I don't know how much of the actual park I got to see, but I feel like it was a good portion. The only reason I even knew about Prospect Park was because I was running the Brooklyn Rock n Roll 10k on my birthday.
We got to the park super early on Saturday. So early, in fact, that it was dark as dark can be when we stepped out of the subway station, and I had to beat down my knee-jerk reaction, which was something along the lines of, "I'm in a park after dark - this goes against *everything* I've ever been taught in my life!"
Of course, it was perfectly fine, and there were other runners that were heading in the same direction, so it provided a bit of camaraderie as we were all trying to figure out where to go to check in.
I've been to Central Park to run a couple of times during my previous visits to New York, so I honestly wasn't expecting to be too impressed with Prospect Park. I mean, come on - it's Central Park that has all the lure, the mystique of having been featured in so many movies and TV shows and books and songs and...well, it's smack dab in the middle of the city, so my expectations of Prospect Park were low. It was wrong. I admit it.
When we finally figured out where we had to go for runner check-in, we realized we had a bit of a walk, which was fine. We ended up walking through a small tunnel-like feature, and then over a pedestrian bridge, all before the sun came up. The bridge crossed over a river, and on one side was a beautiful building with sparkling lights and big, open windows. It was really breathtaking.
Once the sun came up, and we started the run around the actual park, I realized how incredibly beautiful it was. We were able to make out some side trails in the pre-dawn hours, and we knew that there was an abundance of trees, but details were still hazy.
But once that sun came up, I was entranced. It's more than just the beauty of the trees and the layout of the trails. It felt very serene there, even with 7,000 runners traipsing through the park.
I think the thing I liked most was that the park felt very expansive, especially in comparison to Central Park, which tended to feel crowded when we were there. Prospect Park's large, open grassy area - where the Finish Line Village was located - was large enough to accommodate the entirety of the running community, and it never looked or felt like it was at capacity.
I definitely would have liked to have spent more time exploring the park itself, and the surrounding areas. We got to see a bit on our run, but I wasn't paying much attention, focused as I was as just finishing the race.
Hopefully someday we can make it back, to take it all in as tourists on a stroll, instead of tourists on a run. read more