Run, Karla, Run!

The NYC Half took runners on a tour of Manhattan from Central Park through Times Square. (Photo: NYRR)

The 2012 NYC Half Marathon on Sunday, March 18 featured a new course and the largest field in the race’s history with 15,336 finishers. I was among them, trying to accomplish a personal feat: tackle two half-marathons in three weeks and three half-marathons in three months without getting injured.

To accomplish this task, I turned to a new gadget to help me train: the new MOTOACTV GPS and MP3 all in one. I served as a MOTOACTV NYC Half Marathon Ambassador, training and running the race with the device.

The NYC Half Marathon gave runners a challenging, but scenic tour of Manhattan. Even as a New Yorker who knows the course well, I thoroughly enjoyed running from Central Park through Times Square and down to the historic South Street Seaport.

The first six miles comprised one full loop of Central Park with its grueling rolling hills. Runners exited the park just after the 10K mark, racing down Seventh Avenue through the heart of Times Square before turning right onto 42nd Street for the next two miles. Miles 8 through 12 carried runners along the West Side Highway into New York’s Chelsea, West Village and Tribeca neighborhoods before rounding the southern tip of Manhattan into the Seaport for the finish. Read the rest of this entry →

Running two half-marathons in three weeks must be carefully planned to avoid injury. (Photo: Karla Bruning)

Back in November, I set out on a crazy quest to run at least a mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s with the Runner’s World Holiday Running Streak. Come Jan. 1, I’d accumulated 100 miles in 40days and had a solid training base.

So I decided to merge the end of the streak with the beginning of half-marathon training. I earmarked Disney’s Tinker Bell Half Marathon on Jan. 29 as a training run for a personal record attempt at Disney’s Princess Half Marathon on Feb. 26. Somehow, everything went according to plan. I crossed the finish line at the Princess Half two minutes faster than my previous PR.

Now I’m looking to capitalize on all that training and fitness by squeezing out one more race—the NYC Half on March 18. New York Road Runners and Motorola invited me to be a MOTOACTV NYC Half Marathon Ambassador for the race and give the new MOTOACTV device a test run.

But with just three weeks between Disney’s Princess Half and the NYC Half, I knew I’d be treading the thin line between capitalizing on training and courting injury. How can a runner prepare to tackle two half-marathons in three weeks? Read the rest of this entry →

MOTOACTV by Motorola is a GPS watch and MP3 player all in one. (Photo: MOTOACTV)

On March 18, I’ll be running the NYC Half, a 13.1-mile tour of Manhattan from Central Park through Times Square that finishes at South Street Seaport. Not only am I running the race, but I am also one of four MOTOACTV NYC Half Marathon Ambassadors.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be training with MOTOACTV, the official entertainment partner of the NYC Half, a race organized by New York Road Runners. MOTOACTV is a new dual GPS fitness tracker and MP3 player all-in-one made by Motorola. I’ll be giving the device some test runs and running the race with it.

MOTOACTV, provided to me by Motorola, is the first GPS device I’ve ever owned. I’ve been a GPS holdout for a few years for three main reasons. Read the rest of this entry →

The author and her soon-to-be-fiance after the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon. He proposed just a few moments later.

I met this guy. After chatting a while, he mentioned that he was registered to run the ING New York City Marathon. He’d never run a marathon before. Heck, he’d never been on a single run, he said. He belonged to an Ultimate Disc league, a sport that requires a lot of running. But he was no runner. His sister had talked him into it, he said. The race was nine months away and he had no idea how to train for it.

As luck would have it, I was a runner. I ran the New York City Marathon just three months before, and was registered to run it again as well. So I offered to show him the ropes of marathon training, and take him on his very first run. It was an unseasonably warm February day. We headed out to Central Park, where we’d met for a casual walk just a week before. We ran up to Belvedere Castle overlooking Turtle Pond and the Great Lawn, then jogged through the Ramble and back to the southern entrance to the park. He’d never visited those parts of Central Park before, he said. Stick with me, I said. As a runner, you see a lot of things you don’t notice otherwise.

Well, he stuck with me. Four years later, that guy is my fiancé, and running has played a large part in our courtship. Read the rest of this entry →

Karla runs Central Park on New Year's Day. Photo by Anne Hospod.

40 days, 40 runs, 100 miles. Snow, slush, sub-freezing temps. Treadmills, trails, roads, sidewalks. I’ve run them all as part of the Runner’s World Holiday Running Streak. On Thanksgiving, I set out to run at least a mile a day every single day through New Year’s Day. It wasn’t always easy; squeezing in even a mile on some days was surprisingly difficult. But somehow I stuck with it, and I’m happy to throw my arms up in victory and say: I did it! I finished my last day in style: 7.75 miles in New York City’s resplendent Central Park.

At the start, I told Runner’s World’s “Training Daily” blog my reasons for attempting the streak: “My winter training is usually erratic, unfocused, and lackluster. And that’s putting it nicely. For once, I’d love to start spring training with a healthy base. I also like to eat—a lot. But when I run better, I eat better. So here’s hoping the streak will help keep my holiday sweet tooth in check.” Read the rest of this entry →

Runners in Brooklyn's Prospoect Park. Photo by Karla Bruning.

Brooklyn is toeing the line. The inaugural Brooklyn Marathon kicks off on Sunday, Nov. 20 at 8 a.m. in Prospect Park. In the tradition of New York City marathons, this one has humble roots. The race is capped at 350 runners and the course is contained entirely in Prospect Park, the crown jewel of the borough’s park system. But founder Steve Lastoe hopes it’s just the beginning for this fledgling race.

“I want a race that’s organically part of Brooklyn,” Lastoe said on The New York Running Show, a podcast where I’m, at times, a panelist. “I want this race to be loved by Brooklyn.”

New York City could certainly use another marathon. The ING New York City marathon, the largest in the world, had more than 148,000 applicants for its 45,000 spots in the 2011 race. The demand amongst runners is plentiful, but the supply isn’t. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo courtesy of New York Road Runners.

The ING New York City Marathon on Sunday, Nov. 6 gave us two truly exciting races in both the men’s and women’s competitions. Three runners shattered—and I mean shattered—the course record in the men’s competition. And one runner gave a guts-on-the-floor performance that likely cost her the race in the women’s competition. Scroll down for athlete interviews, stats and more as I was ringside in the Timex Media Center at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Columbus Circle, giving a behind the scenes play-by-play of what it’s like in the press room as a New York Road Runners Social Media Reporter. Here’s how it went:

8:30 am: Good morning! I’m here in the Timex Media Center at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. We are one minute away from the wheelchair start of the 2011 ING New York City Marathon! Read the rest of this entry →

Fifth Avenue Mile Start

Down Fifth Avenue

Men 40-49

Professional Women

Sally Kipyego of Kenya

Jenny Simpson and Morgan Uceny chase Kipyego

Jenny Simpson makes a move

The 1500-Meter Mark

Jenny Simpson Wins

Hannah England and Sally Kipyego finish third and second after a photo finish

Simpson's Victory Lap

Simpson Dressed in Star and Stripes

Here come the pro men

The Lead Pack

Lagat kicks, chasing down Laalou and Torrence

David Torrence Finishes Third

Amine Laalou Finishes Second

Bernard Lagat Wins

Lagat's Victory Lap

Call Me Kip, Lagat's Nickname

The Fifth Ave Mile Finish

Photos by Phil Hospod

Olympians, World Champions and thousands of regular runners alike barreled down New York City’s Fifth Avenue in the Fifth Avenue Mile on Saturday, Sept. 24. The professional field this year was a doozy, with eight Olympians and four 2011 World Championship medalists among them. But what is it about running a mile that keeps runners, including professionals like Bernard Lagat, so entranced? Read the rest of this entry →

Emmanuel Mutai won the 2011 London Marathon with a new course record. Photo by EStepnist/FLickr.

The ING New York City Marathon is the world’s biggest marathon. It’s no wonder the race attracts some of the world’s biggest names in running. Emmanuel Mutai, Martin Lel, and Jaouad Gharib will join defending champion Gebre Gebremariam and 2009 champion Meb Keflezighi in the race on November 6.

Kenya’s Lel, 33, won the ING New York City Marathon in 2003 and 2007, and will be returning to the race for the first time since that 2007 victory. He also won the Virgin London Marathon in 2003, 2007 and 2008, and placed fifth at the 2008 Olympics. After battling two years of injuries he came back with a second place finish in the 2011 Virgin London Marathon in April, losing to none other than Emmanuel Mutai. Read the rest of this entry →

Karla at the NYRR New York Mini (left) and at the NYRR Team Championships (right). Photos by Phil Hospod and Anne Hospod.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was…well, you get the idea. Such was my own tale of two races.

We all have ups and downs when it comes to running. One minute we are trudging up the hill, both literally and metaphorically, the next we are sailing down it. But the difference between the best of times and worst of times is often a matter of execution.

Knowing better is one thing. Doing better is another. This summer, I learned that the hard way. With the NYRR Team Championships on August 6, I tried to heed my tale of two races and come out with a personal best. Read the rest of this entry →

Didn’t get into the ING New York City Marathon? Want to run another marathon in New York City in the fall? The inaugural Brooklyn Marathon hopes to fill the void.

The popularity of the ING New York City Marathon is staggering. More than 148,000 people applied for the 45,000 spots in the 2011 race. Clearly, there are more marathoners who want to run New York than there are races to satisfy them.

Enter Steve Lastoe and NYCRUNS.com. Lastoe founded NYCRUNS in 2009 as an online resource for New York area runners, which includes a comprehensive metro-area race calendar, tools for local clubs, and race registration. (I have been a contributor to NYCRUNS.com since 2010.)

Lastoe and fellow race director Michael Ring dreamed up the Brooklyn Marathon as a “love letter” to the borough, and to meet the demand of the many marathoners who want to race in New York City. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo by Phil Hospod

On June 3, 1972, 78 women entered the world’s first ladies-only road race. On June 9, 2007, I ran the race as my very first 10K, along with 3,521 other women. Only four years later, the race has reached capacity around 5,000 runners—all of them pavement-pounding women. Tomorrow is the 40th running of the NYRR New York Mini 10K. I’ll be there to sing the national anthem, run the race and celebrate how far women—myself included—have come in our sport.

The Mini

The original Mini, named after the mini-skirt, was staged at a time when women were just starting to break gender barriers in running and sports at large. 1972 was a landmark year for women’s running. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo courtesy of New York Road Runners

National Running Day is tomorrow, June 1! Get out there and celebrate as runners do—with a run. Here are just a few free National Running Day events in New York City:

Manhattan

What: Team In Training and NYCRUNS 5K Fun Run

NYCRUNS, JackRabbit Sports and Team In Training will run as one for National Running Day. Join them for a fun run in Central Park, followed by post run refreshments (including beer) and more at JackRabbit Sports.

When: Wednesday, June 1 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: Meet at JackRabbit Sports Upper West Side, 140 West 72nd Street in Manhattan before the run in Central Park, Manhattan Read the rest of this entry →

Runners braved cold rain at the NYRR 4 Mile race. Photo by Charles Smith/smith_cl9/Flickr

As a runner, it’s perfectly normal for your athletic self-esteem to fluctuate. My compass bounces between, “I’m a pathetic, sorry excuse for a runner” (insert wah-wah sound) and “I am runner. Hear me roar!”

Most often, I hover near the realm of “Eh, not bad for a 30-something with arthritis in one knee and remnants of a bone tumor in the other.”

But let’s be honest here. There’s nothing like capturing that “I am runner. Hear me roar!” feeling, even if just for a few fleeting moments.

As much as it pains me to say this, one guaranteed way to make me to feel hard-core is a brutal run in the rain. Read the rest of this entry →

“Wake up!” My lungs huffed with a familiar pinch twisting in my side.

“Wake up!” My calves tightened as I trudged up the hill.

“Wake up!” I pushed just a little harder to pick up the pace.

This was my self-imposed rude awakening. With just one week to go until my first race of the year, it was time to remind my body what real running feels like—and why I love it. Read the rest of this entry →