Saturday, May 1, 2010

Brooklyn Half Now Starts at 7 a.m.!

Wow, this could be interesting. Not sure when this was posted, but according to the NYRR, Brooklyn Half is now starting at 7 a.m. (yawn)

The exact language:

Update: The start time of the Brooklyn Half-Marathon has moved from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.

(OK, not sure I added much to this, but still ...)

I want to check this, but I've got to think this may be the one of the earliest ... if not *the* earliest ... start time for a NYRR race (there may have been some races in Central Park that had this start time though).

One hopes that the MTA isn't mucking around with the subway schedules that AM - oh, wait, that's almost a guarantee, given all the (necessary) work needed on the lines. So make sure you're watching the planned rerouting to figure out where you need to be.

Some speculation as to why: Avoiding the weather conditions/water mess that happened last year, or safety/traffic issues would be my two top choices. Note the course still hasn't been posted, which could be a third, if they have to modify.

For those of you who are hoping to get into the race, you're out of luck - NYRR has already closed the race. Expect about 10,000 runners on the course.

4 comments:

Brett said...

I can't wait to come home and wake up my wife to tell her how I did.

ChickenUnderwear said...

The early time is probability all about traffic. Shutting down Ocean Pky cuts a big chunk of Brooklyn in half.

David said...

The New York City Half last August started at 7 am and the Queens Half is scheduled to start at 7, though for some reason the Bronx Half in August still has an 8 am start time.

Brooklyn Runner said...

David, you're right - I've now had a chance to look back at some other half start times.

One issue that comes up, obviously, is that public transportation can be iffy at that hour, especially for runners heading to Brooklyn from the Bronx.