Tomorrow morning at 7am I be at the Brooklyn Museum surrounded by about 20,000 of my closest friends at the at the start of the Brooklyn Half Marathon. This point-to-point race like the borough hosting it has its challenges and a certain attitude. The race’s 7am start time with limited street parking and shaky weekend subway service makes the first challenge getting to the start line.
The race starts next to the Brooklyn Museum on Washington Avenue. After running the around Grand Army Plaza’s loop and under the arch the runners run one loop of Prospect Park, exiting the park on Prospect Park Circle and heading to Ocean Parkway. On Ocean Parkway it’s a five mile run up the alphabet towards Surf Avenue passing the handball courts and climbing up onto the boardwalk, once on the boardwalk, it’s the .1 towards the finish.
While always a fan favorite, the Brooklyn Half has changed considerably from the first time I ran it in 2009, growing from 7000 runners to the 20,000 who will be pounding the pavement tomorrow morning. The race has become a destination race for runners in the Tri-State Area and beyond complete with a three day pre-race party complete with live music and fireworks show.
The Brooklyn Half is one of my favorite races that I have many fond memories of, and tomorrow’s early wakeup call and increased security won’t do anything to diminish that. So let me wrap this up, I have a race to run tomorrow.


