Race Recap: NYRR Brooklyn Half Marathon

My month of racing continued last weekend as I took to the streets of Brooklyn with my brother, John, and his girlfriend, Emily, in the New York Road Runners' Brooklyn Half Marathon. This was only my third ever half marathon and first since the three of us ran the Asbury Park Half Marathon last year. John and Emily had joined NYRR last year in order to automatically gain entry into this year's New York Marathon.

Me & John before the start of the race.

Joan, John and I took the train into New York on Friday afternoon. I got them to Joan's cousin's apartment near Central Park before I headed to Brooklyn to meet up with John. I didn't use the subway line that I was used to getting there, so I had to wander around a bit before I finally figured out where I was. The timing was fortunate, though, as I finally made my way to John's neighborhood just in time to catch FDNY trucks responding to a reported fire the block over from his apartment. I made my way to the call to see if I could catch any fire action, but it turned out not to be anything. John finally found me making my way back to his apartment. We plowed through some spaghetti and meatballs before getting to bed.

We were up early Saturday morning since the race started 7:00 in Prospect Park. We caught a taxi down there and made our way over towards the start. One thing that amazed me right away was the great organization of this race. I can't recall ever participating in a race with that many people where everything seemed to go so smoothly. The field was full since the race filled within two days of registration opening.

John & Emily rehabbing with chili
cheese dogs and lemonade.

The course was two loops of Prospect Park for the first 6.5 miles followed by 6.5 miles down Ocean Parkway all the way down to Coney Island. Running in the park was scenic and generally pretty wonderful. My first two miles were in the low 8 minute range, but then I settled in and dropped to the mid 7:00's. Once we swung out of the park and on to the city streets we were out of the shade, but I was able to maintain my pace. The second half of the race is almost identical to the second half of the Broad St. Run. It's slightly downhill, straight as an arrow and boring as anything else in the world. Keeping my heart rate in check and maintaining my pace, all I could do was keep ticking off the miles until we hit the boardwalk.

I finished the race in 1:43:00 even which was about 5 minutes better than my previous half marathon best achieved at the 2009 Philadelphia Distance Run. Considering I wasn't really pushing the pace and I made sure to run comfortably and take in plenty of nutrition, I am happy to see how much time I dropped. I feel good in saying that if I went out focussing on just a half marathon I could get down into the mid 1:30 range. It's good to have goals for next year.

John and Emily crossed the finish line in 1:50. Unfortunately, Joan and John got there right as they finished. Although they had planned to see us on the route and then catch another train down to the finish, the best laid plans failed to workout. At least they made it down there and found us fairly easily. John had been wonderful on the train, but he needed some time to run around, so we decided to rehab at Nathan's.

The happy family after the race.

The rest of the racing field seemed to have the same plan for race recovery, but given that this was still a week before the boardwalk opened for the season, we appeared to be the only reason they were open. John took care of getting the food while we held a table and let little John run around. The wait was worth it. Never has a hot dog tasted so good after a race. We finally wrapped things up and caught a train back to John's place in Brooklyn Heights.

I'm glad that we made the trip to New York for the race and to see my brother. This was John's first trip there, and we spent Sunday morning wandering through Central Park. John was in all his glory running around, playing with other kids and watching everyone jogging and biking. We got a chance to catch up with Dave Lazarus, a friend of mine from Colgate's Outdoor Education program. Dave and I ran Colgate's caving program and have probably spent more time with each other underground than above. Dave also competed in Ironman Lake Placid a few years ago, therefore placing himself, unknowingly, on Joan's "List of Blame." To me, he's been a great resource and motivator.

This Memorial Day Weekend has been a good weekend off from racing. I had a big day of training on Saturday with a long swim and long bike, but now I've started to taper into next weekend's Ironman Mooseman 70.3. Next weekend will be the first big test of the season, and I'm looking forward to the longer distance race.

Correction: The post originally stated that John and Emily finished in about two hours. John promptly notified me of their actual time. He wasn't happy with the author.