Miami Marathon


The Miami Marathon is an annual marathon sporting event spanning 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.
Life Time Fitness produces this event with the goal of bringing world-class marathoning to South Florida.

Race

The Miami Marathon is open to all runners, male and female, from any nation, and is an official Boston Marathon qualifier.
The 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 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, 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 at Bayfront Park.
The race has been growing over the years. In 2010, 18,321 runners took part in the combined races. For the 10 year anniversary in 2012 the race sold out at 25,000 runners and has continued to reach that number of participants since.
The average temperature at the start of the race for the years 2003-2007 was 63.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Athletes With Disabilities

Through partnership with Achilles International the Miami Marathon host a division for athletes with disabilities. Sub-divisions include push-rim and hand crank wheelchairs. In 2014 Maickel Melamed, who has muscular dystrophy, finished the race in just under seven hours. He began his race at 4:00am accompanied by his team and a police escort.

Previous Race

Prior to the establishment of the Miami Marathon the Orange Bowl Marathon had been run in Miami in the late seventies and eighties.
Originally the race had started and finished in the Orange Bowl stadium but after issues with the course the start and finish moved to the Crandon Park.
The marathon was never as popular as other races in the racing calendar and had trouble attracting athletes.
Eventually financial problems caused the event fold.

Marathon Winners

Miami Marathon 2003-
2019Ezekiel Kipsang2:16:36Kate Landau2:37:48
2018Hillary Too2:23:03Lyubov Denisova2:40:54
2017Christopher Zablocki2:18:15Marta Ayela2:40:51
2016Benazzouz Slimani2:24:56Allison Kieffer2:55:30
2015Luis Carlos Rivero Gonzalez2:20:47Alemnesh Ashetu Habtemikael2:39:31
2014Samuel Malakwen2:19:46Mariska Kramer2:49:28
2013Luis Rivero Gonzalez2:26:14Mariska Kramer2:46:07
2012Samuel Malakwen2:16:55Raquel Maraviglia2:41:39
2011Tesfaye Alemayehu2:12:57Alena Vinitskaya2:44:38
2010Michael Wardian2:28:39Brett Ely2:45:36
2009Benazzouz Slimani2:16:49Michele Suskek2:43:31
2008Jose Garcia2:17:43Kelly Liljeblad2:47:13
2007Teshome Gelana2:17:51Ramilla Burangulova2:40:22
2006Ruben Garcia Gomez2:18:15Hiromi Ominami2:34:11
2005Elias Rodrigues Bastos2:17:24Sandra Ruales Mosquera2:37:00
2004William Gomez Amorin2:14:42Stacie Alboucrek2:42:32
2003David Ruto2:12:22Volga Yudziankova2:40:23

Orange Bowl Marathon 1978-1988
YearMenTimeWomenTime
1988Dennis Rinde2:23:19Maureen Hurst2:50:32
1987John Boyes2:23:22Jan Yerkes2:52:00
1986Bernard Bobes2:21:26Shirley Silsby2:53:18
1985Jimmy Ashworth2:18:49Jan Yerkes2:41:30
1984Tommy Persson2:13:26Joelle de Brouwer2:44:41
1983Bill Rodgers2:15:07Monika Lovinich2:35:16
1982Dave Long2:12:16Charlotte Teske2:29:01
1981Benji Durden2:12:33Carol Gould2:41:39
1980Ken Misner2:18:31Dorthe Rasmussen2:40:35
1979Stan Curran2:19:12Gayle Olinek2:55:08
1978Pat Chmiel2:24:20Jane Killian2:54:13