Going Rogue
How the landscape of competitive running is being reimagined in New York City
Amid a backdrop of falling participation among Millennials, New Yorkers are responding with low-cost, underground running events that inspire ambitious pace-setting and a sense of community alike.
New York City is the perfect testing ground for innovation. As my friend Joe DiNoto explains, “We’re hitting the ground running with the fact that the majority of people who live here are willing and able to accept new ideas. New York is a mecca for people who want to do something that’s not within the confines of what people would consider ordinary outside of the city.”
In reference to running, the concept of racing at midnight on a route that you make up as you go, while simultaneously attempting to outrun and outsmart your friends is experimental, experiential, exhilarating and in the community I’m a part of, it fills a void.
I received an email on May 22 with just enough information to leave me only slightly less puzzled had I not had any instruction at all. The message gave five locations around downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn that I’d need to run to from a designated starting line at 11 p.m. the following Friday.
I scanned the list of checkpoints and quickly realized how little I know about the streets I run on multiple times a week. I needed to study the race course, which would require running to each location throughout the week to figure out a route strategy that would minimize the chances of getting lost. Because more than athleticism, knowing your way is perhaps the main contributor to success in this particular running affair known as the Midnight Half, where five minutes in the wrong direction could add 10 minutes to your time.
The Midnight Half is an unorthodox running race in New York City that’s highly-anticipated by a select running community comprised of “people that are looking for something more adventurous than a closed course,” describes DiNoto, founder of the Lower East Side running crew Orchard Street Runners (OSR). David Trimble, race director of the Red Hook Criterium, and DiNoto, schemed the Midnight Half in 2012. The idea borrowed elements of an alleycat bike race, in which competitors figure out the fastest way to predetermined checkpoints between the start and finish. Participants in the Midnight Half have more than doubled since 54 runners showed up to the inaugural event. This year both organizers expected to draw approximately 150 participants, just enough to maintain an intimate, confidential edge, opposite the cattle-like nature of races with mass participation.
While speed is crucial in the Midnight Half, street smarts are just as important and in fact, consequential to overall place. The playful catch is that because I determine how I’ll navigate the course, I can change my route the day of or even during the race. I’ve never had that option in any other race I’ve participated in — and the fact that the race is at night makes it all the more curious.
“It reminds me of being a kid, when I’d play hide-and-seek or tag at night,” DiNoto describes. “There’s a freedom and innocence to it. At the same time, it’s exhilarating and feels a little more risky.”
Its unconventional nature, and the element of mystery are the reasons I chose to participate in the Midnight Half for the third time. Above all, it’s entertaining, which makes me part of a broader statistic, according to the 2016 National Runner Survey, a comprehensive study of the demographics, lifestyle, attitudes and habits of the running population nationwide.
The survey reports that 62 percent of Millennials (ages 18 to 33) will take part in a running event because “it sounds fun” compared to 54 percent of Baby Boomers (ages 48 to 66) and 38 percent of individuals 67 and older. Also, my friends participate, a reason that tops the 2016 National Runner Survey list of important factors in determining event participation.
In 2015 at the Midnight Half afterparty, instead of standard post-race fare of bagels, pretzels, bananas and chocolate milk, runners were offered beer and dim sum while listening to Brooklyn-raised DJs Chances With Wolves work the turntable. I didn’t receive a race medal — no one did. We were all packed into a small event space in the Lower East Side too busy congratulating each other, talking smack, drinking, dancing and who knows what else, to care about anything other than having a good time.
It made the overall race experience, which ended at 4 a.m., one of the most memorable to date. My desire for comparable running escapades has only heightened. Fortunately, there’s more than one compete-then-party-hard-with-friends experience to be had — a language native to the alternative running scene in New York City.
Such as at South Brooklyn Running’s night race, the Superfund Super Run, described on the club’s website as “an (about) 10K alley cat-style race” in Brooklyn that takes place in the fall. A suggested route is provided in advance, and participants’ bag-checked items are transported to a local bar, where finishers meet for an afterparty complete with beer and an awards ceremony.
“I decided to race the Superfund Run mainly because it’s organized by friends and I was going to feel like I was miss out on something fun if I didn’t come hang out and participate,” says 2014 winner Pavel Marosin. “Racing at night somehow gives the illusion that you’re doing something devious, which makes these types of races even more appealing to me.
“It takes a combination of risk taking, good routing, split-second decision making and fitness to do well in a race like this. I knew I had an advantage coming in because, thanks to my experience racing alley cats on a bike, I’m comfortable making moves in traffic that most people think are stupidly dangerous.”
On a slightly larger scale (i.e., 400 runners), the Red Hook Criterium 5K is another night race that’s often talked about in high regard. It’s held at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal as part of a larger event, the Red Hook Criterium, an international fixed gear championship series. As part of the 5K, runners complete a 1-kilometer circuit five times as fast as possible mostly alongside friends and attempt to not get lapped by each other, (meaning another racer runs a lap so fast he or she gets ahead of all competition). And this occurs while dodging a motorcycle circling the course.
“The Red Hook Crit is a different mindset,” says Geb Hilado, a member of the urban running crew Black Roses NYC. “When I hear the moto behind me, I’m like, ‘Oh shit’! Trying to not get lapped as motivation to run faster is more fun than just trying to run a faster time.”
The wild afterparty has become increasingly desirable, too, and talked about until the next round. This race feeds into the voracious appetite for running in New York City while supplementing a scene not offered at mass races.
As Trimble says, “The social element isn’t something that you can design. If you make a race that has a nice atmosphere and is fun and exciting, it will automatically become a place where people want to socialize.”
Beyond DiNoto’s involvement with the Midnight Half, he is also the agent of other races he describes as byproducts of the Half: the OSR men’s and women’s 10K, and the OSR 30, which is an ultra race around the perimeter of Manhattan. The 10K is limited to 15 runners per men’s and women’s fields and costs about $20; the OSR 30 tops out at 30 entrants and costs $30.
“You’ve got to justify it [the entry fee], and to me, certain organizations aren’t really living up to the dollar value that they’re putting on the price,” DiNoto says.
That’s added reason why underground races continue to influence the alternative running scene in New York. That’s not to say that such races are in competition with larger race organizations in the city. After all, these alternative races are significantly smaller and less structured. Rather, they serve as an addition to the plethora of options, but offer something that better speaks to a collective of people that share the same primary objective as everyone else:
“People want to run, and people want to see how they compare to those around them. Races are the best platform for that,” DiNoto says.
Trimble also points out, underground events build culture in the running community by allowing people to have fun and want to be around each other.
And that contributes to competitive running, well, staying up and running.
Sarah Gearhart and Paulsta Wong profiled the Midnight Half in issue #02 of METER magazine. METER takes a long form look at the hidden side of running culture and at the athletes, heritage and events that continue to make running the greatest sport in the world. Subscribe to the print magazine at Tracksmith.com
