There aren't any hills in Charleston ...

... only bridges. Seriously, Charleston is flat as a pancake. I miss the rolling hills of the Piedmont of NC and the beautiful Blue Ridge in the high country, but I also LOVE the beach. And running on the flat terrain is an added bonus. But, 2 weekends ago on a whim I ran a 5k with a friend when I went back to Charlotte. (Sidenote: Charlotte is NOT hilly compared to places where many of you live, but it is also NOT flat by any means--especially not compared to Charleston!). After the LungStrong 5k (finishing time: 33:44), I realized I need a few hills to run on.

So, last night my husband and I set off to the Ravenel Bridge that connects Mt. Pleasant to downtown. Over and back is close to 5 miles, and the slope is 4.1% most of the way (but gets up to 5.6% for part of the trek!). Lesson learned ... bridges are TOUGH! I ran the 10K bridgerun last year, but hadn't at all prepared for it and we were so far back in the crowd that by the time we even made it to the base of the bridge we had to walk. There was no way to get through all the walkers. Needless to say, we did make it up and back down alive. But after making it to the bottom of the first side and coming back up, it was hard! I did end up walking a lot of the second part up, but am ok with my first try out. We finished the 4.9 miles in exactly 1 hour. A really slow pace overall, but not too bad for walking so much.


And finally, check out this great giveaway (here) from Mel over at Tall Mom on the Run. Giveaway ends November 1st .. hurry to enter!