I’ve done this race three times now (2016-2018), and it’s a nice half to look forward to every Labor Day. Street parking can be hard to come by but there’s plenty of parking garages and the New Haven Green is a scenic spot for both the race festival and the starting line!

The course is mostly traveling through the streets of New Haven, with a few scenic spots here and there. Yale, the New Haven Green (which you’ll see at the start, the middle and the finish), East Rock Park and the Peabody Museum (with a Triceratops in front!).

There’s a few hills but there’s nothing that’s too tough. In terms of weather it can range from comfortable to hot. The race festival on the Green is a nice to walk through while you’re cooling down post-race, and there’s plenty of nice places to eat nearby (even vegan options which is great for me, ha).

The shirt and medal are always nice and the styles vary greatly each year (none of the three medals or shirts I have from 2016-201 are similar to each other at all, which is nice!) They seem to strive for a unique style each year, not a palette swap of the previous year’s designs which makes for something new to look forward to.

I first did this race in 2016 on a whim but will definitely be back for a fourth year next September!

This was my first half back in 2015, and I’ve done it three more times since then; it’s a great introduction for those that are new to 13.1 and a fun annual event to look forward to for experienced runners!

As for the race itself, really you can mentally break it up into two races; the a little hilly first 6-7 miles around Prospect Park, and the last 6 miles as a straight mostly flat run towards Coney Island. Once you’re past Prospect Park it’s a bit monotonous, but there’s usually plenty of cheering spectators and the end makes up for it (one of my favorite finishlines!) with a scenic finish on the boardwalk.

There is no day-of packet pick-up so you’ll have to make the trek beforehand out to Brooklyn Bridge Park for the Expo, which is a beautiful but hard to get to spot... (you’re going to have to pay for parking, use the subway, run, bike or some combination of the aforementioned to get there) The same goes for race day; If getting dropped off/picked up isn’t an option I’d recommend parking within a mile walking distance of the finish (still can be tough to find a parking spot, ha) and then take the train up to the starting line. Be sure to give yourself lots of time to get there so that you’re not cutting it too close to your start time.

The medals and shirt are always nice, and there’s a great recovery bag at the finish (except for the apples, ha, they’re always bruised ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, but everything else in there is good) and if the weather is nice (temperatures are usually perfect for a race but it could rain) you can explore Coney Island a bit during the post-race.

Hopefully you find this helpful, have fun out there in Brooklyn!

I’d had Sleepy Hollow on my list of races to do for awhile now (I’m a fan of Halloweeny things and even though this race isn’t Halloween related, it’s still Sleepy Hollow, ha) and I have to say this is the most hills I’ve ever done on a Half course before, ha. By mile 13 my legs were uncharacteristically dead, which rarely happens, ha.

That being said, hilly or not, I really liked the challenge of the course, and it’s easier to contend with when there’s the nice scenery of quaint Tarrytown while you’re battling the course. For the 2018 edition there was a section of the course moved to a major road (shared with traffic but with plenty of police presence), but that’s apparently not the norm (too much late season snow on a section of the trails), and that was the only part of the course I wasn’t really fond of, but like I said, it’s not normally the there so if anything I have to give the race directors credit for coming up with a quick solution when conditions made part of the course unusable.

The shirt and medals were nice for this one, nothing fancy but definitely cool designs. Parking was a bit far but if you’re going to run 13 miles it’s hard to complain about walking a bit to the start, ha. This is a challenging half but that just makes me want to take it on again one day in the future even more. No sighting of the headless horseman on the course, ha, but if you look for it you’ll see his image here and there, definitely enjoyed his one!

I really love Halloween so since I had the day off and this race wasn’t far away it was hard to pass up, ha. The shirt and medal are both really nice, there’s lots of free race photos and it’s fun to be running a half and there’s people in costume (I ran wearing a Ghostbusters outfit and a proton pack, ha), and really that’s the main appeal for this race.

In terms of scenery nothing really struck me as memorable besides a short part that went through some trails. The start and finish are nearby the Morristown Green but it’s not something you’ll see during your run. For me in terms of scenery there was just Foote Park and Loantaka Reservation, so if this wasn’t a costume run I honestly don’t think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much. Everything was well run and well put together, and obviously I love the theme but the course scenery kind of dragged this race down for me. Despite that you’re not going to find many other half’s as spooky and Halloweeny as this one, so if you’re a fan of All Hallows’ I’d say definitely give this race a try!

I’ve done this race twice now (2017 & 2018) and it’s really a great way to see a bit of coastal New England! The race starts in the Willows and passes by a lot of historic Salem homes as you make your way to Marblehead.

The race highlight for me has to be Marblehead Neck; you’ll run across a bridge with Marblehead Harbor on one side and the Atlantic on the other before reaching Marblehead Neck, where you’ll do a loop of the island before recrossing the bridge as you head back north to Salem. It’s really a beautiful sight, especially for me since I’m used to the not-quite as nice waters of NYC, ha.

The race shirts are nice, and there’s usually some extra swag items you can get if you want. The only improvement I’m hoping for in 2019 is a new medal design since the same identical design has been used for both 2017 and 2018 (I had to put a sticker on one of the medals to distinguish between the two of them, ha). Besides that this is a nice scenic half, and a good excuse for me to make a yearly visit to New England, ha.