11
MAY 26, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
BY COLIN MIXSON
Fitness fanatics the world over
gathered in Prospect Park for the
39th-annual Brooklyn Half Marathon
on Saturday, where the runners
pushed themselves to the
very limit of human endurance
— to snag one of Nathan’s Famous
hot dogs!
“The minute you get to Coney
you know there’s a party in the
end,” said Sunset Park resident
Connie Bree, who celebrated her
one-hour, 46-minute fi nish with
one of the Coney Island eatery’s
delicious dogs. “That’s going to
make anybody faster.”
A whopping 26,803 runners
completed the 13.1-mile race, setting
off from Brooklyn’s Backyard
in the early hours, before shooting
down Ocean Parkway, and ending
to the roar of cheering crowds on
the Coney Island Boardwalk in a
route that one Manhattan runner
described as hard to beat in more
ways than one.
“It’s one of my favorites,” said
runner Alex Rush, who clocked a
personal-best time of one hour,
49 minutes during Saturday’s
race. “The course is so cool, going
through Prospect Park, getting
to run all the way down
Ocean Parkway, and you can’t
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A short drive thru the Battery Tunnel from Manhattan
beat ending at Coney Island. It’s
so much fun.”
Organizers with the New
York Road Runners distributed
an estimated 520,000 recyclable
cups of water and Gatorade
for the race, which was a
year in the making, according
to a spokesperson for New York
Road Runners.
Out-of-towner Louis Serafini,
who traveled from
Somerville, Mass., to compete
in the Brooklyn Half, annihilated
the race record by a
breezy four seconds, finishing
in an impressive one hour,
three minutes, and beating out
Ethiopian runners Birhanu
Dare Kemal and Urgesa Kedir
Figa for the gold.
West Side Runners Club
member Fein Gudeto Gemeda
won the women’s race with a
time of one hour, 12 minutes,
beating US Olympic Trials qualifier
Roberta Groner and Harriott
Kelly.
Jggers were joined by former
New York Giants running back
Tiki Barber and retired Jets
offensive tackle D’Brickashaw
Ferguson, who ran for New York
Road Runner’s Team for Kids
Ambassador. Barber finished
in one hour, 52 minutes, while
Ferguson crossed the finish
line after running two hours, 15
minutes.
Other famous finishers
included Broadway actress
Christy Altomare, model Ruby
Aldridge, and award-winning
chef Daniel Humm.
JOB WELL DONE: David Parson and
Cathy Hartwell celebrate fi nishing
the Brooklyn Half Marathon on the
Boardwalk in Coney Island on May 18.
Photos by Erica Price
LINE DRIVE: A runner powers through the last leg of the Brooklyn Half
Marathon.
Running in the sun
Runners endure 13.1 miles of fun during Brooklyn Half Marathon