The NYC Half is a NYRR race, and has grown a TON since I was first registered for it in 2008 (when it was still in July. And I didn't run it because I broke my foot 3 days prior. Womp Womp.). As you would expect (marathon debacle aside, though I suspect a lot of that had to do with Bloomberg and not NYRR, but guess who took the fall?), it was what you'd expect from NYRR. Clean, polished, well organized and such.
Pros:
- Terrific course
- great corral set up (including potties in each corral, which made a last minute pit stop enroute to the start line easy)
- relatively fast start for a 20k race (took me about 20 minutes to cross, and the streets were moderately full the whole way, so I think this was appropriate spacing)
- TONS of water, every half mile or so
- Did I mention the awesome course?
- Fair amount of spectators
- Tons of photographers (if you're into springing for race photos. some of mine were ok, but I am not buying)
- Great baggage system
- Good weather (30s, dry, not windy) considering the weird winter we had
- kind of weird demand to be in corrals 30 minutes in advance of start time
- TIGHT finish area
- finisher bag had a sport drink, water, and pretzels. Disappointing. I expected a banana and a bagel.
- Medal was so-so
5k: 29:33
10k: 1:00:10
15k: 1:31:20
20k: 2:02:07
Finish: 2:08:42 (9:50 pace)
Age/Gender: 927/1679
Gender: 4134/7609
Overall: 9402/14535
So overall a somewhat sub-average finish, and still no where near back to my 2008 sub-2 hr half time, but for sub-par training, respectable. And no tears, no frustration, and I enjoyed the race, so that's a win.
