NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Brooklyn Photo Gallery[Home] |
 One of the most popular and enduring races on NYRR’s annual calendar, the Brooklyn Half begins at Coney Island, giving runners the option of a warm-up run on the beach. |
 The 8:00 a.m. start lends an atmosphere of calm. This year’s conditions were favorable, with plenty of sunshine and temps in the low 40s. |
 Though some runners bundled up against the chilly ocean breezes… |
 …others stripped down to their singlets. After all, the calendar says it’s spring! |
 And they’re off! The second race of the 2007 NYRR team points series, the Brooklyn Half drew a competitive crowd to New York’s largest borough. |
 Astroland Park’s landmark ferris wheel provided a unique backdrop as nearly 5,000 runners began their 13.1-mile journey. Nearly three miles of the race course are on the boardwalk. |
 The route continues on Surf Avenue, past the New York Aquarium. The men’s race began to take shape here, with David Nash of the Brooks-Manhattan Track Club leading Warren Street’s Edward Gapak. |
 Flat and straight, Ocean Avenue, comprises about 5 miles of the course as it passes through or near Brighton, Sheepshead Bay, Bensonhurst, Midwood, and Borough Park. Nash and Gapak continued in the lead, with defending champ Felipe Garcia of Urban Athletics a few yards back. |
 Gapak, a 23-year-old Brooklyn resident, pushed the pace and built a significant lead as the race route approached Prospect Park. |
 As the course left Ocean Parkway in the ninth mile, Gapak was on his own in front… |
 …and he broke the tape in 1:09:21, winning by well over a minute. It was his first-ever victory in an NYRR event. Warren Street placed second in the men’s open team competition. |
 Jacek Boral of Brooklyn and the Polish Runners Club finished third in 1:12:04. (Second-place finisher Hector Rivera, unattached, ran without a visible number.) |
 Garcia, also of Brooklyn, looked strong in fourth place with a time of 1:12:30, leading Urban Athletics to third place in the open team results. |
 Nash, a resident of Poughkeepsie, NY, was just behind Garcia in fifth place in 1:12:31. |
 Longtime NYRR and New York Harriers member Ernest Mossiah of Manhattan recorded a time of 1:32:14. |
 Unlike the men’s race, the women’s contest remained close right up to the finish. Winner Abbi Gleeson (left) of the New York Athletic Club and runner-up Amanda Pisano of Columbia Road Runners ran stride-for-stride in Prospect Park. |
 Gleeson, 25, of Manhattan, reached the finish first in a time of 1:23:25 and led NYAC to the women’s open team title. Pisano was second in 1:23:30… |
 …followed just one second later by Felice Kelly of the Nike Central Park Track Club (1:23:31). |
 Kelly Chin of Moving Comfort NY, a Brooklyn resident, finished fourth in 1:23:48. |
 Gleeson’s NYAC teammate Erin Flynn rounded out the top five with her 1:24:22 finish. |
 Rondi Davies of Manhattan, running unattached, was 13th in 1:26:49. |
 Rolando Ocampo of Woodside, NY, posted a time of 1:34:10; Stephanie Lacombe of Manhattan crossed the line in 1:33:48. |
 The race’s final mile included this incline in Prospect Park… |
 …but with more than 13 miles in the weekend running log before noon on Saturday morning, these finishers and close to 5,000 others were up to the challenge! |
