The Dodge Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon

 

On December 11th of this year, a new running event debuts on Miami Beach...

Runners will tour the stunning city as the sounds of live, local bands playing along the course motivate and entertain. Enthusiastic cheerleaders and thousands of spectators will also join in, making the 13.1 mile distance unlike any other race experience.

The Dodge Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon joins the Country Music Marathon in Nashville as extensions of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series. The half marathon will be the 18th event this year in the national series of musically-themed marathons and half marathons, which are famous for lining race routes with live bands and fanfare at each mile.

Waterfront views along iconic South Beach will take center stage, with more than six miles of the course running along the water, including spectacular views of the Port of Miami cruise ship terminal, Star, Palm, Hibiscus, and Fisher Islands. The course starts and finishes at Lummus Park in South Beach, and takes runners across both the Julia Tuttle and MacArthur Causeways, which stretch over the sparkling Biscayne Bay. Participants will view the dramatic downtown skyline and run through the Miami Beach Art Deco District and alongside the historic Miami Beach Golf Club before a unique finish line on the sand, a first for a Rock ‘n’ Roll event.

It actually sounds and looks like [.pdf] an extremely good course.

The race starts on a Sunday at 7 AM so you can pretty much write off that morning for moving around the Beach by car. And for local residents who don't like the commotion that the Miami Marathon brings every year, this "musically-oriented" event should prove to be quite challenging for them. On a positive note, the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon people have been organizing races for years now and have race logistics down to a fine science.

Speaking of the Miami Marathon, it is scheduled to be held on January 29, 2012. So runners training for the full marathon could actually use the new Latin Music 1/2 as a training run to get an idea of where they are in their conditioning.

It should be interesting to see what kind of reception this new run gets from the community in its inaugural year.

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