Brooklyn Half Marathon + Great Googa Mooga = Crazy Weekend

The 2012 Brooklyn Half Marathon, which is set for Saturday, May 19, will have a new route that takes runners on more local streets than in previous years. In the past, the course started in and looped around Prospect Park via the Park Drives, but this year it’s going to start out on Washington Ave, head up Flatbush, hook around Grand Army Plaza, then back down Flatbush to Ocean, and a right on Parkside before entering the park at the Coney Island Ave corner.

According to The New York Times, this new route will allow more runners to participate–up to 15,000, when last year 5,921 runners crossed the finish line. Another number that’s increasing is the entry fee, up to $45 from $25 last year, reportedly to cover increased police needs for traffic control.

So if the traffic changes and mass of runners isn’t enough to make you want to flee the neighborhood that weekend, you may have noticed that the date sounds strangely familiar. May 19-20 is the weekend when the highly-anticipated Great Googa Mooga, a food and music fest, takes over the park. Sounds fun, except it already caused some insanity when it made a ticketing agent implode due to massive demand for limited free tickets.

The race will start an hour earlier than it has in the past to accommodate the later event. To get in on the race, registration begins Monday at noon. To get in on the Great Googa Mooga, $250 tickets are currently available. To get out of town, start planning now…