Talk about pumping up the volume!
Thousands of fitness buffs took to the streets in and around Prospect Park on Saturday for the Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon, a year after disappointed runners in the inaugural 2015 leg of the race reported a distinct lack of the titular rock and or roll along the route. And while this sophomore effort still didn’t quite go to 11, attendees say, it did live up to its name.
“The music was good,” said Hollie Hubbard, who traveled from the distant isle of Manhattan to run in Brooklyn. “We enjoyed the bands.”
Last year’s participants complained the 13-mile jog suffered from a conspicuous deficit of amplified tunes, as runners breezed by empty stages and acoustic ensembles whose mellow vibes didn’t live up the event’s promise of high-energy rock.
This year, organizers had to figure out how to keep the more-than 17,000 runners entertained without blasting beats on residential streets, according to race spokesman Dan Cruz.
As a result, they augmented the drum bands and acoustic singer-songwriters that left last year’s participants feeling cheated with cheerleaders, bagpipe players, brass bands, mariachi bands, and Elvis impersonators — and the joggers left whistling a different tune.
“I thought there was enough music,” said Ruth Taylor, another Manhattan runner.
And the entertainment didn’t stay unplugged for the entire event — once the runners hoofed into Brooklyn’s Backyard for the final three-mile leg of the endurance event, they were greeted by real rock ’n’ roll bands, including some from Brooklynites Here We Go Magic — a group whose origin was no coincidence, according to Cruz.
“We really wanted to showcase Brooklyn bands,” he said.
But the race still has a lot to improve on in order to meet the high standards of rocking out achieved at Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathons in other cities, according to Hubbard, who participated in one in Nashville, and Taylor, who ran in San Diego.
“This didn’t compare,” said Taylor.
The event organizers say they’re aware of that, however, and promised an even better Rock ‘n’ Roll run come this time next year.
“The good news is we know we can still make the event even better in 2017,” Cruz said.
