Happy Wednesday! Today I’m linking up with Annmarie from The Fit Foodie Mama, Jen from Pretty Little Grub, Michelle at Fruition Fitness and Nicole from Nicole from FitFul Focus for Wild Workout Wednesday!
If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that the weather for this race was…well, it just outright sucked! Basically the weather forecast showed rain, but that it would stop around 9-10am. To me that was okay because I figured that would mean I would only have to run in the rain for half of the race. Of course Mother Nature is a big fat liar, so it rained for the entire race. Mix in rain with 20-25 mph winds and 51 degrees and that’s just a great big ball of fun!
Truth be told, I wasn’t that excited to run this race. It’s about a 2 hour commute from my house and I had not heard good things about the course. I really only ran this race to get in another long run and to also complete the Five Borough Series. The course wasn’t all that exciting with very little spectators (probably because of the rain). Here’s a little more information on the course:
Miles 1–3: You’ll start at Bay Street and Slosson Terrace, and proceed down the scenic St. George waterfront. You’ll turn left on Richmond Terrace and pass the Staten Island Ferry Terminal before heading down Bay Street. Just before reaching the 3-mile marker, you’ll turn right onto School Rd.
This part of the course was mainly running down streets in the neighborhood, mixed in with a few inclines.
Miles 3–6: From School Rd. you will merge onto Lily Pond Ave., passing Fort Wadsworth. From there you will turn right onto Father Capodanno Blvd and run out along the South Beach shorefront.
This was a hard part of the run. The wind REALLY started to pick up and I felt like I was running against the wind for miles. The wind was worse probably because we were by the beach.
Miles 6–9: Turning around at Lincoln Ave., you will head back up along Father Capodanno Blvd., eventually turning left onto Lily Pond Ave. followed by a quick right onto Battery Rd.
At this point I was REALLY over the race. I was getting pelted with rain (maybe hail?) and it was getting more difficult to see. On the plus side, I was happy that this part of the race was mainly flat.
Miles 9–13.1: You’ll head back up along Bay St. and Edgewater Street until you reach the ballpark again to cross the finish line at home plate!
There was a massive hill around mile 9. It didn’t make any sense to run it because I would have been out of energy for the remaining 3 miles. Luckily when I was walking I ran into Dani! This was the highlught of the race and we spent some time chatting about the upcoming NYC Marathon.
After about a mile we parted ways and I ran the rest of the way to finish the race. I was super happy to see that finish line!
So because of the weather, this race had some issues. New York Road Runners (NYRR) posted this on their Facebook page on Monday:
This is really why I like this organization. Although the weather was out of their control, they still apologized for some of the issues during the race. I can totally appreciate that and this means that they will be more than prepared for next year’s race.
As with all of my race recaps, here are more Pros and Cons:
Pros
Volunteers – THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the outstanding volunteers that showed up to the race, with a smile on their face, ready to help out the runners in any way possible. I cannot imagine how hard it must have been to stand in the rain for hours. I have heard that it is difficult to get volunteers for this race every year because of the location, so the race was already short staffed. I’m sure other volunteers called out the morning of the race because of the weather conditions. For all of the volunteers that showed up and helped, you are ALL rockstars and I can’t tell you how much all of the runners appreciated each and every one of you. Again, THANK YOU!!
Medal
As always, the medal was great!
In addition, with this race I completed the Five-Borough Series!
Post-race food – Apples, water, Gatorade, pretzels and bagels were provided for all the runners.
Cons
No heat sheets – I was basically stunned that there were no heat sheets available. Runners were literally shaking while waiting to get the post race food. I even walked by the medical tent to see if there were any in there and they didn’t have any. For a race in the Northeast, in October, I would definitely expect heat sheets to be provided.
Baggage Check – Luckily I didn’t use baggage check because the lines were LONG! Again, this could be because of a lack of volunteers but I heard that most people waited between 15-25 minutes to get their clothes. The lines were unusually long for a NYRR race. I’ve never seen the lines that long.
Finish Line – The race finished in a stadium so we had to run on the grass. This probably would have been cool but the grass was mainly mud at that point and I had to focus really hard on not falling and busting my butt. If they had laid down a tarp or something for us to run on, that would have been much better.
So that’s it in a nutshell? Have you ever run a race in crazy conditions?
Nicole @ Fitful Focus says
Bad weather is the worst!!! I’m glad you still powered through and rocked out the 5-Borough Series, though! Woot!! Also, NYRR really is the best. Their races are some of the most organized I’ve ever been to. Even though the weather was out of their control, I’m glad they acknowledged the crappiness of the situation.
kookyrunner says
Totally agree. The weather really threw everyone for a loop because it was supposed to be “die down” early in the morning, in case it just got worse! Totally out of their control but I was happy that they acknowledged it!
Annmarie says
Wow congrats on completing the series, that is amazing! And UGH for bad weather- I have had my fair share of it this year racing too and it is NEVER fun!
kookyrunner says
Thanks so much Annmarie! The weather was so crazy. Looking back I just laugh now lol.
Janelle @ Run With No Regrets says
Congrats on a tough race and completing the race series! Running in the rain and wind is really tough, just one of those on its own is bad enough!
kookyrunner says
All I can do now is look back on the race and laugh – it was SO ridiculous, lol. Thankfully I will have great weather for my race this weekend.
Wendy@Taking the Long Way Home says
So so cool that you completed the series and got all the medals. Now that is something I’d want to do. Way better than Disney, IMHO!!! Great job, Kim!
kookyrunner says
I agree! I don’t think I’ll ever do a Disney race but running the five boroughs in New York was a blast!
Sharon says
Congrats on completing the series and finishing a wet and windy half marathon! You rock! Love the medal!
kookyrunner says
Thanks so much Sharon!