After a one-year hiatus (I ran it virtually last year), the Miami Marathon & Half Marathon were back in business. This race would be a special one for me...and for them. This was their 20th anniversary. I don’t know the exact number of times I’ve run (I did my first in 2007), but I’m pretty sure it’s at least ten. As for me, I would be celebrating my 80th half marathon. I’m still hoping to get to 100; so far so good. Lindsey came down to run with me (via a wedding in Jacksonville), but Elaine would take a pass this year in favor of snow skiing. Since this is an international race, it would be interesting to see what the turnout would be due to travel restrictions. There was also an added bonus…They moved the expo back to the Miami Beach Convention Center. Due to renovations, the expo had been moved to the Mana Wynwood Convention Center for the past several years. This building was way too small for the amount of traffic that attends the expo. I wanted to attend the expo on Friday, but Lindsey had too much work to do. She suggested we go first-thing Saturday morning, so we had our plan in place.
We left around 9am on Saturday, and parking was no issue at all. My aunt and uncle lived right across from the convention center, so I’ve made this drive more times than I could count (either behind the wheel, or in the back seat as a youngin). We got there about 15 minutes before they opened, so we stood in line for a little bit. To my surprise (and delight), there were not too many people this early in the day. Once they opened the gates, we were able to move around easily. The convention center is really big, and there weren’t as many vendors as in years past. I’m guessing this may be a trend for a while until things get back to normal. The race shirt was kind of disappointing. The 20th anniversary logo was very nice, but the shirt was white. I am not a fan of white running shirts, and the design would have looked great on a black or navy shirt (in my opinion). The giveaways were really good, highlighted by many packets of Liquid I.V. I have become a big fan over the past few months, and the flavors are delicious. Lindsey bought a new running belt. She wanted something that did not have water bottle attachments. Her thinking is that since they have water stations on the course, why anchor yourself down with extra weight. She purchased the Flipbelt Zipper, which checked all her boxes. I like to carry a drink with me, but Flipbelt does make small bottles that can go inside the belt. I’m not happy with my current running belt situation but would wait to get her review after the race to potentially purchase one for myself (She gave it a thumbs-up; I’ll give you my review after Gasparilla). After leaving the expo, we had lunch at Orange Blossom on South Beach. It was just a few blocks from the convention center and was highly recommended by one of Lindsey's work buddies. I have never taken a picture of my food and posted it to social media; if I did, the avocado toast I ordered would have been the first. The presentation was excellent, and it tasted just as good. We made our way home after that and tried our best to go to bed early.
Sunday morning…You know the drill…Up at 2am and out the door by 3:15am. As we made our way to park at the FTX Arena (formally the American Airlines Arena), the traffic flow was next to none. In fact, almost all the roads that are always blocked off were all open! We would normally mosey into our corral around 5:15am or so, but the race added a new twist this year. The start of the race is 6am, but only corrals A-G were open early. The remaining corrals (H-K) opened at 6:15am. I’m guessing this was to cut down on the congestion, especially amidst a pandemic. I think this was a really good idea, and we found our place rather easy (we were in Corral I). I’m not good at approximating the size of a crowd, but it did seem like less people than usual. 2,471 ran the full marathon and 9,819 ran the half marathon, for a total of 12,290. My approximation skills were correct this time; 18,587 ran the race in 2020. It was our time to cross the starting line, and Lindsey would “throw me a bone” and run with me this year.
I almost never publicly give my opinion on “controversial” subjects, but there was an incident that took place in the first few miles I want to weigh in on. There was a runner pushing a wheelchair with an elderly woman. There were also several runners pushing baby strollers as well. IN MY OPINION, wheelchairs and strollers should not be allowed in races (especially in a race of this size). The woman pushing the wheelchair was running at a brisk pace and was yelling “excuse me” literally every 15 seconds. With that many runners grouped together, worrying about getting plowed over by a moving vehicle should not be on the mind of anyone. Sure enough, we saw the wheelchair a few miles later. There was a collision with a runner, who was laying in the road bloodied and bruised. Ironically, more people were attending to the elderly woman in the wheelchair (who seemed unscathed) than the woman who got run over (we did see her after the race was over. She continued the race but had way too many battle scars as a souvenir). In smaller less-congested races, wheelchairs and/or strollers may be okay. At the very least, why not create an extra corral at the end for all the runners pushing someone. Just a thought.
NOW BACK TO THE RACE...
The temperature was around 66° for most of the race, with the sun out the entire time. I had lots of energy, and only had to stop two times to pee (a personal record). Other than the collision in the beginning of the race, nothing noteworthy to report on. The scenery of South Beach, the water and the boats really keep you pumped up throughout the entire race. I started to slow down a bit with three miles to go, so I told Lindsey to go ahead. I got a good amount of SpongeBob cheers, which put a big smile on my face. The medal was outstanding, but it was bittersweet to not have to wait for Elaine to finish the full marathon.
I’m already looking forward to next year, as both Lindsey and Mary have signed up; I hope Elaine will be there too.
