Yonkers Half Marathon

This past weekend I ran the Yonkers Half Marathon. It was not a goal race, so I actually did "have fun" while running it. (Oh, sorry, just used the most annoying phrase ever!) I decided to write a blog post about it though, because if you google the race, you don't find many blog posts about the course or the event.

First off, I must say I don't feel like I do particularly well on "hilly" courses, so I'm not quite sure why I signed up for this race. I think it was partially peer pressure, and partially because I know how nice it is to run somewhere new. After admitting that I also need to add this: The course is not that hard. Yes, there is one ridiculously steep hill at 4.5 miles, but it was super short. Other then that, all the hills were really manageable. Sorry Fairfield Half, you are still the worst course I've eve run! I'm sure it also helped a lot that last Tuesday I ran Harlem Hill six times....

Pros

• Late registration is only $50
• Doesn't sell out, so you can actually register on a whim
• First half is fairly scenic
• Water ever mile (handed out to you mostly by excited little kids and boy scouts! Too cute!)
• Small field 
• Good race photography
• Medal & Tech tee
• Close enough to the city to just take the train up in the morning
• Course measured accurately
• Some killer downhills! Especially that last one going to the finish line!

Cons

• Very little crowd support. I had originally thought about doing the full marathon as just a training run, but I know now it would have been brutal to run miles 15-23 with virtually no one out there spectating.
• Second half of the race was kind of...lonely. I must have passed about 20 people in the last 5k, and at one point I found a spot where there was no one in front of or behind me.
• After the race there were bagels with butter, jelly, jam, honey....but no cream cheese or even PB (okay, this is more of a personal preference as I hate most jelly/jams and don't really like butter either)
• Mile 2-3 was on this TERRIBLY paved road. I was warned by a friend I was running with that the street got really uneven. Despite being prepared, I tripped and almost did a terrible face/knee plant into the concrete. Thank god I managed to stay on both feet, because if I would have gone down there is no way I would have finished the race.

So, obviously my qualms with the race were minimal. I would definitely do this race again next year. September and October are my favorite months to race, and this one fits in there perfectly with fall marathon training!

Fierceitudness