Miami Marathon

The ING Miami Marathon is an annual marathon sporting event hosted by the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, Florida, as well as the county of Miami-Dade. With its inaugural race on February 2, 2003, the Miami Marathon has been one of the fastest-growing annual marathons, attracting world-class distance runners.

US Road Sports & Entertainment Group manages this event with the goal of bringing world-class marathoning to South Florida.

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).

Marathon Winners

Year	Men	Time	Women	Time
2011 [1]	Tesfaye Alemayehu	2:12:57	Alena Vinitskaya	2:44:38
2010 [2]	Michael Wardian	2:28:39	Brett Ely	2:45:36
2009 [3]	Benazzouz Slimani	2:16:49	Michele Suskek	2:43:31
2008 [4]	Jose Garcia	2:17:43	Kelly Liljeblad	2:47:13
2007 [5]	Teshome Gelana	2:17:51	Ramilla Burangulova	2:40:22
2006	Ruben Garcia Gomez	2:18:15	Hiromi Ominami	2:34:11
2005	Elias Rodrigues Bastos	2:17:24	Sandra Ruales Mosquera	2:37:00
2004	William Gomez Amorin	2:14:42	Stacie Alboucrek	2:42:32
2003	David Ruto	2:12:22	Volga Yudziankova	2:40:23

References

1. ^ "ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon - Marathon- January 30, 2011". Active.com. http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=105310. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
2. ^ "ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon - Marathon- January 31, 2010". Active.com. http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=89075. Retrieved 2010-03-16. 
3. ^ "ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon - Marathon- January 25, 2009". Active.com. http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=74719. Retrieved 2010-03-16. 
4. ^ "ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon - Marathon- January 27, 2008". Active.com. http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=33464. Retrieved 2010-03-16. 
5. ^ "ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon - Marathon- January 28, 2007". Active.com. http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=33644. Retrieved 2010-03-16. 

External links

• Miami Marathon Weekend - Run The Nation