Best Half-Marathon in NYC?

Hi there,
Check out the NYRR race calendar page:http://www.nyrr.org/races-and-events/2013
There are a lot of 1/2. I almost did them all this year and I found Brooklyn 1/2 being the flattest (only 1 hill). It fills up in hours, so if you elect that one, you have to be SUPER fast at signing up.
An other site that you may want to check out is:http://nycruns.com/
The narrow half, or anything they have next to the verrezano bring is super flat and fast.
cheers,
c

Brooklyn, obviously....


Seriously, I've only done Brooklyn and Greta's Great Gallop. Greta's is nice because it's just two loops of Central Park, so it's very easy logistically, but it's not a very interesting course.

Brooklyn is pretty flat. The route is a little different than the year I did it, but other than the short, steep hill in Prospect Park (which isn't as bad as Harlem Hill in CP), and a long false flat once between the park and Ocean Parkway, it's pretty much dead flat the whole way. Once you pass about mile seven, the only steep incline is the ramp from the sidewalk up to the boardwalk.

They've done a great job of turning the Brooklyn Half into a marquee event. The pre-race stuff is really fun, and the energy around the race itself is amazing. I love the Coney Island finish. (My suspicion is that NYRR wants to add a second full marathon to their schedule and they're testing the waters in Brooklyn. The hype and the marketing that surrounded the event last year was ten times what it's been int he past, and really felt more like a full than a half.

Just FYI, they almost doubled the size of the field this year, so the race didn't sell out nearly as quickly as it used to. It's still a popular race, but you don't need to be poised above your keyboard the minute they open registration.

Is Brooklyn half the best scenery? I am alternatively looking at La Jolla HM (Cali)... 13.1miles does the coast line.

Suggestions?

Were you talking about HM's in NYC or about anywhere in the US? I thought you were talking about NYC only. I would say that the Brooklyn Half has scenery that is as good as anywhere in the NYC area. There are probably some rural halfs out in CT or NJ and my wife ran one out in the Rockaways that was by the beach, but it depends on what you consider scenic, I guess.

Compared to LaJolla, Brooklyn doesn't come close in terms of scenery. In fact, as much as I love my 'hood, there are probably about a billion HM's around the country with better scenery than the Brooklyn Half.

I was talking NYC only because I do a lot of consulting gigs in Manhattan. But I was in SoCal couple of weeks and it was gorgeous there. I thought it would be worth taking a trip to west coast for a race along the coast.

IMHO, the scenery for the Brooklyn Half is the best. I will say that I haven't personally done Queens, Bronx or Staten Island, but I haven't heard good things about them. The NYC half is nice too, if you can get in. I think it still goes through Times Square, which is probably fun. After that, it's mostly along the West Side and it finishes in the financial district. For me, starting in Prospect Park, running down Ocean Parkway and finishing on the Coney Island boardwalk is more fun, but YMMV.