This weekend was the Brooklyn Half. I'd been looking forward to it for awhile. I'm hoping to run half marathons in all 5 boroughs this year, and I live in Brooklyn, so it was especially important to me.
I'm gonna divide this post into a few sections, figuring that the folks who ran Brooklyn don't need to hear about seeded corrals. :-)
Sections are:
- Stats
- Getting There
- The Race
- Random Thoughts
- You Call This a Finish Line?
StatsBrooklyn Half, May 3rd, 2008
Chip: 1:58:08
Pace/mile: 9:01
For me, that's really good. 2nd best time. I'm pretty sure the splits were very even, but I'm afraid I don't pay as close attention to this as a lot of people. It just seemed like every time I got to a mile marker, exactly 9 minutes had gone by.
Getting There
The nice thing about getting to Coney Island for me is that it's waaaaay easier than getting to Central Park. All I have to do is take the Q train, which arrived shortly after I got to the station. And then. went. very. slowly. I ignored this for most of the ride, but towards the end there I think a lot of us were feeling a wee bit nervous. But we got there with time to spare.
It's actually fun getting on a subway on race day, when half of the people are wearing race bibs. There was a guy who was struggling with his chip, so I helped him out. A little over a year and a half ago I ran my first half (and first ever road race), and was lucky to run into a friend who could help me. It's really simple to attach them when you know how, but it's nervewracking when you don't.
Anyway, NYRR is starting to use seeded corrals. Starting. All of our race bibs had colors on them (mine was a dainty sky blue), and we were supposed to line up in the section that matched our color. That kind of worked. Speaking as a life-long liberal, this is one situation where I think we could use some fascism. Still, I felt like I had to dodge around
fewer people than usual, so it's a step in the right direction.
I was positioned perfectly: there were nice warm bodies around me (on a slightly cool day), and I couldn't really hear what they were saying over the loudspeakers. Hopefully I can do that again in the future.
The Race
We started by running down the boardwalk, reaching a turn-around point, and running back along the boardwalk. The first race I've ever done where you have to watch out for sand as you run.
Two Team-in-Training coaches – Ramon and Steve – were out there cheering for people. By the time we were looping back they'd gotten a bit silly. Ramon, who is – and I mean this in the nicest possible way – completely insane, was yelling out the following helpful advice: "Keep running forward! Keep running forward! Keep going until you get to the point that says 'Finish Line'". Gee, thanks Ramon!
Most of the race is along Ocean Parkway, which is moderately flat, lined with trees, and... this is just my opinion... really boring Still, there was a nice feeling of camaraderie in my speed group, so it was nice. One woman slipped between me and another gent, and said, "'scuse me guys". Being a gentleman, I said, "have a nice run!" which got a smile.
I also got to chat for a bit with a nice woman who said she hadn't run in awhile, but had run most of the boroughs in previous years. Her introductory comment was a heart-felt, wordless exclamation along the lines of "phew!" and then chuckling when I turned around at that. (I also saw her again at mile 9 or so and said a friendly "still here!" but she seemed a bit out of breath, so I stopped talking.)
My friend M was hanging from a lamppost probably somewhere around Avenue T, yelling out encouragement and advice, and I got to high-five her as I ran by.
At mile 9 things stopped being boring because we entered Prospect Park. Then they became difficult. Prospect Park is nicely hilly, which is great if you're out for a 45 minute jog and feel like working on hills for a bit, but is less enjoyable if you've just done 9 miles and still have 4 to go.
So we ran up... and up... and up more; then down, then up, then down... then down more, then up, then down, then up, and then a final bit of up to get to the finish line.
My mother was nice enough to come out from Manhattan to cheer for me. She meant to catch me at mile 10, but somehow we missed each other. Still, she made it to the finish line and was able to cheer for me as I approached it.
Random Thoughts
It's so cute when little kids hold up their hands for high-fives as runners go by.
I feel sorry for people in cars who get stuck at an intersection with 8,000 people running by at different paces. Especially in Noo Yawk, where patience is not our strong suit.
Cloudy days are really nice for us bald guys. Yeah, yeah, I've heard that some high percentage of ultra-violet gets through clouds, but it's still easier to run without a hat.
You Call This a Finish Line?
The end of the race had some nice points and some frustrations. I'll write about the frustrations first.
The New York Road Runners are in general really great at organizing a road race. I think they're amazing, and that we're lucky to have them. I'm sure it's really difficult organizing an event for thousands of runners, but they get water, port-o-potties, etc., etc.
The one area that could use some work is the end of the race. This tends to get really crowded and frustrating. In particular:
- It would be great if we didn't have to walk in a single line after finishing the race. It would be great if we could spread out in several directions each of which had some food, some places to get water, and places to get our chips clipped. Instead, we're all funneled into this long thin area, waiting in long, confusing lines, and generally grumpy.
- We're hungry. We just want to get a bagel and an apple and go stretch. There were two people at the bagel table who were yelling at people to get in line on one side, and to not approach the table from the other side. Now, first of all, I'd like to say that I'm a very rules-bound person, and I did as they told me: I went to the other side, and waited in line, as directed. The second thing I'd like to say is that it doesn't matter. Really: they were focusing on the wrong thing. The important thing after a race is to give bagels to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. I wish they'd let people approach the tables from both directions, get a bagel, and leave. Really, that's all that's important.
On a more positive note, once I actually got my bagel, I got to stretch for a bit, and ran into my friend J who was volunteering. So I got to gab for a bit, and see a friendly face afterwards.
It's definitely a fun run, and I was happy with my time. I'd do it again. Hopefully next time they'll let us get bagels faster.
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