Life Time Miami Marathon & Half Marathon
Life Time Miami Marathon & Half Marathon
( 42 reviews )-
Miami,
Florida,
United States - January
- 3 miles/5K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, 26.2 miles/Marathon
- Road Race
- Event Website
Jen
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United StatesOverall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
I LOVE Miami!
Registration: Registration was online and super easy. The earlier you signed up, the cheaper the registration fee is.
Race Communication: I was a little disappointed with race communication leading up to the race. They really upped their social media game this year which was exciting—I love seeing my goal races pop up on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—but they focused SO MUCH on getting sign ups and very little on motivating and informing participants already signed up. Runner tracking information wasn’t released until 2 days before the race (and it was super delayed so I’m glad I didn’t have family out on the course relying on tracking me) and I was a little frustrated at the start line not knowing ahead of time that they were going to wait 5 minutes in between corrals.
Expo: What a disaster! For the first year, the Miami Marathon expo was held at Marlins Park. It sounded like a cool idea but it was SO CROWDED and I have to mention the $10 flat rate parking. We were waiting in lines everywhere. Wait in line to go through security, wait in line all the way up the ramp to get to number pickup… then more lines and ramps to get your race shirt. We barely looked at any of the vendors because it was just too much—90 minutes just to get our numbers and race t-shirts.
Swag: Bright orange tech shirts honoring the 15th anniversary of the race & a drawstring bag. Lots of additional official race merchandise was available for purchase. FREE race photos was also a nice bonus!
Start Line: 6am start time was rough but I’m sure on a hot, Miami day I would have been thankful to run that early. I loved the whole atmosphere at the start line. Bright lights, loud music. We parked right near the start (for $20, ugh!!) and were able to go hang out inside the American Airlines Arena to use the bathroom and stay warm. Multiple corrals set up and runners were seeded by pace. Each corral had its own race start. Announcers did a good job keeping everyone informed and motivated.
Course: The course was awesome!! Flat and lots of palm trees! Runners travel over a few bridges and causeways, which were really the only hills on the course. Just enough to break up the monotonous of running on flat roads. 2017 was such a grey race day and also cold and rainy—very uncharacteristic for Miami—so I was a little sad because I spent a lot of time with my head down because of the rain. So many water views, I wanted the sun!
Aid stations: Water and Gatorade every mile was nice! Also took pineapple late in the race for a boost when I was on the strugglebus.
Finish Line: There’s nothing like seeing the finish line when you know you’ve accomplished your goal! The feeling was incredible. The last straightaway headed to the finish line was lined with people cheering. You cross the finish line, receive your medal and then are handed a bag to collect post-race Gatorade, chocolate milk, bananas, bagels, single serving packets of cream cheese, pretzels, granola bars, etc. etc. etc.
Other: Miami is one of my favorite cities. The race featured 25,000 runners (total of both the half and full) and featured a HUGE international field. Beautiful course, great energy—I’d totally recommend this race!
You can read my 2017 Miami Marathon Race Recap on my personal blog Run Jen Run: http://www.jenrunsfastblog.com/2017/02/race-report-miami-marathon.html