Race
The ING Miami Marathon is open to all runners, male and female, from any nation, and is an official Boston Marathon qualifier.
The 42.195-kilometre (26.219 mi) race is typically run on the last Sunday in late January or the first Sunday in early February, at approximately 6:10am. The Miami Half Marathon, a 21.075-kilometre (13.095 mi) race, is started concurrently. A wheelchair division of the marathon begins 5–10 minutes before the footrace.
Celebrities or local politicians typically start the race. The legendary Frank Shorter, Olympic marathon gold medalist in 1972, and Ryan Hall, winner of the 2008 United States Olympic Trials, have been given this honor.
Beginning on Biscayne Boulevard next to the American Airlines Arena (home of the Miami Heat), the course takes runners eastbound on the MacArthur Causeway, past cruise ships docked at the Port of Miami, to South Beach. From there, competitors travel northbound along the famous Ocean Drive, through the City of Miami Beach, and then westbound along the Venetian Causeway and back to the mainland and the City of Miami. Here, the Miami Half Marathon finishes and the full marathon continues southbound through the financial district, Brickell, into Coconut Grove, out the Rickenbacker Causeway towards Key Biscayne, and then back through Brickell and downtown Miami to complete the 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi) at Bayfront Park.
The race has been growing over the years. In 2010, 18,321 runners took part in the combined races. For the 2011 event, registrations increased by 20 percent.
The average temperature at the start of the race for the years 2003-2007 was 63.4 degrees Fahrenheit (17.4 degrees Celsius).
Read more about this topic: Miami Marathon
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)
“We are the party of all labor.
The whole earth shall be ours to share
And every race and craft our neighbor.
No idle class shall linger there
Like vultures on the wealth we render
From field and factory, mill and mine.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise in splendor
And light us till the end of time.”
—Eugène Pottier (1816–1887)
“As a thinker and planner, the ant is the equal of any savage race of men; as a self-educated specialist in several arts, she is the superior of any savage race of men; and in one or two high mental qualities she is above the reach of any man, savage or civilized.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)