Brooklyn 'Bun' Comes to Prospect Park

If you've got a bike, sneakers and like Prospect Park, this may the weekend warrior event for you.

Called the “Brooklyn Bun”—a combination of the words "bike" and "run"—the April 15^th event includes four biking loops around Prospect Park’s drive followed by a single running loop.

“There’s running events every weekend. We said what can we do that might be a little bit unique,” said Jack Caress, president of California-based Pacific Sports, which is organizing the event.

“We couldn’t find anybody who has done a time-trial bike followed by a run. We thought, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’”

There are plenty of bike-run events, but most try to duplicate the triathlon rhythm with three components—a run, followed by a bike ride, followed by another run. The group CityTri ran one such "duathlon" at Prospect Park on March 17, which sold out.

But Caress said a bike-run event would be a good starter event for people interested in mixed-modal races but not ready for a triathlon or interested in duathlons.

“I think this is less intimidating,” he said. “It could be something to do with your family it’s not that difficult.”

Tina Gowin, a 25-year-old dietitian from Prospect Heights, signed up for the Brooklyn Bun last year in order to train for the New York City Triathlon. 

"This year I'm doing it to force myself back on my bike," she said via e-mail. "I am mostly a runner but I like races like this to push me out of my comfort zone and try a new challenge."

There are also options for people to just do the 5K run, or to enter as a two-person relay team, with one person doing the run and the other doing the bike ride. “I think it’s a way to build some camaraderie and a team feeling,” he said.

Entry fees range between $25 for early sign-up for just the run to $90 for late sign-up for a relay team.

This is the second year of the event. Last year’s Bun garnered about 150 people. This year Caress hopes to get about 400. So far, about 250 have signed up.

The Brooklyn Bun is something of a test event. If this year’s event is successful, Pacific Sports plans to expand the Bun to other cities, Caress said.

The event raises money for Team Continuum, which provides financial assistance to cancer patients.