(non) Race Report: Brooklyn Half, May 20, 2023

 I ran the Brooklyn Half this morning, finishing in an official time of 1:40:33.

I initially wasn't going to write a race report here, since I didn't race this, but instead did a workout during the race.**  But....one of the big reasons I write race reports is so that I have notes to look back on if I do the race again.  So I'll jot down some thoughts here, in bullet point form.

• Bib pick-up was located on Pier 2 of Brooklyn Bridge Park.  I'm sure that the point of holding it here was to showcase a lovely part of Brooklyn.  And it was lovely.  But....Pier 2 was a nearly mile-long walk from the nearest subway stop and didn't appear to be much closer to the designated rideshare drop off point.   Getting to and from the expo was a lot more walking than I would want to do on the day before a race.  To the point where I don't think I'll do this race again until they move the expo or offer the option to get one's bib another way.
• I stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Brooklyn.  It was a good enough location, but I don't think I'll stay there again.  I had a bad experience with this hotel where they cancelled my room on me for a very flimsy reason and I had to work to get it back.  And then, when I stayed there, I discovered that the hotel was adjacent to a 24/7 Cube Storage facility.  Meaning that people were going in and out of that facility (and driving trucks and yelling and opening and shutting big metal gates) literally all night long.  Luckily I always carry earplugs with me, so it wasn't too much of an issue.  But IF I ever do this race again, I'll look into other options.
• I left my hotel at 5:40 am to jog over to the starting area, about 1.5 miles away.  I thought I was being way too cautious and leaving early, but in actuality, this was just right or maybe a bit late.  Everything was crowded and a mess; I had to follow a convoluted path to drop off my bag, and then it took nearly 20 minutes to get through security and into my corral.   This was a big race at 26K runners, but it's not that big - the Army 10 Miler, the Broad Street 10 Miler, and the Monument Avenue 10K are all bigger, but also seem to work better.
• I wasn't crazy about the course either.  Essentially it was about 7 miles of up and down and up and down in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, followed by 6 gentle downhill miles that finished with an annoying run up a ramp and onto the board walk.  None of the hills in Prospect Park were especially bad, but after 7 miles they did start to wear on me a bit.   
  I found the final part of the course, with the concrete ramp and then a tight turn before about 200m on the board walk to be my least favorite part of the race.  Perhaps this is just because I really hate running on uneven boardwalks (which is a personal thing).  If I had been racing this, I would have found it very hard to kick at the end. 
  For myself personally, I don't like this course enough to justfy a return trip (unless I want to get another NYC guaranteed qualifier, and don't have any other options).
• The course finishes at Coney Island.  Which means that it was a long (45-50 minute) ride on the subway back to my hotel to the north, and would have been even further to Manhattan.  Anyone doing this race should note this and plan accordingly with regard to hotel check-out times.

[** Lengthy explanation of why I did this as a workout and not a race: My normal rule is that I only race during races; I don't like using races for workouts because I think doing so can result in a conflation of race and workout efforts, with the end result that one runs one's workouts too fast and one's races too slow.   Racing should always be where I give all I have; workouts should always be done with restraint.

However, this was a bit of a unique situation.  I want to run the NYC Marathon in 2024 with a group of friends.  NYC has a time standard that allows one to bypass the lottery for entries, and for me that time standard is 1:49 for a half-marathon.  However, entry under the time standard is only guaranteed if you run that time at a New York Road Runners race; there is a limited # of slots for time-qualifiers at non-NYRR races.  And those slots sell out very quickly.

So, I wanted to run that time at a NYRR race so that I had a guaranteed entry.  So I registered for the Brooklyn Half.

However, I then got greedy with the race registrations and ended up registered for...the One City Half-Marathon; the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, the Broad Street 10 Miler, and the Garry Bjorklund (Grandmas) Half-Marathon - all in the spring of 2023.  Five races of 10+ miles is too many in a season, so one had to go.

And then some friends of mine announced that the "20 year reunion" (actually 23 years, but we hate counting) of a nightclub I used to go to would be on the Thursday before the Brooklyn Half.   And I can tell you that there's no way that I can go out partying on a Thursday night and then race well on Saturday morning.  

So Brooklyn Half would be the race I would skip.  Except that I needed the NYC marathon guaranteed qualifier, which I could only get at Brooklyn.   

And that's the lengthy explaination of why I decided to run Brooklyn as a workout.]