As a girl, Katherine Holladay of North Charleston loved riding horses. It was a way to be outside and to feel free in all of nature’s beauty, her parents recall.
“She really loved riding horses,” John Moore remembers. But it wasn’t too long before the disabilities-focused school that she attended could no longer offer horse rides due to liability issues. That was the end of breezy rides in the distinct saddle for Katherine, a non-verbal child with epilepsy and other special needs.
Soon when she was 7 came along another option – being pushed in an adaptive wheelchair by runners like Sean Glassberg of Mount Pleasant. He went on to start Racers for Pacers, a small nonprofit to let children – and adults like Katherine who is now 21 – thrill to the mix of speed, wind, sunshine and the rhythmic pounding of the feet of a runner pushing a rolling chair.
“This got her back with the wind in her face,” Moore wistfully said, happy that Katherine participates in a handful of 5K and 10K races every year. “It gives her something to do. She doesn’t walk. She doesn’t talk. She doesn’t have anything else other than what we do with her. This gets her out with her friends.”
Her mother, Lynn Moore, agreed. “I’m glad we have it. It’s good for her.” Later she added that the others being pushed in races like the Cooper River Bridge Run are friends.
“It’s kind of a small family.”
- Read more in the City Paper‘s 16-page Official Bridge Run Run Guide
More than 30,000 expected
This year’s Bridge Run – the 47th – expects to accommodate more than 30,000 runners from all over the place, said Bridge Director Irv Batten.
Rain or shine, the April 6 race will start in Mount Pleasant and send runners across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. It’s a grueling 4.8% grade going up, but much easier going down, especially if you’re pushing a 120-pound adult and a chair that weighs about 10 pounds, says Roper St. Francis nurse Michele Milner, who has pushed Katherine in recent races, including the March Catch the Leprechaun 5K that helps to raise money for Racers for Pacers.
“The chair definitely does add another challenge,” Milner said. “At times, you have some technical issues with the chairs if they’re not pushing straight. If it’s flat, it’s not too hard, but uphill can be pretty challenging.”
Milner, who has been running competitively since middle school in Aiken, said she enjoys pushing Katherine because it’s a way to give back to the community for a sport that has given her so much.
“Katherine is nonverbal but she has her own way of communicating,” Milner said. “She definitely lets me know if she’s having a good time. She makes her happy noises and claps her hands. The louder the crowd around her the happier she is.
“It’s just a privilege just to give back a small piece of that to someone who otherwise wouldn’t be able to take part.”
What’s ahead
The Bridge Run, which touts itself as “the best organized and best conducted 10K race in the world, has a huge fiscal impact every year. It pumps about $33 million into the local economy over Bridge Run weekend as visitors pack hotels and flock to local restaurants and beer halls. It also generates thousands of dollars annually to charities and runners pump their legs to “Get over it,” meaning the bridge.
Runners start streaming into town on April 4 to pick up their race day packets and Bridge Run T-shirts at the Health and Wellness Expo at the Charleston Area Convention Center. They also can get free food and drinks and purchase all sorts of running gear at the 200 vendor tents in the facility.
On race day, wheelchair participants and the Racers for Pacers will start at 7:25 a.m. – 35 minutes before waves of runners cross the starting line.
For wheelchair participants to be able to push themselves or be pushed by someone like Milner, they have to show they can get over the bridge within about 30 minutes and finish in about an hour.
“They are vetted or seeded,” Batten said. “You have to be able to complete the 10K course or you’re not in the group,” he said, adding that race officials didn’t want any safety issues if the first wave of runners caught up with the wheelchair participants. “It’s worked well so far.”
All participants then head to the Finish Festival in Marion Square where they suck down water and inhale bananas and oranges from mounds of fruit provided by the race’s premier sponsor, Harris Teeter. Then amidst the sweat, exhaustion and exhilaration, there’s music, dancing and lots of smiles all around.
Racers for Pacers gets its start
Glassberg remembers first pushing Katherine in the 2011 Bridge Run.
“She was number one,” he said. “We just got in there (in the middle of the crowd) and ran.”
He also remembers getting pretty tired in that first race with Katherine, who was then 9.
“The physical aspect was definitely a workout, but you expect that when you’re pushing someone up a hill,” said Glassberg, an educator who has two degrees from Clemson. “There were a lot of people who were cheering us on. It happens all of the time. The running community is so happy and just good people.”
After that 2011 race, Glassberg, a Mount Pleasant father of four, realized he needed to give back to the community – and that creating a nonprofit to help people like Katherine be outside in the wind was just the thing.
The mission of the group is to provide “running chairs for individuals with disabilities who cannot run on their own. We provide these individuals with the opportunity to ‘run’ with a pacer on a regular basis at least once or twice per week and in local 5Ks, 10Ks or longer competitive runs throughout the Lowcountry.”
Over the years, the way that Racers for Pacers participated in the Bridge Run has changed.
Glassberg said he quickly realized in 2011 that running with a long chair in the middle of a pack was kind of dangerous – for Katherine in the chair and for other runners. So they then started toward the end of the race. But even then, slower runners eventually caught up with the dozen members of the Racers for Pacers and it got dangerous all over again.
By around 2019, Batten put the Racers for Pacers group at the front, with the understanding that the group had to make it over the bridge and be off the course by the time the elite runners finished. And that kind of amped up the pressure and competitiveness of the runners pushing the chairs.
“It’s definitely fun,” Milner said. “People are very encouraging. It’s also fun when we have a whole group of Racers for Pacers.”
And it’s just plain worth it, Glassberg added.
“Some of the kids respond very, very happily,” he said. “They react to it and yell and cheer and it’s pretty neat. Parents always say it relaxes them.
“It’s fulfilling for me just running with them and provides therapy for them,” he said. “Running allows those nerves to just relax. You go on a 5k or a 10K and their body is much more relaxed.”
- To learn more about Racers for Pacers, visit its website at RacersForPacers.org. More information on the Cooper River Bridge Run is online at BridgeRun.com.
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.