Sunday, November 4, 2012

Looking for a Marathon in NYC? Get on the Brooklyn Waiting List

The Brooklyn Marathon may be expanding its field.
UPDATE, Nov. 7th: We received an e-mail from NYCRuns late Wednesday night with the bad news that their request to expand the Brooklyn Marathon's field has been turned down, and that no more entries can be added. 
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If you're looking for a marathon in the five boroughs to replace the canceled New York City Marathon, you might want to consider looking into the second running of the Brooklyn Marathon on November 18th. It had already reached its capacity, but the organizers, NYCRuns, have instituted a waiting list as they look into expanding their field of entrants.

From the NYCRuns announcement:
"At this time, we can only offer a non-refundable waitlist. We hope to be able to allow you all in to the race but that is far from certain. If we are not able to increase the field size we will not process refunds but we will allow you to use the credit for any other NYCRUNS owned events through the end of 2013. So, just to recap. No refunds – either you get into Brooklyn or the fee transfers to other NYCRUNS races of your choice.

The cost for waitlist registration is $125. if our request for increased capacity is met the cost will rise to $150. Fifty dollars of this amount will be donated directly to The Prospect Park Alliance at the $125. price point. Seventy-five dollars will be donated at the $150. price point."
 If you're looking into a replacement for the NYC Marathon and don't want to head out of town, consider the Brooklyn Marathon. At least with this race if you don't get in, you can use your non-refundable registration fee to register for other races that NYCRuns holds throughout the year. (And NYCRuns sponsors a lot of races throughout the city and beyond, from 5Ks in Riverside Park to half-marathons in Brooklyn and the Yonkers Marathon.)

One last New York City Marathon note: many of the runners who were supposed to tour the five boroughs on foot did great job of making the best of a disappointing situation by running 26.2 miles in Central Park or by heading to Staten Island to assist in the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.

If you're interesting in contributing to the Hurricane Sandy relief effort, look into the New York Road Runners Club's "Race to Recover" initiative, or consider contributing directly to the American Red Cross at redcross.org.

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