Brooklyn Half Marathon 2014 Recap

On Saturday, I joined 25,587 other runners and ran the New York Road Runners Brooklyn Half Marathon. If you read my post from last week, you know that I had some race anxiety leading up to this day - but it was a great day!!

My race day alarm went off at 4:45am. After a post-midnight bedtime, rolling out of bed was no easy task!! But, we got up and got our race gear on and headed for the subway! No sleep till Brooklyn - right?!

My friend Katie was in wave 1, so we needed to be at the start around 6:30. Security was tightened this year, with the added addition of metal detectors and bag searches. This caused some back up at the start, and had many wave 1 runners frantically trying to drop off their bags and get into their start corrals on time. Overall, this race was really organized, but the additional security at the start definitely caused problems for some people. The NYRR was strict about corrals too, they had people at the gates checking bib numbers and actually closed the gates 15 minutes before the start of the race.

Since I was in wave 2, I had about an hour then to meander to my corral, use the port-a-potty (there were about 1,000 of these - it was awesome!), and relax. I spent a good amount of time stretching, praying, and listening to some good music in my corral before it started to fill up.

 

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The first half of the race runs through Brooklyn's Prospect Park. This was great because it provided a lot of nice scenery, plus some variety in elevation with a few nice uphills and downhills.

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After we left Prospect Park, the remaining miles were a straight shot down Ocean Parkway to Coney Island. I had read some race reviews that said how boring this part of the race was, but I didn't think it was that bad! I appreciated the tree lined streets, great crowd support, and wide road!

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The finish of the race is on the Coney Island Boardwalk, and it was great! There were tons of people, lots of cheering, and it was just beautiful!

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My finish time was 2:06:22. It wasn't my fastest race, but I hadn't set out to go for a PR, and I was happy with my time! There were 13,678 female finishers, and I placed in the top 50%, so I was pleased. The only race goal I had was to get good on-course race photos - and I did!

After I met back up with my friends, we headed for the after party at the baseball stadium. We grabbed some post-race refreshments (beer for everyone else, a lemonade for me - it was delicious) and sprawled out on the outfield in the sun. We were waiting for another friend to finish, so we just soaked up the sun and rested!

Overall Race Thoughts...

Negatives:

• There was some mess at the start with checking bags, but I didn't personally encounter any of that. 
• No bottled water at the finish.
• No free beer

 Positives:

• Overall organization - everything was well-marked and ran on time.
• Plentiful restroom facilities
• Clearly marked water/Gatorade stations at almost every mile
• Great crowd support
• Loved the course
• Coney Island Finish 
• Easy transportation on the subway