Sri Chinmoy New Year’s Day Half Marathon
Queens, NY
- Half Marathon
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
The Sri Chinmoy New Year’s Day Half Marathon will take place on New Year’s Day, featuring a scenic, flat and fast loop around historic Flushing Meadows Corona Park! The course is “pancake flat” and fast USATF certified 1.27-mile loop starting near the intersection of Ave. of Commerce and Ave. of … MORE
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The Things I do for Pancakes
I decided to go to NYC this year for the Midnight Run this year and of course I was going to see if I could squeeze in a half marathon … MORE
I decided to go to NYC this year for the Midnight Run this year and of course I was going to see if I could squeeze in a half marathon as well on my trip and I found this one. This race takes place on New Year’s Day at 9am in Corona Park Queens. Basically after the Midnight Run I went back to my hotel, slept a couple hours and took a 45 minute subway ride to Queens. The race is located in Corona Park about a 10 minute walk from the Mets subway station. If you can drive though I would recommend driving as there was plenty of parking and it was a frigid day. I don’t usually get race day nerves anymore but I was very, very nervous about this race. The race had a 3 hour time limit and while most of my half marathons have been under 3 hours I had several things going against me including lack of sleep, tired legs, bad weather and of course my little tumble on a trail last weekend. However the race is multiple loops and I figured if I fell behind pace I would ask if I would get a finish time and if they said no i would drop out. The race had a pretty cheap registration fee for NYC. There was good pre race communication and great directions how to get to the start. Like I said the morning was cold, windy and kind of icy. This was the second coldest half marathon I’ve done and yes it was colder than Antarctica. Packet pickup was race morning and was easy and included a light zip jacket and the bib. I put on the zip jacket as an extra layer. I do wish there was somewhere warm at the start such as a heated tent to hang out in before the race. This is where having a car would help. Luckily there were some bathrooms in the park that were heated so yes I spent about 45 minutes in a bathroom to stay warm lol. The course is essentially 10 loops that are a bit over 1 mile. It is well marked. Some parts were icy but it wasn’t bad. There were some mile markers spray painted on the ground. I didn’t see every mile but I think some were covered by ice/snow. You passed a timing mat each loop and as you got closer to the end someone would tell you how many loops left. The first 0.25 mile or so was rough as you were running right into the wind. I thought about just quitting but then you turn and are no longer facing the wind and it is not bad. The scenery is boring as it’s 10 loops but you do run next the Unisphere which is kind of cool. It is also flat as a pancake. The only reason I gave it 2 star difficulty was the wind and ice. While I didn’t love the 10 loops, it did make it easy to pace yourself. There was also an aid station with water and gatorade you passed each loop. There was no nutrition on course (but it wasn’t advertised that there was). I was happy my first mile was under 13 minutes and felt better about finishing in the time limit and decided to perservere. While the cold was rough I used my familiarity with the course and the wind to strategize and was happy I was able to finish a few minutes under 3 hours especially given the circumstances. In terms of back of the pack friendliness, it was odd as the race was completely back of the pack friendly if you were under 3 hours. I was treated no different than the faster runners with everyone encouraging me and nothing put away when I finished which I definitely appreciated. The medal is fine especially for the registration fee. There is a nice pancake breakfast after which tasted great. They did shut things down though right at 3 hours. They shut the timing mat last but the last finishers recorded were like 1 minute over 3 hours. They did seem strict with the time limit. So if you are a back of the packer but under 3 you will be fine but I would not do this race if you are an over 3 hour finisher. Overall I can’t say running 10 laps in Corona Park in the cold and wind was my favorite racing experience but I felt like everyone did everything they could to make it as enjoyable as possible and I was glad to be able to check off my first half marathon of the year so quickly. Definitely not my first choice race for NY state for 50 staters as 10 laps in Corona Park is even worse than 3 laps in Central Park. However if you are a local and looking for a New Year’s Half or in NYC for another reason New Year’s Day and want to run a half then I’d recommend running this.