2012 Brooklyn Half Marathon Registration Opens Monday, March 26th

[UPDATE, Feb. 15th 2013: Registration for the 2013 Brooklyn Half Marathon is open as of Noon today here, and is filling up fast. The race will be held on Saturday, May 18th.]
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It's been a long wait, but registration for this year's Brooklyn Marathon will finally open on March 26th, says the New York Road Runners Club. The registration opens at 12 Noon Eastern time. Visit the Brooklyn Marathon race page at that time to register; until then, you can view the course map.

The 2012 Brooklyn Half Marathon will take place Saturday, May 19th at 7 a.m.

The race will take place outside of Prospect Park and on the streets more than in previous years; this might have been part of the reason for the hold up in registration. It's not clear how much of that is a conscious decision by the NYRR and how much is due to the fact that a festival is taking place in Prospect Park that same day.

The bad news about this year's Brooklyn Marathon: the fee has been increased from $25 to $45 (for early registration), due to the increased reimbursement costs for police staffing. (The City told the NYRR last year that it would have to contribute more funding to cover police costs.) Another bit of bad news, for many people at least: the race will start at 7 a.m. instead of 8.

The good news is that NYRR has nearly tripled the number of registrants allowed in the race, meaning that 15,000 runners will be able to participate. Last year's race featured just under 6,000 finishers.

Even though there will be a lot more runners in this year's race, I'll be registering on the first day just to make sure I get in.

And there's another half marathon taking place in Kings County this spring: NYCRuns.com is holding its first-ever Verrazano Half Marathon on April 28th.

2012 L.A. Marathon - Results Page, Course Map, & More

[UPDATE: The L.A. Marathon website seems to be working again. See the overall results page and get live results runner tracking (application was taking a long time to load when I checked).]
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The annual Los Angeles Marathon takes place today, March 18th, and you can find results and other information about the race at its home page, www.lamarathon.com -- if you can get through to the website, that is. Maybe it's the predicted rain, or maybe it's just heavy traffic to the website, but the L.A. Marathon site has been returning "database error" messages and other glitches Sunday morning and afternoon.

Here are quick links for L.A. Marathon information, when the site gets to working again:
results page
course map
street closures
broadcast information

In the meantime, see the L.A. Times's L.A. Marathon blog for information on the race.

2012 NYC Half Marathon - [RESULTS] Sunday, March 18th

Find all the details on Sunday's NYC Half Marathon below.

[UPDATE, 3/14/13: See information on the 2013 NYC Half Marathon, which takes place Sunday, March 17th.]

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[UPDATE: 2012 NYC Half Marathon results are now posted here. Overall, Peter Kirui of Kenya won the men's race in 59:39 (only 15 seconds off the course record), while Firehiwot Dado of Ethiopia established a women's course record of 1:08:35. Congrats to all finishers!]

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Let's hope all the runners in Sunday's NYC Half Marathon didn't overindulge on St. Patrick's Day and will be ready bright and early for the race's 7:30 a.m. start. Here's some information on Sunday's race through the streets of Manhattan:

• check out the race-day essentials (PDF file)
• get details on the baggage check, start corrals, and more
• download the course map (PDF file)
• watch the NYC Half Marathon live: on TV in the NYC area on ABC (channel 7) from 7 to 9 a.m., and from anywhere online, streaming live at 7online.com.
• track runners in the NYC Half: you can use TrackMyRunners™ via SMS and get real-time updates (for up to three runners) on your cellphone, Twitter account, or Facebook page ($0.99 fee)
• or, track runners free on the web from your computer (up to 10 runners; see NYC Half Marathon page on race day

The race begins will a full loop of Central Park; from there the runners exit the park and take to the streets of Manhattan. Along the way they'll pass through Times Square and run along the western waterfront of Manhattan, going past Battery Park and ending up at South Street Seaport.

Elite runners in the race include Meb Keflezighi (a winner of the NYC Marathon) on the men's side and Kara Goucher among the women. See pro women profiles and pro men profiles.

Good luck to all runners!

2012 Marine Corps Marathon - Registration Opens 3 p.m. EST Wed., March 7th

Registration for the 37th Marine Corps Marathon opens March 7th.

Registration for the 2012 Marine Corps Marathon opens at 3 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, March 7th. At that time, go to the Registration page here.

The 37th Marine Corps Marathon will be held Sunday, October 28th. The race is the fourth-largest marathon in the U.S. and is sure to sell out quickly, so visit the website as close to 3 p.m. as you can. Last year, the race's 30,000 spots sold out in just over 28 hours, according to the race's site.

Read more at the registration announcement here (PDF document).  Check out the FAQ page here and the runner information page here for details on course maps, the weekend schedule, transportation to the race, and more.
 
With a registration fee of $92, the Marine Corps Marathon is one of the more reasonably priced major marathons. (The New York City Marathon, citing increased costs for policing and security, costs $266.)