Race Spotlight: New Course for Queens Half Marathon
The New York Road Runner's Half Marathon Grand Prix Series brings runners used to racing in Central and Prospect Park to farther reaches of New York City. The five race series offers a tour of New York City that many never see.
This weekend's Queens Half Marathon has an all new course, starting at the unisphere at Flushing Meadows Park, built for the World's Fair of 1964-1965. Located close to the US Open site and the new Citi Field, the race offers a few things runners haven't experienced in their Queens experiences in years past.
The big advantage to the new course is location. Read anything about the Queens Half of years past, and you'll read about terrible transportation options and early rising times. This year's fresh course is located within walking distance of the subway and shouldn't necessitate a 3:30am wake up call. More than 5000 runners ran the course last year, and more may be attracted to the ease of transportation.
The course also offers runners new view of Queens. Starting and finishing at MacNeil park in years past was a beautiful way to begin and end a run through the suburbs, but the views of the Whitestone bridge perhaps were not as lovely a showcase of Queens as it can offer. The old course ran near water, but runner's should be glad this year of a tour around Meadow Lake - and perhaps some water-borne breezes- for the weekend's predicted mid-nineties heat.
The course also has a soundtrack , as have other races in the series this year.
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