Well, the last for this season anyway!Coming up this Sunday is the 131 Miami, part of a half-marathon-only series brought to you by the same folks who produce the Miami Marathon. The first 131 race was run in Ft. Lauderdale in November 2008 (which I did) and the second was the 131 Miami in March 2009 (which I ran). The series has since expanded to a number of cities all over the country (Atlanta, LA, Chicago, etc).
There are a couple of things I'm not crazy about with this race. The course spends a lot of time on the Julia Tuttle causeway which not only has fairly sizeable bridges on either end (which you have to run twice each!), but you are also sucking exhaust fumes from the causeway traffic which is still running alongside you. Also, the packet pick up is very inconvenient - either go WAY down to South Miami to a FootWorks store, or to Miami Beach the day before. If there was a big expo, it would be worth the trip, but driving an hour for a 5 minute pickup isn't very palatable. Fortunately, a friend already had to make the trip herself and picked up mine for me, what a gal! Also, March can be very warm (last year was pushing 80), but this year is promising to be quite cool, maybe even in the 40's! Brrr!
So I'll run the race one more time, but the jury is out for next year unless they really blow me away with the revised race course and amenities .....
Mary,
ReplyDeleteSince last year we have addressed the issue of packet pick up and you can now pick it up at race site on race morning. As far as the course goes... we wanted to really be able to offer entertainment along the way so the only place the city really allows to during that time in the morning is the JT Causeway so that is why we choose to run on the causeway. Furthermore, we heard from the runners (and based on this year's registration numbers increasing by almost 50%) that it would be a nice change if we chose another part of our community different from that shown through most of the ING course... so we chose to make it a little tough (especially helpful for those training for any other marathon outside of South Florida) to run the bridges offered by the Julia Tuttle Causeway. We will again revisit the suggestions and comments of you - the runners - after this year's edition of 13.1 Miami Beach as we pride ourselves in listening to make things better.
Frankie Ruiz
Co-Founder
ING Miami Marathon
My goodness, Frankie, I didn't think anyone actually read this blog!! I appreciate your personal response and look forward to the race on Sunday! I will definitely see how the race goes and keep an open mind about next year. :-)
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