Half Marathon Challenge and the Pink Hat

Me in front of the Coney Island Parachute Jump after last year's Brooklyn Half Marathon

     Tomorrow, Esther and I hit the streets of Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Half Marathon.  The Brooklyn Half is the second in the NYRR Half-Marathon Series and my favorite race in the series. 

     While the Manhattan Half is two laps of Central Park, the Queens Half zig zags through North Queens and the Staten Island Half is an out and back, some of it runs through industrial areas, Brooklyn’s course, like the borough itself has character (I’m sorry for not mentioning The Bronx — I haven’t run The Bronx Half yet).   

     The race starts with two loops of Prospect Park, exiting toward Fort Hamilton Parkway and out to Ocean Parkway.  Once on Ocean Parkway, you work your way up the alphabet — Avenue’s A through Z — for those of you who are not New Yorkers.   You head under the Belt Parkway onto Surf Avenue passing the handball courts and turning left and up to the boardwalk.  Once on the boardwalk you pass the Aquarium and the Amusement Park finishing up in Coney Island. 

     The course is as diverse as Brooklyn’s population, with Prospect Park’s challenging hills, to the flat straightway on Ocean Parkway to the wooden planks of the Coney Island Boardwalk.  After running 12 plus miles on concrete and asphalt surfaces, when you hit the boardwalk it feels like running in a row boat on choppy seas.

     Fan support along the course is good—last year it was mutual.  During the race an older woman had a hard time crossing Ocean Parkway, a runner stopped and walked her across looking like a boy scout doing his good deed for the day.  The race’s finish on the boardwalk with the ocean on one side and the amusement park on the other is among my favorites.

     After this year’s race there is the “Brooklyn Beach Party”, a local event with carnival games, clowns, jugglers.  All this is part of the effort to rejuvenate Coney Island.

Esther wearing the "pink hat" for this year's National Marathon

    You may be wondering about the pink hat?  Esther and a co-worker, let’s call him N — have a friendly rivalry that goes back a Corporate Challenge race their company had a few years back.  They have raced several times since then with mixed results.  Esther and N have a friendly bet on tomorrow’s race.  If Esther win’s, N has to wear her pink Jack Rabbit running hat, if N wins, he doesn’t.  Bragging rights are optional.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.