chatted to some other teams. One team had 9 members and opted to run 4 legs each, but each did two of their legs back to back. Another team was a little behind, so they ran 3 legs simultaneously to catch back up. There are many ways to do it if the relay directors will work with you - and they certainly did here!
So Alex came in, Kerrie left
on the very last leg of the relay. Our Van #1 teammates had already showered, eaten and would meet us at the finish line. We had a recommendation to eat at Taco Boy at Folly Beach, so once we found parking (not fun), we made a reservation for our team.
Met the rest of our team

Spoke to the race directors before Kerrie came in
and we all joined her in the last stretch. Our fearless captain Chris brought it home!

The clock was an hour off, so our official time was 30:54!

We really enjoyed the relay and are already looking forward to our return to the Blue Ridge Relay in September (with both Mike and Todd back!)
Van #1 decided to forgo a second meal so soon after their first - but van 2 had a great time at Taco Boy!