CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – It was a warm and humid day as thousands of runners and walkers tackled the 48th annual Cooper River Bridge Run. The race began at 8 a.m. Participants in the wheelchair category made their way over the bridge, followed by the elite runners, and each heat was released t hereafter until all runners and walkers crossed the start line. Krige Schabort, from Capetown, South Africa, was the first to cross the finish line in the wheelchair division with a time of 23:55, besting his time of 25:48 last year. This is the second year in a row Schabort won his division. Peter Njeru, of Kenya, earned a $10,000 prize after being the first to cross the finish line for the male elite runners. He kept a wide lead on the final stretch of the race. For the second year in a row, Sarah Naibei, also of Kenya, crossed the finish line first for the female elite runners. There were 15 elite males and 15 elite females competing in the 2025 race. Herman Garic, 35, holds the division’s record at 22:34, set during 2022’s event. The starting line for the Cooper River Bridge Run is located close to Simmons Street in Mount Pleasant, and heat markers begin near the Moultrie Shopping Center. Runners head down Coleman Boulevard, cross the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, and head down Meeting Street onto Woolfe Street before making their way down King Street, up Wentworth Street, and back up Meeting Street to Marion Square. Here’s when roads and the Ravenel Bridge will close for the 2025 Cooper River Bridge Run Today’s bridge run is drastically different from the first held in 1978, where 766 participants crossed over the Silas Pearman Bridge. Now, tens of thousands of runners will cross the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge as they make their way to the finish line near Marion Square. The race was rerouted from the Silas Pearman Bridge to the Grace Memorial Bridge in 1980 and later moved back to the Silas Pearman in 1995. It moved to the newly constructed Ravenel Bridge in 2006. ...read more read less