The NYC Running Blog

Saturday’s New York Times has an article about New Yorkers training for the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon which starts tomorrow in Death Valley.

Manhattan runners can join Nike’s Run Like the City challenge, which allows them to represent one of three sections of the city – uptown, midtown or downtown in a Neighborhood Challenge.  Runners can log completed mileage on NikePlus.com and it will be added to their respective neighborhood’s total.  For each mile entered, Nike will donate $1 to one of three worthwhile causes: The Fresh Air Fund, Team for Kids and Team in Training. Currently, downtown leads the neighborhoods with more than 112,000 miles logged.

The New York Times today has two articles about marathon training. The first article is about the trend of runners training less in preparation for a marathon as well as an increase in the number of finishers every year:

“The expectation has changed,” said Bill Pierce, the chairman of the health and exercise science department at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., and the creator of a popular three-day-a-week program. “It’s O.K. now to walk. It’s O.K. to finish over five hours. People have a completely different approach to the marathon.”

The second article discusses a specific marathon training program which requires less time running. It’s called the First Program (First stands for Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training) and it’s outlined in the book, Run Less, Run Faster.

For those of you who did not make it into the NYC Half-Marathon in the lottery, Nike will be holding a raffle for entries into to the race (and other prizes) after a training run on the evening of Thursday, May 31st. This is according to an e-mail sent out by Nike last night. The training run will convene at Pier I Cafe at West 70th Street and the Hudson River at 6:30 p.m.

For the first full day of Spring, NYU’s Washington Square News has an article about running in the streets of New York City. The article suggests a few routes other than the typically thought of Central Park and West Side Highway trails. The first route the author calls the “Greenwich to Greenwich,” which takes you through the West Village. Another route goes through the streets of TriBeCa and ends near the World Trade Center site. The author also suggests running the Williamsburg Bridge and the jogging path within Prospect Park.

Tomorrow evening from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm is the NYRR Clinic: Getting Started to Run the ING New York City Marathon 2007.

The Runners’ Station is now located at 16th Street and the West Side Highway. It offers runners personal lockers, bandages, hair elastics, mats, stretching rails, running maps of Hudson River Park and refreshments. It is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm.