A Warm Summer Run at NYRR Brooklyn R-U-N 5K

Look at all these runners. Even more were in front of me!

New York Road Runners (NYRR) is a NYC based running organization that puts on many races throughout the year, and are the main organizers of the NYC Marathon. They produce running events of varying distances, and welcome runners of all types and experience. I ran the Brooklyn R-U-N 5K with this organization a few weeks ago.

They have a modern headquarters in midtown that made pre-race package pick up pretty easy. There is also a wall of history here where you can view NYC running events over the years, and they also offer running classes, tips, and expertise. You can join as a member and receive discounts on their races you sign up for.

Now, I realize the Brooklyn RUN 5K was their inaugural race at Prospect Park, but being a well established running organization I expected a bit more. Event seemed overbooked, and it was mass confusion at the starting gate. Wish I could rate higher, but as someone who has run over 20 races this past year I am judging them against a few other organizations I have participated with during my runs. I have experienced varying degrees of races – the routes, food and drink, staff, race day organization, finisher medals/swag, fun factor, etc.

Thousands of runners after the finish line grabbing a bagel and water.

When I arrived to the race site I was amazed at the amount of people piling in. Just shows how popular running is here in NYC, and how many people wanted to race in Brooklyn. My opinion is that the groupings became a mess and there was no real coordination. With close to 5,000 runners it seemed a bit disorganized. We had assigned starting gates on our bibs, but there were so many people it became impossible to keep order. Kind of hard to get a good starting pace going as it was a bottleneck with runners and walkers meshing together. Still, it was a good run on a warm humid summer evening. Once people spread out a bit it became a fun run.

Terrific volunteers, water stations along the way, easy to follow race course, bagels and drinks at the finish, a nice hat as race swag. Wish there were more food trucks with better variety at the post-race festival area though. With this many participants just having two food trucks and one ice creme truck didn’t cut it. They needed more variety – pizza, fruit smoothies, tacos, vegan options, etc, for this many people running.

Two food trucks and one ice cream truck. More options were needed.

Perhaps for next year cap it at 3000 runners, as there were way too many, since even with the staggered starts for each group it was a bit messy from what I experienced. Still, I know that NYRR will probably not want to turn away the revenue by capping it as they do need to make money to support their efforts. Guess we’ll see next year as I’m willing to give it another shot if this race happens again.

Overall, NYRR is a quality group that puts on terrific running events. As this was a first time race I can understand the glitches. Once again, it was a pleasure to race in the borough of my birth. On to the next run!