runningwithfaith

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to stand and bike along on the sidelines of the RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon. And surprisingly, I had a great time not running! Lol. I’ll admit, very often when I’m on the sidelines of a race, I impatiently wish I had opted to run instead. Not this time! No Siree. I was quite happy with my lot and was very loud and, if I may so myself, hard on the runners out there trying to get them down to the beach before the sun came out. Starting out to a foggy morning did a little to keep the heat down for a short while before the humidity came to stay along with waves of runners.

Lucky for me, I now live in Brooklyn  and pretty close to Prospect Park so I was able to ride out to a predetermined point on the course, on Ocean Parkway, and cheer on one of my friends before the tidal wave of runners hit. From that point on, everyone was everyone as I couldn’t identify anyone and they just kept on coming. It’s been a minute with the races aside from the fifth avenue mile last year, which I ran and the nyc marathon, where I volunteered at the finish line, I hadn’t been out on a course cheering much. It’s another part of the running world that I love and now cherish. But I’ll be honest, that Brooklyn run is a beast all of the time. In all  my years running in New York, I’ve not heard or seen different. First off, the weather is almost always a miss. It’s either freezing rain, windy, humid, or hot. It never disappoints and it didn’t.

I have run the Brooklyn Half four times and each time it was quite the beastly experience. LoL. So much so, I’m convinced I won’t ever do it again. And that has nothing to do with the organization and execution of this race as it’s among the best by local organizers, New York Road Runners (nyrr). My experience is mine and largely based on my dislike for the latter 6 miles of the race, which is a pet peeve of mine as it relates to a lack of variation on any course. The last six miles of this race is run on Ocean Parkway, a usually busy and main traffic thourafare that’s a straight, dead run to the popular Coney Island beach with its attractions. Dead because there’s nothing to see and no shade, just an endless roadway without any seeming variation or end. My past experience has been everything from humid to montonous and anything in between. I was out there biking and cheering and I didn’t feel any less angst. And so my yells to “come on, stay with it, yes you can, you’re halfway to the beach” were from a real place. I was once in those shoes feeling like, what the heck did I get myself into, and I really didn’t think anyone on the sideline could relate though I appreciated their encouragement.

The truth is there was a lot more happening out on the course this time around with spectators and volunteer participation. As a result, there were a lot more presence to be seen and even interactions to be had should one choose to. This adds a bit of variation and decreases monotony in the instance of live music and dancing or even music boxes and funny cheer cards to read at various points as well as sprinkler stations and spectators giving out random things like candy or wet towels. It all adds up to the “race experience” and is always greatly appreciated by runners. That said, biking was much easier and I am grateful for that perspective and the opportunity I had to bike down to the finish and back up while cheering runners along. The beach looked pretty inviting and I’m sure it was a welcome sight and feel for many runners that day as they entered Coney Island. It was always the best part for me!