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☰
Miami Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Miami Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.5 
Organization 4.2 
Spectators 3.5
Number of comments: 312 [displaying comments 81 to 91]
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P. B. from Florida
(2/3/2010)
"Steamy" (about: 2010)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Miami Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Miami is full of beautiful people and the Miami Marathon was a terrific run. The course itself is very enjoyable, with a tour of South Beach in the first half being the highlight. However, this is a race that needs to decide if it is a half or a full and not a hybrid. For those who run the full, the fun of the course is over at the halfway point and the roads are seemingly too narrow for 18,000 people to run a race. I can imagine that it was quite interesting for those who ran the half; however, they had to feel congested as well. Suggestion: run the course the opposite direction and reward the marathoners with the South Beach tour at the end of the race. OR run two separate races. Also, I do not enjoy spectators screaming in my ear while I run. This is not fan support; this is annoying! The "cheer-zone" around mile 10 was ridiculous!! My head was pounding by the time I made my way through that area. Not a pleasant experience. With all of the heat and humidity, THANK YOU for the multiple water stations. In summary, a decent race without much to see during the second half if you are a marathoner. | |
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W. G. from Fairfield County, CT
(2/3/2010)
"Pretty great; just shorts and a tee in January." (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 Miami Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Boy, based on the comments, runners have become a pretty spoiled bunch. This is an ideal destination race for someone from the Northeast to kick off the year. Did it last year and liked it. Came back and enjoyed it even more. Everything is well done. From the packet pick-up (with little hassle) to the water and bananas just about every mile, to the tour of Miami and South Beach. Yes, it was a shock to experience humidity at 6 a.m. So, I slowed my pace and had a fun and trouble-free morning. And yes, best medal design around. Bottom line: the feel of a mid-sized event with the ING big event organization. Nice way to spend the last day of January. | |
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B. L. from Jefferson City, Missouri
(2/2/2010)
"awesome race" (about: 2010)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Miami Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 I just did this marathon 2 days ago and I would have to say that I would do it again. The course was beautiful. You run through neat Miami neighborhoods by the breathtaking ocean. It was well organized and my husband was able to drop me off by car pretty much at the starting line without any trouble at all. It is a flat course with a few hills only on the bridges that cross the water. My pace team leaders - Luis and Michelle - were fantastic. They really helped me keep up my pace. The only negative to this race was that it was 75 degrees and humid at the start. They did have plenty of drinks and the aid stations were frequent. | |
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G. G. from Sarasota, FL
(2/1/2010)
"Skip it unless you're just visiting South Beach" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Miami Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 1 The final of my three January Marathons. With so many marathons in our home state and with my time limited to run just one marathon in FL this year, I decided on Miami. I had heard great things about it, and it is an easy down-and-back over-nighter. Let me start with the three best points. The finisher's medal is the coolest medal of the 21 marathon medals hanging on my wall. It is large, and has two center spinners, complete with a rotating palm tree. The medal is gold, with blue and orange accents, with a cool blue and orange ribbon. The race shirt is also one of the best I have received. It was a short-sleeve technical shirt with navy blue and white accents. It is definitely something that will get worn rather than fill my T-shirt drawer. The next good point was the number of aid stations. There must have been 24 or 25 (they seemed to be everywhere) and they were well stocked with enthusiastic volunteers, water and Gatorade Endurance (excellent!). In short, that covers ALL of the good points. With that said, where do I start with my disappointments about this venue? First was the throng of people. With about 14,000 finishers, I would guess there were about 15,000 starters. This day and age, that is not a overwhelmingly large field. My last large event was R'n'R Las Vegas and it had nearly twice the starters (and Chicago had nearly three times that). Maybe it was the lack of a staggered start. Maybe the roads were narrow (although it didnt seem like it). I don't know what it was, but until the half marathoners exited the course at mile 12.5, it was a zoo. At mile 10.5, the ING Cheer Zone there was such a crowd, running a 10:45 pace, that the runners almost had to come to a stop. In all the big events that I have run, make that any event that I have run, I have never felt as claustrophobic as I did on this course for the first 12.5 miles. While the course did run over the bridges to and from Miami Beach (which provided some neat sights), I was unimpressed with it overall. We crossed four drawbridges that had open grates. They were not covered (Chicago and MCM cover theirs) and made for some very treacherous footing. I can only imagine the poor barefoot runners. The course also lacked energy. Yes, there were five or six community fun zones on the back half, but they were sparse compared to the rest of the residential areas that had very, very few locals out cheering the runners on. Yes, I ran (walked) with an extremely debilitating IT band injury over the last 14 miles, but that had nothing to do with my impression of the course. It was just plain and unexciting. I am happy that I train in FL, where we are used to the heat and humidity. The day started out at 75 degrees (pre-dawn starting line temperature) with Florida's typical humidity. What a difference from running in a continuous 55 degrees last weekend in the Instep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon. The heat gave me no problems but there were people in from the north that were lying on the ground with cramps and/or puking all over the place. There were many, many international runners from more countries that I could count. I enjoyed running and trying to communicate with them, but I almost felt like the party was thrown for them and the locals were the ones that suffered. As for hotels, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Downtown (340 Biscayne Boulevard), which was the ideal location. The hotel is so-so. I call it serviceable, but it was clean, the rooms were decent (you could see the water and the marina), and best of all, it was two blocks from the starting line, and two blocks from the finish. It wasn't particularly expensive either. That is tough to beat! At the end of the day, this wasn't the worst marathon that I have run, but I would put it in the bottom 10-15% without a doubt. If you want to run a great FL marathon, I'd go somewhere else. If you want to vacation in Miami, enjoy South Beach, and do a marathon while you are there, then you can justify doing this one. For me, even with the great bling and T-shirt, it was my first and last Miami Marathon. | |
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andrea rodi from wilmington, delaware
(2/1/2010)
"so much better than the previous year reviews" (about: 2010)
4-5 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I was completely wowed by the 2010 Miami Marathon. I almost didn't do it because of the reviews of years past. From the start - the line for the women's restroom was only 15 deep. I actually got to go twice within an hour of the start. Most marathons - I don't even get to go once prior to start. An early start time was ideal. My favorite part was surprising: Miles 16-20. It was running through backroads in neighborhoods in coconut grove with multi-generation families celebrating with us. In big-city marathons you typically don't get to experience the neighborhoods. Water and Gatorade stops were well stocked and frequent, and we got positive encouragement. As always, the last 3 miles were tough - but that is when the fan support is great. There was lots of cheering for you even though they don't know you. I was able to taxi to and from the race. I'll be back - hopefully next year. | |
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D. L. from St. Louis, MO
(2/1/2010)
"Good Race" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Due to injury, I had to run the half. I would say the race was very well organized, and the course was scenic, with two crossings of the bay. The crowd coming off of the second causeway was awesome. It is south Florida; it is humid and warm, so train accordingly if you plan this race. Luckily, we had cloud cover on this day. Biggest gripe I have is that water/Gatorade were given out at the same tables. I have seen it work well when the two are clearly separated, since not everyone wants both fluids at same time. | |
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M. M. from Miami,FL
(10/11/2009)
"Decent course, very organized, NO fan support" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Miami Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 I ran the Miami Marathon last year, after having lived here for about 18 months. It's a destination marathon in the sense that it's in Miami in January, so you can escape the cold weather and make a vacation of it. However, as a resident, I was disappointed in the course/fan support. I didn't mind that you run through some sketchy areas, but running through desolate sketchy areas is unacceptable - and the entire course is pretty desolate, due to the necessarily early start time. Get bands out there, get the local radio stations to broadcast from the course (and play music for the runners), and encourage bars/clubs to stay put all night so that their patrons are still hanging out as the runners go by. Also, CLOSE the course to traffic. The police are super helpful, but the cities need to close the course to traffic, particularly the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways (there are FOUR bridges between Miami and the beach); there's no reason to not close the two that are in the course. All in all, though, it's pleasant weather, and if you do any research, you will find that there is plenty of available and inexpensive ($1-3) parking at the expo. If you're that broken up about not getting your medal (which I can't fathom - I had like three people rushing to put one on me), you can have mine. I hope the race is simply going through growing pains, because it has tons of potential. | |
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A. N. from Milwaukee, WI
(3/4/2009)
"Nice Course, Mediocre Organization" (about: 2009)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Miami Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 Positives: Sunny Florida, and a great course. Negatives: Gear check was horrible. They got all of our bags mixed up (all of them looked alike) and it took over 30 minutes to find our bag. (The guy next to us was waiting for an hour and was told that his bag wasn't there!!!) | |
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T. V. from Tampa FL
(2/22/2009)
"Beautiful course, well organized." (about: 2009)
First Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This was my first marathon, though I'm a veteran runner. It was a wonderful choice for a first marathon. The course was beautiful. An early morning run past the cruise ships, sun coming up over the beach, and pleasant run though funky Coconut Grove. Spectacular weather. Sparse, but enthusiastic and supportive crowd. Plenty of water, porta-potties, GU, etc. It was a joy to run and I fell in love with Miami. My only complaint was that starting 12,000 half-marathoners and the 2,500 marathoners together was a mess. You never got a steady pace going until after the half-marathoners turned off. Some beginners started walking up the bridge in the first 1/4 mile and it was ugly; it was a miracle no one was trampled. My training partner, who's got a half-marathon time within 30 seconds of mine, finished 20 minutes faster, mostly because he sneaked to the front corral; he beat the crowds and earned a BQ time. No BQ time for me because the first three miles were no better than 11 minutes per mile. I recommend the race, but don't expect any PR unless you somehow get into the front corral or don't mind throwing elbows and pushing people out of the way. Just enjoy the run, because it really is spectacular. | |
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D. S. from Illinois
(2/3/2009)
"Nice marathon but nothing to write home about." (about: 2009)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Miami Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 The best part of the marathon happened in the first couple of miles. Running along the water by the cruise ships was awesome. Nothing about the rest of the race stands out in my memory. I do feel that the City of Miami wanted to make as much money from the race as possible. Why was there no information about riding the metro? We drove in and found parking for ONLY $10 and felt lucky. We also parked on the street for the expo. The fan support was nonexistent. I don't know what race the other people were running. I do want to thank the race organizers for leaving a few stale bagels and some hot bottled water for those of us who took longer than 5 hours to run the race. I hope I didn't get in anyone's way as I rested on the ground while the place was being cleared. It would have liked to have more to eat but the workers were hauling off food for themselves in large bags. I can mark Florida off my marathon list. Guess I should have done Disney. |
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