Sunday, May 31, 2009

More Blogs and Comments from the Brooklyn Half

Some of your stories from yesterday's race. Some had a blast, others have comments about the baggage set-up (too far), the porta-potties (not enough), the water situation (not enough) and the second loop in the park, with faster and slower runners intermingling (frustrating) ...

From Sica Here!

"I truly thought it was never going to end. But, like all things, it did, and we ended the race by running, maybe half a mile, into Coney Island. The crowd that lined the boardwalk was amazing. Cheers at the end of a race, heading towards the finish, is always motivational! I did well, and I'm proud of myself. I still have to work on not shutting down at the last mile."

From The Long Road to the 2009 NYC Marathon

"Seriously, this race was a wake up call. Either I've got to take my training up a notch or retire from this attempt at this year's Marathon ..."

From New York Barefoot Runner

"I ran this barefoot for the first time. It was a bit hot at 70 degrees and the Brooklyn roads are much rougher than I had anticipated or hoped for. Parts of prospect park road are very coarse and have sharp gravel spread on the road which sucks."

From What You Do Not Know Because You Are Not Me

"Just as I was telling my teammate that runners from all over came to run this course, the women next to us said "Yes, I came from Australia just to be here today. ... I got to boo Marty Markowitz, and yell "Develop, Don't Destroy" as I crossed the starting line."

From Hangry Pants

"Mile 8: Have first of my Sharkies and feel a little better. Start thinking about Scallion Pancakes and Yam Fries from Veggie Heaven and Ice Cream with peanut butter in it. ...

Mile 11: Still feeling awesome. See man lying in street with ambulance. Not so awesome. Yikes!"

From The Adventures of Cowboy Hazel

"I’ve saved the worst for last: We had to do almost a full lap of the park on the outside of the the slower runners. There was no divider on the inside, so they were stretching out into our “lane” and often completely blocking our paths. I was exhausted by the time I left the park, and not because of my pace."

From Live to Run - Run to Live

"We all finally got going. It was disturbing to us back-of-the-packers to make the first turn onto the loop and see runners going by already on their second lap! Grrr. Well, at least it was a downhill start - that really helped me warm up and build momentum."

From Runner, Knitter, MTA Rider +250mg Sarcastic Humor

"I don't know what happened around mile 8 - 9, but i started feeling pretty fatigued. I knew I was more than half way done, (only 6 miles left! only 5 miles left! I kept trying to remind myself) but I was tired. I think at the 8 mile water stop I forced myself to gag through half an orange GU. (Have I told you how much I despise those retched things?!?!)"

From A Healthier Happier Bear

"Even with THREE bathroom stops (in the woods) and having to wait at two water stations since they were out of water I lowered my time by 2 minutes according to NYRR since the MORE ..."

From One Runners World

" At mile 12.5, right when we got onto the Coney Island boardwalk, my body just shut down ..."

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Some great write up you linked to..Barefoot on the boardwalk...If I walk on the boardwalk fore more then 2 steps I will get a million little splinters...ouch!!

Anonymous said...

I can't beleive the first 7 miles were mostly up-hill! I was beaten up right off the bat. I prefer ending in Prospect Park, at least you knew once you've finished the ONE killer hill, it was almost over. This race had an arduous beginning, boring middle and uneventful ending with no sponsors or fun stuff for runners to indulge in at the end. Hopefully they will tweak a few things.

Unknown said...

The park is mostly down hill, isn't it? Once you're down with Zoo Hill, it's all pretty much downhill from there...

I didn't mind the park, but OP was kind of boring, especially since there was very little fan support.