Half Marathon on the Citi Field concourse

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Jun 24

A couple months ago, on a drizzly day in May, life-long Mets fan Guy Monohan ran a half marathon at Citi Field. No, it wasn’t an official half marathon route, but it was documented as one of Monohan’s qualifying races to guarantee his spot at the New York City Marathon this year. This will be Monohan’s second marathon (his first in New York) and his goal is to try to beat the time his dad (also a Mets fan) set in his fifties at the New York Marathon - three hours and eighteen minutes.

As for the choice of locale, Monohan gives credit to a perfect storm – or a perfect drizzle. The Mets game in question happened to take place on the same day as the Brooklyn Half Marathon (one is allowed to run virtually for qualifications), and as tickets were very cheap because it was a weekday and there was poor weather, Monohan thought that he’d catch the game and maybe even be able to get a run in.

Monohan staked his run on the main concourse which allowed him to watch the game almost the entire time he was running. His 6’6” height helped a bit, as well as the stadium TVs broadcasting the game for when he was running in the rotunda. Monohan’s run did garner him some strange looks, especially when people realized that he was running continuously (over 30 laps!) instead of taking a quick jog to the bathroom or beer line. He was asked about his run a few times, and towards the end of the game, people were cheering him on a little too (it gave the Mets fans something to cheer for; they lost 4-0 to the Pirates). Once he finished his route, he grabbed a milkshake and caught the rest of the game.

About the experience Monohan said, “I just think it's funny, because baseball games are, in general, pretty long, and are punctuated with moments of energy in between the duel between the batter and the pitcher, so when you have these rallies, it's very easy to lock in. But sometimes there's that lull all sports have, and baseball is no exception. It's fun to be able to jog and capture the excitement-- you know, there's a big hit, you clap your hands while jogging”

As for the environment itself, Monohan mentioned that it was certainly the most repetitive route he’s taken, though it was convenient in its own way. “I could just pop into the bathroom if I needed to, or pick up a Gatorade if I needed to from one of the vendors.” And yet those conveniences did not outweigh the annoyances. Though he enjoyed his run, Monohan would not recommend people follow his lead, as there were very specific conditions for his run, and even though there was low attendance, it was still hard to run and jog safely. “There were plenty of times where I was just pretty much walking because it was so crowded,” he shared, “You bump those numbers up, a weekend game, or against the Yankees or something, it's going to be impossible. No one's going to have fun if you do something like that.”