Brooklyn Half: 4 Weeks to Go

Four weeks from now, many of you will be making the final preparations for the May 22 Brooklyn Half - a destination race for a lot of folk who wanted a great spring race to target. Some thoughts about what you should do in the coming days:

-- Know the course. While the final course hasn't been posted, it's likely the first half of the race will be some combination of loops within Prospect Park, following by a trip down Ocean Parkway and a finish on the boardwalk. While the park is probably part of your routine, Ocean Parkway may not be, and it's worth a trip down it.

From the base of the park to Coney Island, it's roughly 5.5 miles. There are grades of maybe 0.2% in a few places, but otherwise pretty flat. And it's mentally challenging, especially if you've never done it before, because as you start counting down the letters (Ave. C, Ave. F, Ave. M) it becomes almost mind numbing. So run it. Obviously, the traffic will be stopped during the race, so the training will be an exercise in frustration if a lot of cars, but it's still worth doing.

-- Pick a race two-three weeks out, preferably a 5-mile or 10K, and race your half-marathon pace at that distance. It's a) a great workout and b) gives you a sense of where you are in training. The Healthy Kidney on May 15 may be a little too close in time to do this (though I'm sure many of you, like myself, are running both races), but check out the Newport 10K in Jersey City on May 8 (also a very flat, fast course.)

-- By now, you've hopefully been building your mileage to at least 20-25 a week, and have a long run in there of at least 8 miles. Never fear if you haven't - there's still time - but if not, try to carve out runs of 8, 10, 11 miles (or more) in the next few weekends. Don't worry as much about time in these long runs, it's all about getting your body used to being on the road for that long.

-- Start get the cheering section in place. Invite your Manhattan friends who think Brooklyn is a foreign country out for a night on the town (not that Friday, of course), and tell them they should plan on a Coney Island brunch that day.