Grete's Great Gallop

Grete Waitz was a Norwegian runner who won the NYC Marathon 9 times.  She died of cancer in 2011 and in her honor the New York Road Runners club named an annual race after her, Grete's Great Gallop.

This is the Half Marathon I am training for and will be running on October 14th.  Below is the course description and I tell you, having run a 15K (9.3 miles) already early in the year I tell you, the half is not easy.  But I didn't train for that 15k the way I am training now, so I am hopeful that it will be much easier.  I have to start adding some hill training into the program.

Course info

The course for Grete’s Great Gallop Half-Marathon in Support of AKTIV Foundation 13.1M is tough—two laps of Central Park adds up to a lot of hills—so some long-race experience and hill training are advisable. The start is on East Drive near 70th Street. You’ll complete two full clockwise loops of the park, after which you’ll start a third loop and continue for another 1.2 miles. The finish line is on West Drive near 67th Street. Almost all of the course is run over curving roads and undulating terrain, except for one straight, flat half-mile stretch along the East Side that you’ll run twice. Major uphills are at approximately 1.5, 3, 4, 7.5, 9, and 10 miles.  There are water stations approximately every mile, and Gatorade Endurance Formula is available at 1.25, 3.5, 5.75, 7.25, 9.5, and 11.75 miles.