My hometown island, “Shaolin”! This is the perfect way to explore a part of “the city” you may not know much about, as well as being a great warm-up for the NYC Marathon a few weeks later! I’ve done this Half four times now (2015-2018) and it’s a tougher course than the Brooklyn or NYC Half, but it’s not anything to really worry about if you’ve done the training leading up to it. The start line is right outside the Ferry (and there’s probably parking not too far away if you insist on driving), so it’s not impossible to get to.

As for the course itself, it’s a bit hilly up until about mile 4, then you get a bit of a break by doing four flat miles on Father Capodanno Blvd (with views of the boardwalk!) before resuming a battle with hills at mile 8, ha, but with some nice sights such as Fort Wadsworth, the Verrazano Bridge and the Alice Austen House (it’s a beautiful historic home but you could easily miss it if you don’t know to look for it around mile 11!).

Mile 12 is probably the only part I don’t like about the course; a choppy back road that’s only redeeming quality is a view of the water. The finish line has moved further away from the Ferry/Stadium on Bay St but in honesty, yes, it’s a less exciting finish than crossing home plate in the stadium (the old course), but it’s also less crowded post-race now that they’ve moved it to Bay St, so I don’t mind the change as much.

There is no day-of packet pick-up, so you’ll have to trek to midtown to get your bib. The medal and shirt are really nice and there’s a recovery bag at the finish which is great. It seems to always rain the day of this race but I think just recent bad luck more so than it being the norm.

This is a nice way to discover that Staten Island is more than just home to the ‘the Dump’, Wu-Tang and the Ferry! Hopefully this was helpful to you, have fun visiting my hometown!