Category Archives: planning

04.03.12
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Brooklyn

bklyn_001After spending the last year and a half based in Central Park, I’m moving my training runs to Prospect Park in a few weeks. Why so? On the personal side, things have been going extremely well with Jessica and we’ve decided to move in together. Our place in Boerum Hill is about a mile from Prospect Park, so most of my outdoor runs will be based there in the future. I’m sure I’ll miss the proximity to Central Park – especially on race days – but otherwise I’m looking forward to getting out of Manhattan.

A friend had mentioned the Brooklyn half-marathon a while ago and I was watching out for it on the New York Road Runners calendar. The race was listed as TBD for quite some time, leading to speculation among many in the running community about a change in date or course. Nevertheless, details of the race were published two weeks ago and the registration date set for March 26th. I was out of the country at the time, and arrived home that afternoon. Knowing the popularity of the race, one of the first things I did when I got home was to open the NYRR site and sign up for the race. Lucky I did, as the race sold out in a matter of hours.

Having completed my first half-marathon only a few weeks ago, I’m excited to do it all again. The course sounds very interesting and the finish, along the Coney Island boardwalk, is something worth looking forward to.

03.27.12
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Planning For The Future

planning_future_001Now that I have completed my first half-marathon, I don’t plan on letting up. On the contrary, I am going to continue setting myself more challenging goals and keep pushing myself to reach beyond my limits. That said, I have been taking it easy since the half-marathon. I spent the following few days recuperating, focusing on my swimming as a means of staying active and stretching out my muscles. I ran 5K last Wednesday at a decent clip and felt no pain in my legs, and following a trip to Ireland, got back on the treadmill to clock up 4 miles this morning. I’ll revert to 4-6 mile runs for a couple of weeks to avoid putting too much stress on my body while maintaining my fitness levels and planning for upcoming races.

At this point, I am scheduled to take part in the Scotland Run (10K) on April 7 and the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K on May 12. Interestingly, both races are a full loop of the park but in a counter-clockwise direction – something I have never done before.

Like many others, I was also watching the New York Road Runners site for updates on the Brooklyn Half-Marathon. I caught the news late last week that registration would be open on Monday, March 26 at noon and managed to sign up shortly thereafter. It appears that many others were on the ball too, because ten hours later the NYRR twitter feed broke the news that the race had reached capacity and registration was closed. The race itself is scheduled for May 19th and is one I am really looking forward to as the course includes a long downhill stretch over the second half that follows Ocean Parkway all the way to Coney Island.

My marathon situation should clear up over the next month or so. April 1st is the first registration date for the Philadelphia marathon and the field for the NYC marathon is announced around April 26th. The marathons are two weeks apart, so I can realistically only compete in one of them. My first preference is to run the NYC race, but Philadelphia is close and is a popular course among east-coast runners, so if I don’t get into the NYC race I will be just as happy to run Philly.